Description du produit

Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell resolved to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life--lived with gusto.

Détails sur le produit

• Rang parmi les ventes Amazon: #7022 dans Livres
• Publié le: 2006-09
• Langue d'origine: Anglais
• Reliure: Broché
• 336 pages

Amazon.com
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.

When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary who slaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging of Eric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blog that will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows is a year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of an unbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well as the realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not as impossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and your pipes are frozen.

Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which is probably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and media alike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolve into whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose. Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and ending the evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats and Buffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Julia chortling alongside us...."

Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity to join one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, along the way. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly
Powell became an Internet celebrity with her 2004 blog chronicling her yearlong odyssey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A frustrated secretary in New York City, Powell embarked on "the Julie/Julia project" to find a sense of direction, and both the cooking and the writing quickly became all-consuming. Some passages in the book are taken verbatim from the blog, but Powell expands on her experience and gives generous background about her personal life: her doting husband, wacky friends, evil co-workers. She also includes some comments from her "bleaders" (blog readers), who formed an enthusiastic support base. Powell never met Julia Child (who died last year), but the venerable chef's spirit is present throughout, and Powell imaginatively reconstructs episodes from Child's life in the 1940s. Her writing is feisty and unrestrained, especially as she details killing lobsters, tackling marrowbones and cooking late into the night. Occasionally the diarist instinct overwhelms the generally tight structure and Powell goes on unrelated tangents, but her voice is endearing enough that readers will quickly forgive such lapses. Both home cooks and devotees of Bridget Jones–style dishing will be caught up in Powell's funny, sharp-tongued but generous writing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
With the age of 30 looming, Julie Powell feels she hasn't accomplished anything in life except acquiring a dead-end secretarial job and a great husband. She decides to add meaning to her life by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKINGâ over the course of a year. As we and Julie learn in this seamless abridgment, a perfect crêpe makes a bad day better and surviving a pancaked soufflé means one can endure anything. The author, who has a pleasant contralto voice, reads with humor and a rhythmic pacing perfectly suited to the book. Her lively reading (and excellent French) bring drama to the scenes and pleasure to the listener. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Commentaires clients

Fun read
While skeptical, I put off reading this book for a year or two, but am so glad I read it. It is fun and interesting, hilarious and insightful, current but historical as it intersperses current events with historical excerpts of Julia Child's life. Anyone who had been intimidated by a difficult French recipe will enjoy the trials and tribulations of Julie as she cooks her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Bon appetite!

UNE FEMME SPIRITUELLE, UN ECRIVAIN AUTHENTIQUE
Après le merveilleux film de Nora Ephron, nous avions foncé sur ce livre, reçu très rapidement d'Amazon.Fr, à bas prix.
La critique du film par TIME magazine était méchante: Ephron n'a pas présenté un personnage antipathique, au contraire, ne serait-ce que pour des raisons commerciales.

Dans sa narration, Powell ne se montre pas à son avantage. Les problèmes avec son mari sont réels, ce qui ne la favorise pas pour les porteurs de lunettes roses. Sa vie dans Queens est pénible mais elle ne se plaint pas et n'en tire pas des mots d'esprit.
Sa passion pour la cuisine emporte tout dans le livre. Pourtant, c'est elle qui domine ce livre, sans calcul.
Son esprit est irrésistible, chose qu'on trouve habituellement chez les Anglaises et elle écrit magnifiquement, avec l' efficacité de la simplicité.

Quand on voit son blog, dans le film, on se dit: comme elle écrit bien! A la fin, elle réalise son rêve de devenir écrivain.
C'est aussi un rêve pour nous de voir un tel talent.
Quand le féminisme semble se casser la figure, Powell peut servir de référence au combat des femmes.
Rappelons que le livre est très amusant, vertu principale.