Book Review: Julie & Julia, My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell

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I’ve never heard about either Julie or Julia before I saw the movie “Julie/Julia” on board a BA plane heading to London. Its become a favorite movie of mine and I’ve seen it 20 times since, last time was a last weekend btw. Intrigued, I got myself both the Julia Child memories of her year in france and Julie Powell’s book.

I began with Julie’s book first, that was perhaps on March 2012. I finished it yesterday evening. In between I’ve read numerous books, including Julia Child’s own memoir, and seen the movie several times. I kept the book by my night stand alone so I could finish it whether I like it or not and finally I finished it.

It’s not the case that it’s a bad book, it’s quite funny actually, but for some reason there was too much going on in one page, jumping from one situation to the next and too much words uttered out in one sentence, it made me dizzy. I kept losing my concentration and giving up, I didn’t get the feeling that I was pulled into the pages and in my mind I kept comparing it with the movie -good adaptation by the way-. The description of the accumilating sticky dirt and cats hair while trying to cook around it didn’t help matters much either.

There is also the matter of the ending too. The words “The End” appeared several time in the last pages that I wanted to scream out loud. I know it’s supposed to be funny, or bubbly as the spirit of the book in general was, but it got really annoying. I kept comparing it to the ending from the movie, where Julie gathers up her friends and hosts a rooftop dinner, now that was a project’s closure. I didn’t find such defined closure in the book and the repetitive “The End” blurred the closure even more to me. But again, there is no such thing as closure to an ongoing real life isn’t it?

I guess its one of those situations where a movie ruined the book experience for me, a first in my life for sure. The movie didn’t ruin my experience of Julia’s memoirs though (post). Julie Powell’s book however is going on my bookshelf and I would recommend it if you are interested for sure. After all, its not everyday that a fellow blogger turns their experience into a book deal and a movie adaptation!

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