My Life in France Post 2

Throughout the book, My Life in France, Julia Child continually talks about her original incompetence in the kitchen. Coming from a typical California family, Child's parents rarely cooked, and as a result she never learned. As she tells the reader, "but I was never encouraged to cook and just didn't see the point in it" (4). It is hard to believe that the woman known for her cooking ability never touched a stove before she was married. After her marriage, it was still a long time before she was inspired to learn how to cook, and cook well. She was inspired to take up cooking when she and her husband moved to France. There, she was amazed by the wide assortment of extremely delicious food and encouraged to try her own skill. As Child recalls "Surrounded by gorgeous food, wonderful restaurants, and a kitchen at home -- and an appreciative audience in my husband -- I began to cook more and more" (42). Her astonishment by how good well prepared food could taste gave her new motivation to learn to cook, and create masterpieces of her own. Her desire and willingness to try new things helped show her a whole new world, and shaped the rest of her life.

I chose to write about this aspect of her life as a contrast to All The Pretty Horse. Throughout the entire book, John Grady is trying to find the old life that he had had to give up because of his mother. Though he matures a great deal, it seems that he can never accept a new way of life than the one he has given up. Child seems to be the opposite of that. After her marriage and her life in France, she is eager to embrace a new life style that had before seemed stupid and pointless. After reading both books it seems tome that Child had a much more fulfilling life than John Grady in part because of her willingness to try new things and change. From these books, it seems that flexibility will bring more happiness than stubbornness.

My Life in France Post 1

I decided to read the book My Life in France by Julia Child. This book is an autobiography about the amazing chef Julia Child, the woman who revolutionized home cooking by creating the first cooking show. Even though this book is mostly centered on her time in France, when her husband was working at the US embassy, there is also quite a bit on her childhood and the road to her love of cooking. She and her husband were night and day. She was raised in California and hardy ever traveled, while her husband was well traveled and well cultured. It was a huge decision whether they should get married or not. Their final decision to get married was not widely accepted throughout her family. Her husband was an artist and a democrat, and her conservative father did not agree with him on anything. Though the decision seemed to be a bad one, in the end it worked out for the better.

Another major decision she had to make was whether she should go to France or not with her husband. She had never been to Europe before and had heard countless bad comments about it and France in particular. She also did not speech a word of French. The only person she would know and would be able to talk to would be her husband. She decided that she would go to France, even if it did seem crazy. It was a good thing that she did, because it was there that she acquired her love of cooking and her desire to share her knowledge with women in the United States. Those are two major decisions that Julia Child had to make that would determine the course of her life.