As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto

by Joan Reardon

With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known by her first name alone. But how much do we really know of the inner Julia? Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on her deepest thoughts and feelings.

This riveting correspondence chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia's creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway. With commentary by food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.

"An absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship."--Entertainment Weekly

"Two housewives, each in her 40s ... let rip about all kinds of things, from shallots, beurre blanc and the misery of dried herbs to politics, aging and sex ... Funny and forthright opinions about food and life."--The New York Times

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Biography, Memoir, History, Biography Memoir, Cooking

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Joan Reardon is the author of four previous books, including M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters, which was nominated for a Julia Child Award. She lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.

(from http://us.macmillan.com/author/joanre...)

Reviews

[The Library Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bl**p Julie Powell and her crappy, self indulgent "Julie and Julia".

Read this and My Life In France and you will get a picture of Julia Child sans four letter words or the less than interesting life of a Julia wanna be. Instead you will get the marvelous Avis de Voto.

Avis is pictured in the movie "Julie and Julia" (I skipped any Powell sequences) for about 5 seconds, supposedly meeting her pen pal Julia Child for the first time in a train station. Didn't happen that way, and DeVoto was far more than a casual pen pal--she and Julia had been writing back and forth for years and grew to be very close friends.

Avis DeVoto was instrumental in getting Julia's chef d'ouevre Mastering the Art of French Cooking published, first by advocating for her at Houghton Mifflin, and then later by persuading Alfred Knopf to publish it. One of the Childs' reasons for settling in Cambridge was that DeVoto lived there--she helped them find their house, and her connections may well have brought us "The French Chef"

The letters here bring you a wonderful double portrait of two bright, creative, determined women, of the work that went into "Mastering" and of Julia Child as a PERSON. As delicious as her recipes.

[stormhawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great time it was, when people not only corresponded by letter, but kept their correspondence!

The journey to publishing Mastering the Art of French Cooking is fascinating in and of itself, but what makes this book more interesting is the interplay of two women who correspond "over the point of a knife," talking about their lives, their families, and politics, during a particularly rich time for it ... In the early chapter of the book McCarthy is hunting Commies under every magazine cover, America is fighting in Korea, and Chiang Kai Shek is struggling against Mao and the Chinese Communists.

The art of letter writing is lost to us, communication is stripped down to 140 characters that you share with your closest "followers," and you don't have to be at home to get a phone call ... even the simple act of making a phone call was given more consideration when long distance service was outrageously expensive and international service unheard of to consider except in the direst emergencies.

Watching the friendship between Julia and Avis form, grow, and deepen is the charm of this book.

If you read Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen or saw the movie, you know the story, you know about these letters, so it's a special treat to be able to read them, sharing in the life and experience of two remarkable women.

The letters are peppered with explanatory footnotes, helpful to the 21st Century reader who is puzzled by the names and situations that were common knowledge to politically and culturally aware denizens of the 1950s. The footnotes enhance rather than detract from the text.

Paul Child was an avid photographer, his pictures of Julia throughout the book show a younger and more vivacious view of her than we know even from PBS' The French Chef.

I would have appreciated more detail in the final chapter, which talks about the what happened after Julia and Paul returned to the United States.

Note to reader: you'll need snacks. These ladies talk food incessantly!

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful gift Joan Reardon has given us! She’s put together the letters exchanged between Avis DeVoto and Julia Child throughout the 1950’s. The letters include contemporary politics, mostly of the US but also concerning the places Julia’s Government Service husband, Paul, was posted. They were stationed in China, Germany, and Norway and of course France. The ladies also mull over the goings on at distinguished US universities as well as Avis’ work on the fringes of the publishing world through her writer husband Bernard, (later she herself works directly in publishing), and of course they talk about food, cooking, entertaining and heck they just flat out gossip about whatever’s on their minds. Neither of them had an official job until they were past middle age but my goodness they managed to do lots of things and meet lots of people. These were vibrant, busy women with lots of thoughts. The warmth between them is very touching. Both Avis and Julia seem to be the type of people who never met an enemy. They only found friends. This isn’t to say they weren’t real people with real problems. I almost felt disappointed when Paul Child retired and the Childs moved back to the states. Since they lived near Avis the letters ceased.

Reardon supplied a few introductory paragraphs to set the context of the four sections but then she wisely got out of the way and let these two friends natter away. Included are some wonderful pictures of both of them and their friends and cooking world folks. I’d recommend having Julia’s ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking” nearby (at lease the first volume) because you won’t be able to resist peaking in it as they discuss recipes and cooking techniques.

This review was based on an eBook supplied by the publisher.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

I picked this up because I wanted to learn about the development of Julia Child's famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in her own words as it was happening. Julia's letters to her pen pal Avis DeVoto were written from France, Germany and other places in Europe during the creation of the book. Her struggles are detailed here as well as her love of everything French, interesting people she met and a few recipes she shared. Away from home during the McCarthy hearings, she was unable to discuss the situation openly due to her husband Paul's position and it was fortunate she had Avis to vent to during this time.

What surprised me was that, as a correspondent, it was Avis who charmed and touched me with her humor, kindness, intelligence, and loving concern for others. No wonder Julia was so taken with her. What a gift to have such a supportive, interesting and entertaining pen pal. It was Avis who hooked Julia up with many of the people in publishing who would help to make the cookbook such a success. She also acted as Julia's editor and adviser, tested the recipes herself, and sent Julia American flour, spices and other items not available in Europe. Everyone who undertakes a huge project should have a friend like Avis as it will greatly increase the likelihood of success.

I loved it when Anglophile Avis and Francophile Julia would debate the merits of their favorite countries. Julia would not be convinced and Avis would not budge!

There is a goodly amount of political discussion here. This will be of interest to people who enjoy reading about American politics in the 1950s. However, it doesn't detract from the rest of the letters and can be easily skipped if you choose to do so.

Highly recommended for people who like Julia Child.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little skeptical as to whether I would enjoy a book of letters. I thoroughly enjoyed My Life in France, and a book of letters between Julia and her friend during the time when she was working on Mastering the Art of French Cooking was too intriguing to skip. It was a delight on so many levels. I enjoyed reading Julia's thoughts unedited about cooking, the changes in cooking in the USA (such as frozen chicken breasts) and her feelings about politics, their travels, etc. I equally fell for Avis De Voto. I had never heard of her or her husband. But, after reading this book, I think she was a fascinating woman - intellectual, witty, humorous and I feel fortunate to have had a peek inside the friendship of Julia and Avis.

I must caution that this book is not for everyone. As much as I gobbled up the sections of the letters on politics, cooking and Mastering the Art, there were other portions of the letters that I skimmed over-people referenced that I didn't know and didn't care about (although I found it fascinating to read in Avis' letters about the people at her house for dinner such as Wallace Stegner - a dear friend of theirs - I thought wow. Just wow. A life I couldn't imagine).

So...I would recommend this book for people who love all things Julia Child.

[Julie Bestry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, this was an unexpectedly good book. Obviously I thought it might be worth a flip-through, or I wouldn't have reserved it at the library and read it, but I honestly didn't expect "As Always, Julia" to be so darn good. And the best part isn't even Julia, but Avis! (No, not the car rental company.)

Subtitled "Food, Friendship & the Making of a Masterpiece" is an epistolary memoir. I love epistolary novels, and enjoyed the letters of John & Abigail Adams, but never figured I'd be all that stoked for a book of letters between Julia Child and a woman of whom I'd never heard. I'm not even a Julia Child fan and I don't cook. But I did find Julia's to be the more interesting of the sections in Julie Powell's "Julie & Julia", which is what prompted me to read Julia Child's autobiography, "My Life In France" last year. It wasn't the cooking, but the relationship between Julia and Paul Child, and between Julia and her co-writers, and the travelogue aspect of that book that I loved. But "As Always, Julia" grabbed me and never let me go.

Don't like cooking? It doesn't matter! (Though if you don't like food, some aspects may bore you.) This is pen-palling at its best. It's the evolving tale of Julia in Europe and Avis, wife of Bernard Devoto, an author who, though I consider myself well-read and well-informed), was unknown to me. The book is a damned hoot. It's just the rambling letters, in the days before international or even long-distance calls were common. They write of their lives, their pains, their husbands, their work (as both women were brilliant, if unconventional "business women"), Avis' children, Julia's travels.

You could read it just for the soap operatic quality of their lives, or for the decade-plus slow and sometimes-backwards progress Julia and her writing partners (the daft Louisette and the formidable Simca) made towards the eventual publishing of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (If you know even a teeny bit about the history of the book, by the time Judith Jones makes her first, off-handed reference appearance, you're ready to whoop & holler with the realization that "NOW we're getting somewhere!"

What I found most staggering about the book was that as the letters weave their way through the lives of Julia and Avis, they also weave world history into the narratives. Nobody appalled at the political upheaval and division in modern life will look at the 1950s stories of McCarthyism and Eisenhower and Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson without taking a cautiously optimistic breath and realizing it's not really THAT much worse now.

And that's it -- food, politics, personal revelations (of a not very deep, but very realistic type) make up this juicy double-memoir. Editor Joan Reardon includes so many footnotes that sometimes it feels like an academic journal. It doesn't detract from the writing, but I imagine someone completely clueless about the existence of the Cuban Missile Crisis or Army-McCarthy hearings might find it useful not to have to trudge to Wikipedia to make sense of what they should have learned in school. Imagine if, 50 years from now, someone came across our emails or Facebook walls and could marvel at the seamless blending of our troubles figuring out how to handle a plumbing problem and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and our challenges at work and our worries about whether our adult children will ever settle down in one career and get married.

No book is as good as one that surprises you with how much you come to care about the characters with in, and though real-life people, Avis and Julia (and their friends and families) are intriguing characters about which I'd like to know more, not because they were special or famous, but because they are so darn relevant and real.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I finished reading Karen Karbo's lovely, fun, fascinating biography of Julia Child, called Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life, I felt compelled to start reading this book, which has been on my shelf for awhile. Karen Karbo often referred to the letters between Julia Child and her friend Avis DeSoto in her book, so I thought the letters would be as lovely and fun as Karen's biography. Actually, they really weren't as fun as I thought they would be. They were oftentimes quite dark. (Or maybe that's the way I can't help but read them.) The McCarthy era was a dark, but scarily recognizable, political period similar to the one we are struggling through now and U.S. politics was one of the main topics of the correspondence between the two ladies.

Overall, the book is a fascinating glimpse into what life was like in the 1950s, when dried spices were hard to find, kitchen tools were sold in hardware stores, and people typed in depth, deeply personal, well-thought-out letters on the typewriter to their friends and family members. Granted, Julia was living in France when she started corresponding to Avis. So long distance, overseas phone calls were reserved for very special occasions. Still, I think writing letters on a routine basis as a way of maintaining communication with a friend or loved one is a lost art. I appreciate letter writing more as a result of this book.

This book is also a compelling read from the perspective of the development of the cookbook that would change home cooking in America. The amount of time and effort that Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle spent cooking and writing recipes for Mastering the Art of French Cooking was overwhelming. At one point, they were working on 100 chicken recipes! The original version of volume one was over 700 pages, dedicated to recipes for chicken and sauces! I know there are other great Julia Child books out there, but this one may give us the most insight into the workings of Julia Child's creative mind.

Kudos to editor Joan Reardon for spending the time going through the letter collections of both ladies and pulling together an awesome book.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This intimate view of the personal letters between two dear friends really unveils so much about Julia's personality. I really feel I got to know more deeply who she was as a person, not just as the iconic figure I know her to be. It also provided an interesting viewpoint of life for a woman in the 50s and early 60s. And oh how lovely correspondence used to be (especially compared with the short-hand texts and messages of today). However, it was a lot of content to get through, and I sometimes wondered if it could have been edited further to focus on highlights of the letters, but perhaps some of the magic would have been lost. Overall an enjoyable and interesting read, recommended to anyone who has an interest in Julia Child.

[Julieann Wielga · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister is a memoir reader. Always memoirs of women. Who woman are and what they think and how to be one is always on our minds. Women's letters to other woman speak to me. I connected with Flannery O Connor as she worked through her Catholism, her writing and her lupus. I loved Catherine White's letters to Elizabeth Lawrence, one a southern gardener and one a northern writer. For the past many years I have been interested in how the making of food and community and woman's lives intertwine. Still I was somewhat surprised how much I loved these letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. I do not like French cooking, I have seen Julie and Julia twice and read Julia Child's MY LIFE IN FRANCE. I love Julia's energy,pursuit of knowing and her immense good humor. But I loved this book because of Avis.

I love the time capsule that Avis gives us. The letters begin in 1952. Through Avis, one can experience all the new kitchen appliances: mixers, disposals, dishwashers. One gets the account of the news through television. Avis lives with her family in Cambridge and through her husband's connections, one gets the sense of her very demanding social life of cocktail parties and hosting and attending elaborate dinner parties. Avis is the mother of two extraordinary sons, one of which is disturbed and gets a laundry list of 1950's therapies. Avis is constantly editing her husband's and other books, writing reviews and comes into the role of testing Julia's recipe's and editing Julia's manuscripts.She is also a vibrant political critic who thinks Eisenhower is a dufus and Nixon is a crook. Her hopes are on Adlai Stevenson, and is uncertain of the whole Kennedy clan. I gathered solace for our own seemingly disastrous political times in the absolute terror of the MeCarthism and the legislative and executive's branch inability to curb it.

Avis speaks personally as she comments on increased physical limitations of getting older, her feeling low and her increased frustration with the way life was going. However, for me, the book turns on her on the last section after her husband dies, Julia's book has been rejected by Houghton Mifflin, and Avis has renewed her connections to Knopf by working there. Against all these difficulties, she is an absolutely clear sighted and forceful in her vision that Julia's work must and will be published. Julia and Paul are completely generous to Avis in her grief and she is the promoter and visionary in getting the book published. It is this that so moves me. It is these two woman, who share a love of French food, each with such different gifts, each so talented and strong who move against much of the food trends of the 50's and do this wonderful work together.

[Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this close and personal look at the special friendship between Julia Child and and Avis Devoto. It was interesting to learn the depth and breadth of what it took to get Julia's books published. These two remarkable women were strong, positive role models in a time when women were only regarded as housewives. While they didn't make earth shattering discoveries or make a mark for women's rights, they were role models because they worked hard and didn't give up on achieving their goals. I have gained a new appreciation for Julia Child after reading this book.

[Carol Jones-Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“As Always, Julia” is an epistolary love story, a romance that began with a fan letter and the gift of a paring knife. The letter was to the writer and historian Bernard DeVoto, who had written in Harper’s about impossibly dull stainless-steel knives. The fan was an ambitious American cook, Julia Child, then living in Paris. The reply came from DeVoto’s wife and general factotum, Avis. Within months, she and Child had gone from “Mrs.” to “Avis” and “Julia, my pet!” Even in the 1950s, things moved fast.

They wrote reams, and in an intimate tone that’s still fresh today. The drama that runs through the correspondence is the one that occupied (the better) half of Nora Ephron’s film “Julie & Julia”: the rocky road to the publication of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” DeVoto, immediately recognizing the project’s potential, is “absolutely convinced that you really have got something
here that could be a classic.” She wants “to grab” it for the Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin, and she succeeds. But when the house declares the manuscript too long, she directs it to Alfred A. Knopf. On the eve of its publication, she writes, “I do think that except for me the book would be dead.”

She was right. Child was if anything understating when in the acknowledgments she called DeVoto “our foster mother, wet nurse, guide and mentor.” Through all the advances and setbacks, Child is alternately confident to the point of arrogance and insecure almost to the point of giving up. But DeVoto urges her not to compromise. Familiar as the story is to Child fans, DeVoto’s part in it will be a revelation. Even if she lacked Child’s impulsive gusto, she was bold within her more conventional domestic life. Her husband liked writing, camping, martinis and steak. She liked writing, editing and good food. “You display the true marks of a Great Gourmande,” Child tells her early on. “People who love to eat are always the best people.”

The two compare notes on mates. They also gossip about friends — and sex. “Before marriage I was wildly interested in sex,” Child confesses, after DeVoto finds Alfred Kinsey’s book dull, “but since joining up with my old goat, it has taken its proper position in my life. But, when people are queer, maladjusted, unhappy, bitchy, etc., I want to know why, so that I can understand them and get along with them if necessary.” Child and DeVoto also discuss the liberal politics prevalent in the DeVotos’ Cambridge set, which mightily appealed to Child, who wanted to throw off the values of the family she called “Old Guard Republicans of the blackest and most violently Neanderthal stripe.” But food was what kept them so engaged. “I prefer fresh vegetables, and I like them undercooked, Chinese fashion,” DeVoto tells Child. She particularly likes braised endive and c
calves’ hearts, tastes that seem pretty advanced for the Cambridge of 1953.
The two exchange gadgets and ingredients — knives, of course, as well as lemon zesters and even shallots that the Frenchwoman at the post office almost, but doesn’t, mash with her stamp. Child asks DeVoto about American mixers and sends her in search of American ingredients: dried chives, she writes from Paris, “taste like hay with onion flavor.”

Child’s tastes were already formed. The first piece of advice she gives DeVoto is “You could always get a richer flavor to your sauces by ‘buttering them up.’ ” DeVoto’s first comment after testing a Child recipe is the prophetic “I found there was a little too much fat in it.” Anticipating the Julie Powell of “Julie & Julia” 50 years later, DeVoto playfully curses Child for the five pounds she gains making beurre blanc and “your top-secret mayonnaise.”

When Child and DeVoto finally meet, more than two years after beginning their correspondence, the reader is as apprehensive as anyone who has ever gone on a hopeful first date. “It doesn’t seem at all possible that less than two weeks ago you were all of you but words on paper,” Child writes afterward. “It did not then seem that love on paper would not blossom into love in the flesh
and it certainly did with an all-embracing bang.”

Joan Reardon, the biographer of M. F. K. Fisher and author of a book on Fisher, Child and Alice Waters, was perfectly positioned to edit these letters: she had read all of DeVoto’s, but Child’s were
unsealed only in 2006. She judiciously stitches everything together in section introductions and adds minimal notes. But the book needs almost none, given the vividness of these voices. Of course, Child’s predominates. And who can resist it? She always charges ahead, investigating bouillabaisse in Marseilles, where she and her husband move from Paris, and conquering her horror of Germany before they are posted there. (“I am probably exaggerating, as usual, but I can smell the concentration camps and human soap factories from here.”) Learning Norwegian, she applies the same conviction she does speaking French: “I don’t care how many


The two exchange gadgets and ingredients — knives, of course, as well as lemon zesters and even shallots that the Frenchwoman at the post office almost, but doesn’t, mash with her stamp. Child asks DeVoto about American mixers and sends her in search of American ingredients: dried chives, she writes from Paris, “taste like hay with onion flavor.”

Child’s tastes were already formed. The first piece of advice she gives DeVoto is “You could always get a richer flavor to your sauces by ‘buttering them up.’ ” DeVoto’s first comment after testing a Child recipe is the prophetic “I found there was a little too much fat in it.” Anticipating the Julie Powell of “Julie & Julia” 50 years later, DeVoto playfully curses Child for the five pounds she gains making beurre blanc and “your top-secret mayonnaise.”

When Child and DeVoto finally meet, more than two years after beginning their correspondence, the reader is as apprehensive as anyone who has ever gone on a hopeful first date. “It doesn’t seem at all possible that less than two weeks ago you were all of you but words on paper,” Child writes afterward. “It did not then seem that love on paper would not blossom into love in the flesh, and it certainly did with an all-embracing bang.”
Joan Reardon, the biographer of M. F. K. Fisher and author of a book on Fisher, Child and Alice Waters, was perfectly positioned to edit these letters: she had read all of DeVoto’s, but Child’s were unsealed only in 2006. She judiciously stitches everything together in section introductions and adds minimal notes. But the book needs almost none, given the vividness of these voices. Of course, Child’s predominates. And who can resist it? She always charges ahead, investigating bouillabaisse in Marseilles, where she and her husband move from Paris, and conquering her horror of Germany before they are posted there. (“I am probably exaggerating, as usual, but I can smell the concentration camps and human soap factories from here.”) Learning Norwegian, she applies the same conviction she does speaking French: “I don’t care how many mistakes I make as long as I can talk and talk and talk.”

No matter where Child is, her great loves are Paris and the French. Even if, she says in exasperation when her collaborator Simone Beck tries to make last-minute changes as their book is finally going to press, the French are “the most illogical people in the world.” But they “are certainly fun, gay, affectionate, inventive, quarrelsome, sticky, talented, and thoroughly French. And the Food!” She made Americas fall in love with them, just as they did with her.

[Margaret Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect to like this book but...it totally held my attention. Their friendship was so CUTE. And so many glimpses into history... I loved following the thread of it through their letters and reading about the mouthwatering recipes and all the different places Julia lived. Just beautiful!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a book. It’s a slow read, as it should be. Julia and Avis are formidable, warm, intelligent, resourceful, and sharply politically intelligent. They’re loyal to each other in a way that will make you want to call your best girlfriend and tell her you love her.

They defy all the stereotypes of a ‘50s housewife. They were informed, sometimes shrewd, power players behind their husbands and in their own right. Their daily struggles are so familiar. And on top of it all they carried out the nine year fight to publish their masterpiece. It also portrays the tender partnerships - and definitely equal partnerships - between the ladies and their husbands, as the men rallied around the women to lift them up to the spotlight.

Avis’ voice in particular became special to me and by the close of the last letter, I felt as though I’d lost a friend.

[Armando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the Globe in 52 Books
[Prompt: An Epistolary Where at One Point, Two Characters are in Two Different Continents]

Its hard to rate a book like this because on one hand I think this is a very professionally done collection that no doubt required a lot of hard work and is perfect for a certain audience, while on the other hand I am just not that audience.

As Always, Julia captures the blossoming friendship between soon to be renowned cook Julia Child and her literary agent, Avis DeVoto. At its best it is a very interesting look at the 1950's publishing world and the lives of two women who lived through the 50's, and is also genuinely a very heartwarming relationship to see blossom. While at its worst, its dry, redundant, and just boring to read. But again, that may just be because I'm not the right audience.

So for a professional grade, I will say this book deserves a four star rating no doubt. It is a great uninterrupted collection of letters with some great information provided in the footnotes should you get lost in the women's references to their time period. But personally, this is closer to a three star book for me.

[JoAn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful insight into Julia Child and her life with her husband, Paul, and her journey in publishing her first cookbook. The letters between Julia and Avis DeVoto details both of their lives throughout the 1950's with cooking tips, social and political upheavals in the U.S. and most of all their friendship that started "at the point of a knife". A perfect ending to my 2021 books.

[Courtney Sidoli]

I feel like I shouldn’t rate this book b/c it is exactly what it says it is… however it was so boring lolol and obviously Julia and Avis weren’t writing for a book to be published. It took me FOREVER to get through this book b/c it truly just never called my name. Wouldn’t recommend .

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems like each book that is published gives us more information about Julia Child, and I continue to be inspired by this character of a woman. I was inspired during the Julie & Julia craze (based on Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen and My Life in France, both great reads), and before that had considered Baking with Julia: Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour, And Savor... one of my top baking cookbooks.

So I was surprised to feel like I learned so much more about Julia Child through her letters. As Always, Julia includes the majority of letters written between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto from the moment Avis replies to a fan letter Julia wrote to Avis's husband Bernard regarding an article he wrote about knives. The DeVotos are in the midst of the political and cultural action in New England while the Childs are moving between various appointed locations while Paul worked for the OSS (Paris, Marseilles, Berlin, Oslo, and a few stints back in the states). Julia was a staunch Democrat and very interested in politics, so many of the letters are full of discussions on what was going on with Eisenhower and McCarthy, up through the election of JFK.

Of course, being Julia Child, the heart of the conversation is almost always food. This is the same time span of the well-known journey to getting the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking published. I knew Avis as a rather periphery figure, but the letters reveal just how essential their relationship was in the book making it to the right person at the right publishing house, and how much leg work Avis herself did in the states to check on American ingredients and kitchen utensils, despite the fact that she started out as a woman with staff who usually did the cooking for her!

Their relationship grows, and the letters discuss their meetings, the first one occurring seven years after they start writing. It is an uplifting portrait of a meaningful friendship, and the overly honest Julia had me laughing more than once.

"People who love to eat are always the best people." (from a letter to Avis, January 5, 1953)

I received an advanced reader's copy of this book through NetGalley.com, and was happy to, because it had been on my to-read list since I'd heard about it. A happy accident!

[Kira FlowerChild · Rating 4 out of 5]

First I saw the movie Julie & Julia, then I read the book it was based on. Before then, I had never been a big fan of Julia Child. She seemed like a larger-than-life presence, a little silly (that impression may have been influenced by Dan Ackroyd's impressions of her on SNL), and mostly irrelevant to my life. Although...when I was a young newlywed, I decided I wanted to learn French cooking so I actually bought Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I and tried a couple of recipes. Sadly, my husband and I found we didn't like French cooking. Too many rich sauces.

In this chronicle of the correspondence between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, I can see why my husband and I had that reaction. Oh my word, the constant talk of cream sauces! However, cream aside (definitely for me, as I developed lactose intolerance years ago), this book was an absolutely fascinating journey through not only the process of creating a masterpiece of a cookbook, but also a contemporary view of the McCarthy era and the political scene during the entire decade of the 1950s.

Avis DeVoto is now known mostly for her association with Julia Child and her tireless work not only trying to interest publishers in the book but also trying recipe after recipe and giving feedback about whether they would work in American kitchens. At the time, however, Avis' husband, Bernard DeVoto, was a well-known author and columnist, and the list of people they knew and socialized with reads like a Who's Who of the intelligentsia of the time.

This is a long book. It is fairly evenly divided between talk of recipes and talk of politics with a dash of family gossip (from both Julia and Avis). If you are interested in French cooking, there is plenty to satisfy your curiosity. If you don't care about cooking but you are interested in the politics during the McCarthy era all the way to Kennedy's assassination, you will find plenty of first-hand accounts here in the sense that both Julia and Avis, but especially Avis, knew many of the peripheral figures involved, and both kept up with current events, exchanging articles and discussing various players.

Mostly, though, this is the story of a friendship that spanned decades, heartwarming in the closeness felt by the two women, upbeat and joyous through most of the letters, and ambitious in the determination of both women to get that cookbook published! They both knew it would be revolutionary, and it was. And they were the revolutionaries who brought it about.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful collection of letters between friends that span many years of growth and change. As you read, you get the sense that Julia Child is blossoming into the chef that she will one day become, while Avis is navigating a new relationship to the world after her husband's death. But more than that, and more than the mouth watering recipes they exchange, Avis and Julia provide a fascinating chronicle of America (and the world) during McCarthyism. The exchange of their letters starts in the early 1950s, and canvasses Eisenhower, Nixon (who they both loathed), and JFK (who Avis felt was too cowardly to stand up to McCarthy himself). Avis' eldest son is fighting in the Korean War, and the course of history and our country seem much more unsettled as they unfold in real epistolary time.

You also get a feel for how progressive Julia Child's politics were. Not only as a stalwart Democrat, but also on burgeoning social issues of her time. She and Avis discuss the poet May Sarton and Julia's former OSS colleague Cora DuBois, both of whom were living their lives fairly openly with female partners. Julia is as firm in her friendships and loyalties as she is in her cooking instructions, and (although she does compare homosexuality to having a hare-lip) expresses her opinion that gay men and lesbians need the support (as opposed to shunning) of society.

You truly get a sense of each woman through their correspondence. They write long letters that contain truths about their worries and their hopes and their plans. This book is almost a love letter to this particular type of letter writing, which may not exist any longer in the internet era.

[Tanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more amazing than anything I've read "about" Julia Child because this is Julia Child talking to a friend in letters over the years.
It gives me the feeling that these two women (Julia & Avis) were blogging before there were blogs. At least, that's the voice that comes through to me reading their letters to each other.
This is gorgeous reading and I know I'm going to be more in love with Julia when I finish reading it that when I started.

As a side note: This book is available on the Kindle but not on iBooks. Having read books on both formats, I've determined I'll pay for a book I'm really going to enjoy on iBooks because it's such a great experience. Given the choice between paying for a book on Kindle and free from the library ... free wins out.

Update: ha ha nope I broke down and bought the kindle version. wrote myself too many notes.

Another Update: now it's on iBooks!

Do you enjoy being a peeping-Tom? Did you live through the 50's?
Do you love cooking ... French cooking ... girl talk ... the French ... politics?
Ever wanted to be a fly on Julia Child's kitchen wall?
Would you have loved to be Julia Child's best friend ... As Always Julia!
Whether or not you agree with her politics, you'll love this book and I think you'll come away loving her more than when you started the book. You'll marvel at what we'd have missed out on if Julia and Avis had used instant messaging.
I loved reading this and wept when it was finished.
I'm struck with what marvelous blogs these two women would have had.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, not so much for the "french cooking story" as for its wonderful display of real friendship. It's also a phenomenal portrait of American life in the 1950s--I love it when Julia complains, for instance, about a fellow diplomatic wife who spends too much time matching her clothes.

At one point I put the book down to write a letter to a friend. Isn't that what every compilation of letters should do?

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly two kindred spirits! What fun it was being in the middle of this 40 year friendship. Julia and Avis couldn't sit down for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, so they were transatlantic pen pals who shared everything about their lives in these lengthy letters. All the while, Avis nurtured the development of Julia's cookbook and didn't let her give up on her vision for it when the road to finding a publisher became rocky. After reading their letters, you'll be BFFs.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to read the letters of these two women and their unabashed strength and opinions of the world and politics all while cheering on Julia to finish her monumental task of testing recipes for her French Cooking for US audiences. A rare peek into the post-war scene in the US and abroad as seen through the eyes of intelligent and informed women who speak of new wave housewives of the fifties, McCarthyism and how it almost destroyed our relationships with countries in Europe, book editors and academia.
Two great friends who met over an initial correspondence about an article on sharp knives!

[Nadirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having loved My Life in France, I was excited to get into this as they are letters between Julia and Avis and how their friendship blossomed, resulting in Julia's eponymous cookbook which catapulted her to fame. This acts as a beautiful accompaniment to "My Life in France", though to be honest, you'd have to really love Julia & Avis as well as talks of cooking and recipes to really appreciate this. I personally wouldn't have liked this so much if I hadn't had the context of Julia's memoir as well as Julie & Julia beforehand.

[Danita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was not just the history of the writing of the infamous cookbook it was also an enjoyable read about the changing of the culture of the 50s (women working, food production, kitchen appliances, politics, economics) The friendship between Julia and Avis was very endearing and the world they lived in which was filled with interesting and famous people. Julia was mainly overseas in France, Germany and Norway during this time period. Their personalities were down to earth even though they lived affluent lives.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to read anything about Julia Child. This book was much more personal, as it was her voice about writing and publishing Mastering The Art of French Cooking. It was most interesting that politics back then were about the same as they are now. If you really want to know about Julia Child, this is a must read.

It was wonderful to learn more about Avis DeVoto and her husband Bernard, very interesting people who were in the midst of the intellectual circles in the 1950's.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much fun to read. I’m a foodie so I love the process of cooking and Julia child is an inspiration. The letters between Julia and Avis are a treasure. They are at once precious and precocious. Snobby for sure. Totally fun to read. Immediately ordered “Mastering the art of French cooking”. How could I not? Read this in between other books. Very fun and makes me want to eat and cook.

[Annie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really gives you a picture of the lives of two very interesting women and their interactions with food, cooking, society, politics, family, work, etc. Nicely edited.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

These weren't just letters they were "novelettes!" I can't imagine what postage cost to mail back and forth from Europe to U.S. These two ladies were pen pals par excellence but more than that Avis Devoto made Julia Child what she was by getting her a publisher, advocating for her book, helping her test recipes, and by being a supporter and cheerleader when things got tough.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whew. This book was a bit of a slog. While I do find memoirs in this style (compiled letters) very interesting, this was just too long.

A great read for anyone intrigued by the publishing world, politics, and the wave of French cuisine in America in the 50s and 60s.

The friendship between Avis and Julia is the winning aspect overall to this memoir.