As Always Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto

 

Shirley J.          Adult Non-Fiction                         Pen Friends, Dear Friends, Cookery, Book Publishing

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto by Joan Reardon     432 pages

A delightful book full of over 200 letters exchanged between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto from 1952 - 1961.    Their conversations cover initially the knives Julia bought in Paris, France while living there with her husband, Paul and that she sent to columnist, Bernard DeVoto after reading his article in Harper's magazine on how one could not find good knives to cook with in the United States.   Bernard's wife Avis answered Julia's letter, thanking her for the knives and chatting so genuinely friendly that Julia wrote her back and chatted Avis up then one thing led to another, they jokingly became pen pals but were such kindred spirits that over the years they visited back and forth and continued to correspond through good times and bad and shared each other's woes, Julia's hardship with getting, "Mastering The Art of  French Cooking," published, while contending with the personalities of her two co-authors and Avis' losing her husband, author, Bernard DeVoto among other highs and lows.   The ladies discuss their lives, Julia's in France, Germany and Norway, etc. (she and her husband met while in service jobs for the agency later known as the CIA) while Avis and her husband lived in the U.S. in Cambridge.   A wonderful friendship that was a joy to experience vicariously through their correspondence.  So many events and people in history are shared here and what it was like to go through those times and out the other side of them into new eras, McCarthyism, Women's lib., the political administrations of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy.   I loved it.   I recommend this one to fans of Julia Child, especially, and probably cooks, chefs, fans of public television, baby boomers and fans of the film, "Julie & Julia".