Book Review: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

September 7th, 2009  was my first blog post...I think.  I was inspired to try my hand at blogging after watching the movie Julie and Julia.  You can revisit that post full of hope and promise if you wish.  I sort of reviewed the movie there, but not really.

The book, Julie and Julia was published in 2005 and the movie based on the book, based on the blog, came out in 2009.  In a nutshell, Julie Powell, decided to take on cooking all of the over 500 recipes in Julia Child's famed tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Volume 1)...in...get this...a single year.  She started a blog about the experience.  The rest, as they say is history.  Stuff of fairy tales right?

I really truly enjoyed the movie. I recommend it.  It is a feel good movie and everyone does a fine job of acting and the relationships are reasonably in tact and happy.  How often does that happen in a movie anymore?

After the movie, I started my blog, with the hopes and drools of fame and fortune.  Whatever.

I also followed Julie Powell's blog for a while.  Boy-oh-howdie!  The first thing I noticed on that blog was a lot of dissension...so I didn't stay long.  The primary complaint that her readers seem to have with her (the ones that are NOT her fans) are that she swears too much, and she is a liberal democrat who takes pot-shots at Republicans.  Enter the theme of the day again...polarization.  What a weary subject.  Uggh.  All I've got to say on that score is that if she's not your cup of tea, just agree to disagree and walk away from the keyboard.  Enough fighting between ourselves already.  It was the constant bickering between blog readers that was the biggest turn off.  Not even Julie posts very often anymore.  But maybe that's because she's famous now.

Recently I read the book for the first time.  I enjoyed it, but honestly, I liked the movie a lot more.  That almost NEVER happens.  I think that says more about me than it does about the book.  I try, really hard to be as positive on my blog as I can and I don't want to stop now.  It would be really insulting to attack the book for the reasons that occurred to me without seeming like I'm attacking Julie Powell because it's basically autobiographical.   I'm just not gonna go there.  I could truly care less that she swears.  So do I.  I don't care that she takes pot shots at Republicans.  I think she just triggered a lot of my own junk...and that's my burden to bear.

I'm a caustic comedian in recovery.  I grew up with caustic humor...and it got me lots of attention.  But I also learned that it hurt me (when I was the brunt) and hurt others when they were the brunt.  I almost had to check myself into the Schick Center for Caustic Humor Recovery all over again after reading the book.  Nuff said.  Humor is one thing...taking pot-shots at nearly everyone on the planet gets a little tiresome.

I have people in my life like Julie Powell and they are some of the most challenging relationships I have.  What I've learned is these personality types are simply not a good fit for me.  They aren't better than or worse than mine...they are just incompatible for the most part.  That being said, I keep these people in my life because I love their creativity, their free-spiritedness, their humor (when it is not caustic and hurtful towards others), and the chaotic abandon with which they live.  THAT being said (I sure am saying that a lot), I have to limit my interactions with them to a minimum.  That way I can embrace and appreciate and learn from them, without all the other stuff I wont go into here.  Small doses, good boundaries...the only way I've found to embrace differences and stay out of trouble...mostly.

So I think the personality that came through on the pages, just triggered my shit with these others in my life that I struggle with.  I can't blame Julie Powell for that..or fault her for having a personality and style that is not compatible with mine.  Who cares, right? I'm not prone to emotional outbursts or meltdowns and I'm tidy. That right there will show two major differences between us...Oh...and I'm not much of a cook.

I also don't drink and I have a sensitive spot in my system for the havoc that alcohol abuse has reaked in the lives of people I've known, loved or worked with as a counselor.  So I'm not being a moral prude about this, but I can't relate to the constant consumption of alcohol that is depicted in the book.  I'm not judging it, at least I don't think I am, I just can't relate.  Again, it triggers the pain I've seen others endure.  That's my junk, not hers. (That's the real Julie Powell to the right, by the way).

Powell has also written a follow up book called Cleaving; A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession (2009).  I read a 10 page excerpt of this book at the end of Julie and Julia and it promises more of the same types of adventures.  I read online that it will also depict the infidelity that both she and Eric entered into, and their discussions of divorce.  As far as I can see online, they are still married (although I can't, of course, be certain of that).  In this book, she is working in a butcher shop as a butcher's apprentice.

I cannot find a single fault with her writing.  It is conversational, engaging, entertaining, and full of humor.  I was never bored (albeit, uncomfortable and perhaps irritated at times).  If you go to Amazon, you can read literally hundreds of reviews on her book(s).  You'll see that people tend to be split nearly down the middle with not a lot of in betweeners.  I might be an inbetweener.  I might read her next book but I need a break and some space.  Boundaries are a good thing.  If you read her blog, you will see the controversy, love, etc that is perhaps typical of a no-holds-barred personality.  She's probably laughing all the way to the bank. And honestly, I DO recommend the book. It IS entertaining and original.  You also learn some new information about Julie Child that you might not know from her cooking shows.

Her journey is what inspired me to start my blog.  It has been an amazing, freeing, terrifying journey and I'm grateful to her for her courage to put herself out there.  I can't fault her success, that's for sure.  I have the same level of gratitude towards her that perhaps she has/had towards Julia Child.  For the inspiration and the new direction it brought into her/my life.

Here's the movie trailer...please see it if you haven't. It's fun.


This is an actual episode from Julia Child's earlier show. One day, I'm going to own her DVDS of these earlier shows. They are fun, entertaining AND educational. Even if you don't cook much.  They are a piece of history.