Professor of Mathematics Carol Wood took a break from numbers this summer—she passed the days curling up with her Kindle and reading some fiction, such as Julia Child’s autobiographical work “My Life in France.”
LM: What is “My Life in France” about?
CW: “My Life in France” is an autobiographical work that was written at the end of a very long life. Her husband’s great-nephew helped her to write the book based on her memories of her first encounter with French food in the 1950s.
LM: Why did you choose this book?
CW: I’ve used her cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” ever since a college friend gave it to me when I was leaving for Germany—it is the book I learned to cook, chop and slice with. I never watched most of her TV shows but I had fallen in love with her book a long time ago. I’m actually rereading the book now because I saw “Julie and Julia.”
LM: Why did you decide to see the movie “Julie and Julia”?
CW: Well, Meryl Streep is in it and I knew it was putting together Julie Powell’s blog with the book I was familiar with, so I had to see it and actually saw it twice. I saw it with my husband, and it brought back memories from Germany and converting measures back to metric that Julia Child converted out of metric – it brings back a lot of memories.
LM: Did you enjoy the book or the movie more?
CW: I enjoyed “My Life in France” more than “Julie and Julia” because Julie Powell is annoying, although it was an interesting thing she did, and also because of the sheer joy in life that Julia Child communicates.
LM: How does “My Life in France” explain Julia Child’s interest in French cuisine?
CW: I think she found her calling. She married late and had just met Paul Child. She has the same experience as many others tasting one bit of sole meunière and didn’t realize that food could taste that good. She enjoyed the challenge of learning to cook that way and began to find something that engaged her.
LM: How does “My Life in France” explain Child’s rise to fame in the United States?
CW: The story is how she came to publish her book after her publisher canceled it. It is a fascinating story within itself—how a book can be published with it falling apart and coming back together. It’s a tragic story, too, where she couldn’t have a child and wanted to, and also a love story between her and Paul Child.
LM: Why do you think Americans were so enamored with French cooking during the ‘60s and ‘70s?
CW: Because it tastes so good. We had gone through an era where convenience was everything with prepared foods that were wonderful for that generation. Then we began to want good, natural foods and French food was less artificial.
LM: What is your favorite Julia Child recipe?
CW: In Germany, roast pork with a dry marinade was wonderful. The family favorite is the chocolate mousse my daughter requested for her fourth birthday party.
LM: What have you gained, if anything, from “My Life in France”?
CW: Pure pleasure hearing how someone with a special gift was able to fulfill it and build a life where none was obvious.
LM: Would you recommend this book to students?
CW: On one level, it’s dated because it’s from even before my time. I recommend it to a young woman who is learning to discover what she is passionate about. The book is an odyssey of a different woman with different constraints, but it’s an amazing story.
LM: Would you recommend watching “Julie and Julia,” and did this movie enhance your reading of the book?
CW: I think the movie is more Julie Powell’s idea of who Julia Child was. I think seeing the movie causes people to be more interested in this book—“Mastering the Art of French Cooking” has become a bestseller.
LM: What’s your favorite book?
CW: One favorite book I would recommend to anyone, especially anyone pre-med, is “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman. It’s a story about people who are relocated to California. Also, “100 Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and “Housekeeping” by Marilynne Robinson.