[.ca] Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child (ISBN 0385493835)

From Amazon.com:
Noel Riley Fitch's savory new biography, Appetite for Life, reveals a woman as appealing as the good food and serious cooking she popularized. As a California girl and Smith College undergraduate, Fitch writes, Julia McWilliams was notable for her high spirits and voracious appetite. Performing intelligence work in Asia during World War II, she met Paul Child, and their marriage of mutual devotion and affection endured until his death in 1994. His postwar assignment took them to France, where she discovered her true calling. Fitch reminds us that Child championed fresh ingredients at a time when frozen foods and TV dinners dominated American supermarket shelves, and that she demystified haute cuisine with her earthy humor and casual attitude toward mistakes. This affectionate portrait of the remarkable Julia Child reflects her fervent belief that the pleasures of the table are a natural accompaniment to the pleasures of life.

Wonderful!:
With all the TV chefs, Julia Child will always be the best. Even though this book is tedious in parts, I'm glad it was written. I loved knowing more about her and learn all that went into the creation of my very worn, very stained copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"! I remember once making her Orange Crepes Flambé...a gazillion pots and pans, total concentration...and gobbled down with complete enjoyment...Julia knows what it's all about! I once watched Emeril Lagasse make a codfish appetizer... I found his recipe on Food TV.com... the recipe seemed incomplete and I had to wing it. I emailed Food TV about the recipe and the reply was that Emeril is not responsible for errors. Julia KNOWS what it was all about! She's dedicated, credible, and unique. I still watch her and even with the book's editorial flaws, it was a wonderul read.

Thoroughly satisfying!:
This book was simply marvelous. It captured Julia's life perfectly and managed to fully incorporate her sense of humor - I found myself laughing, crying, and hungry. It is meticulously detailed, but not boring. Bon Appetit!

Not a masterful biography.:
As a great American icon, Julia Child deserves a great biography, but if this book is any indication, she may have to write her own. Although the book provides a lot of interesting detail, the author often fails to thread them into any cohesive fashion, and page after page is factoid upon factoid with no apparent organizing principle. Also far too much time is spent tediously detailing the guest lists for dozens of Child dinner parties, making much of the book sound like one of those dreadful society columns filled with the names of party goers and their various social and educational connections. This is what happens when an author, working off of the papers of her subject, is unable to rise above the reportage level to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'll give the author credit for doing a lot of research and providing an intimate glimpse at the Child marriage and the interesting figure of Paul Child himself. It also does a good job of taking us through the painstaking 9-year process of writing and rewriting "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". But as for a well-organized transcendant portrait of Julia herself, this one is missing the touch of a master.

Not For Cooks Only!:
Julia Child as a personality has long been melded with Julia Child, the cook. I watched her shows in the sixties as a child having little interest in the kitchen, but simply finding her fascinating to watch! 'The French Chef', unlike the Galloping Gourmet and others, has aged well and can still be watched with enjoyment. Why? Because Julia Child was always herself on TV, never pandering to the transient and fickle tastes of the times. Watching Julia's various series, I learned some about her life, but eagerly purchased this book when it first appeared. Unlike some other reviewers, I delighted in this auther's literary painting of the times in which Julia has lived. To me, nothing is more disappointing in a biography than the feeling that something has been left out! This book demonstrates that though her name to the public has been made by her cooking career, Julia Child is much, much more. For those who enjoy reading biographies, this will provide enjoyment regardless of whether they like cooking or not!

Long Live Julia Child:
I read this book immediately after reading a recent biography of James Beard. Before having read both books, I was sure Beard was deservedly at the pinnacle of American culinary expertise and influence. I now believe that position belongs to Julia Child, who, with her two French colaborators, was almost entirely responsible for the text of their books, unlike Beard, who employed a sizeable number of ghost writers in much the same way that 'Martha Stewart' is more of a brand for a team effort than itis the identity of a single worker. At the same time, one can easily trace the rebirth of interest in things culinary by the conjunction of Childs books and early PBS shows with the advent of the Kennedy White House French Chef hired by Jackie Kennedy. I also have an enormous respect for Child in comparison to Beard for scrupulously avoiding product endorsements and other commercial entanglements. I know this book was written without the active cooperation of Ms. Child, and I believe it shows. The author had access to all of Child's papers and correspondence and, I'm sure, interviewed a large number of Child's friends and colleagues. This makes me yearn to read Julia's own memoir. Until that is available, this will do just fine.