Saturday, January 8, 2011

As Always, Julia

When I purchased this book in December, I originally thought these were letters between Julia Child and her husband, Paul Child. However, these are the letters between Julia and her friend/ publicist/ editor Avis Devoto.

As Always, Julia seemed quite timely to me, as I am endeavoring to write my first book. There are many days where I am absolutely plagued with self doubt (and so was Julia). And Julia had a dear friend who said: You're on to something! Write, write, WRITE!

I've got that friend, too. Her name is Annette Wells, and maybe when/if/Godwilling I make it in the writing world, I've got much to say about how encouraging Annette has been in my endeavors.

The book is amazing in the fact that the letters are real. (Mailed back and forth from Paris to Massachusetts). They talk about things like are these newfangled dishwashers any good? Would people really use an electric mixer? Have you heard of MSG? McCarthy is mid-reign of terror at the time the book is written, and both the Devoto and the Child families are on his radar. It's fascinating.

Word to the wise: this is a LONG book. 400 pages of tiny type. But it's quite good.
Five stars out of five stars.

2 comments:

Beth said...

This sounds great, Liz! Thanks for sharing.

The Lenz Family said...

This is on my list of books to read. Have you read My Life in France or Julie and Julia? They're really good as well.