My Life in France: Chapter Five - Chapter Seven

And so they move again...... It seems like Julia and Paul had one life adventure after another with all the moving they did.  I resonated with what she said about Plittersdorf - how it could be Anytown, U.S.A.  One of my professors made comment the other day about how she doesn't want to live Anywhere, she wants to live Somewhere. I think that's the same idea Julia was getting at with her comment, but it's interesting how such an uninspiring place to her still spurred on her internal inspiration to continue with The Book.  To me, this exemplifies the idea of Blooming Where You're Planted.

I thought one of the more interesting nuggets from these readings were the passages about the publishing process and how much she and Louisette had to edit down.  It presented the idea of the want for everything to be quick and easy in the U.S. in contrast to the slow, attention-to-detail way of French cooking Julia and Louisette valued.  Even in the 1950's this phenomenon was obvious - imagine what Julia would of thought of Americans today with our drive-thrus and Lean Cuisines. I'm interested in knowing if any of you have ventured to cook one of Julia's recipes, and if so, what your thoughts were on that process.  Was it difficult? Easy? what did you think of the end result?

Another thought I had while reading these chapters was that of Julia's perseverance throughout all of the publishing rejections and edits.   I'm sure we've all had times of self-doubt and outward rejection, so we can all appreciate fighting for what you want.  Have any of you experienced similar situations of rejection and perseverance? 

These chapters also provide the first glimpse into Julia's delve into television and the cooking shows from which some of us may know her.  I love seeing how a hobby like cooking opened the path to so many opportunities in Julia's life: writing a cook book, having a TV show, and I would venture to say contribution to the desire to learn other languages.  She turned something she enjoyed doing into a career. 

I think these chapters demonstrate a progression of confidence in Julia.  We see her go through rejections but we also see her rise victorious as her book is published, reprinted, and she begins filming her TV show. 

What were your thoughts on these chapters?

Ellen