Julie and Julia, the book

When I picked up a copy of the book Julie and Julia by Julie Powell back in 2006 I found it to be a fun book. It was about transformation. It was about a fork in the road where Julie Powell pondered changing her life. It wasn’t solely about food.

Actually, the cooking was more than incidental to the story, but the main focus, in my opinion, was the transformation of Julie Powell. She found her way into her true calling, her dream job of becoming a writer.


Reading this book I admit to having one of those “slap-yourself-on-the-forehead” moments as I am cooking through the Nigella Express cookbook. Certainly not with the diligence and dedication Julie Powell attacked Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking……but still….a day late and dollar short as the saying goes. (I really need to get back to Nigella….)

Watching an interview with Julie Powell where she talks about how they changed the movie a bit, I was reminded of a similar interview with Jodi Picoult over the changes screenwriters made to My Sister’s Keeper.


I still have that book but have not been in the suitable mindset to read it yet. But I understand that readers were very upset by the film ending as it was a completely different from the book ending. Well…it’s a pisser, but we know Hollywood does it all the time.


Back to Julie Powell – when asked what she thought about the movie and Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in the lead roles, she stated that while she is a fan of Amy Adams, how interesting they chose a tiny slender redhead as Julie. Also, the movie incredibly covered the epiphanies of the great Julia Child and Julie Powell in a two hour period. Two lives, two different experiences, much material…all covered in two hours.

Plus, she mentions how the spotlight of the movie was cooking and romantic comedy intertwined……while, as I mentioned earlier, she confirmed it was life altering experience. Movies do not tend to focus on such though…….. Don’t fret Julie (as if you would over this) because there are many readers who got you, understood the changes you faced, empathized about the “failures” in the kitchen which as we know, never apologize for them.

I like Julie Powell – we have many things in common. Cooking, writing, employment as a Government drones (she formerly, me currently), Buffy the Vampire Slayer……..I could go on.


Cheers Julie Powell to a job well done. I an envious…but you also bring me hope.

Now I will go see the movie.