The Julie/Julia Project

I knew going to our group discussion that I was probably going to be the only one who didn't really like the book Julie & Julia: My year of cooking Dangerously.

The book is based on the blog of Julie Powell who decided that she was going to try and make all of the recipes found in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking during the course of one year. She took on the challenge when she hit somewhat of a quarter-life crisis (including a bad job and a disorder that might make having children difficult).

As a narrator Julie can be funny and is very self-aware. Every time she is being ridiculous she knows she is being ridiculous. She is always the first person to talk about how supportive her husband was throughout the whole process and recognizes how much he put up with.

The book, however; sometimes became overwhelmingly opinionated. I felt like I could definitely have read her blog entries and thought she was great - in weekly doses. But in 307 pages it was too much. Our discussion all agreed that small stories about Julia Child that came every few chapters was also unnecessary and confusing - we couldn't exactly figure out if they were taken from letters? Or if Julie wrote what she thought might have been happening to Julia?

I think part of my dislike for the book was because it was very informal - and something I'm not very used to. Plus the fact that Julie Powell and I could not be more opposite.