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My Life in France  By  cover art

My Life in France

By: Julia Child,Alex Prud'Homme
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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Publisher's summary

In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found her “true calling.”

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre, en route to Paris, in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu.

This memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Here, she reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success she became.

©2006 Alex Prud'Homme (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius." (Publishers Weekly)

“Exuberant, affectionate, and boundlessly charming...It chronicles, in mouth-watering detail, the meals and the food markets the sparked her interest in French cooking...It also tells the story of the inspired partnership between Child...and her husband, Paul...Every day in France brought a thrilling new discovery, but Child’s capacity for wonder and delight co-existed with "show me" skepticism...It is a wonderful picture of the most successful American export to France since Benjamin Franklin.” (William Grimes, The New York Times)

“Like a surprise nougat bursting from the center of a chocolate truffle, My Life in France also serves up her moving romance with the Renaissance man of her life...her husband, Paul Child.” (Andrew Marton, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

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What listeners say about My Life in France

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What a pleasure!

I listened to this book on a trip through Avignon and Paris and it was wonderful. What an addition to our travels by TGV south from Paris. The reader was a delight and more than up to the challenges of the french language and all the culinary terms. Julia's take on the world a breath of fresh air. I was sorry when the book came to and end. However, to compensate I have pulled out my dog-eared copies of "mastering the art" and jumped back into cooking a la Julia! Brava Audible!

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50 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Merveilleux

I almost didn't buy this unabridged version of My LIfe in France because of all the negative comments in the reviews about the the narrator's horrible French pronunciation - said to be too distracting. Well that is just foolishness and perhaps down right snobbishness as well - Ms. Farr does a serviceable job with the French pronunciation and it's certainly not distracting. The book so far is an absolute delight and I highly recommend it. Ms. Greenberg who narrates the Abridged version sounds very good as well and may indeed do better with the French but I did not want to miss a word of Julia's fascinating and wonderful life story. Enjoy!

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • S
  • 11-10-09

Julia deserves a better narrator

I was really hoping the other reviewers were being hypercritical... alas, this is not the case, and I am truly flummoxed as to why a book by and about a woman who loved the French culture, language and experience so much was assigned such a narrator. To be fair, although the narrator wisely does not attempt to impersonate Julia's iconic trill, she brings a lot of warmth and personality to Julia's words (in English). She gives the French accent a good go, but hardly with a professional's required attention to detail in handling such beloved material. It is indeed jarring, detracting and disappointing to anyone with even a rudimentary experience of the French language.

A wonderful book, however, and aside from the most cringing mangling of the language of Moliere, enjoyed it tremendously. Any other reader would have earned this 5 stars.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A lovely memoir

This audiobook was a wonderful escape from my dreary December into the bright, lively world of post-war France.

Julia Child writes with vivid and loving detail of her years in Paris and Marseilles with her beloved husband, chronicling her education as a cook, her friendships, the writing of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and her many adventures in the shops, markets, and kitchens of Paris. Delightful!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful!

This book is as charming as Julia herself. Her voice comes through clearly, and although she was never unkind, she did not shy away from expressing her frustrations with certain people and situations in her life. It's an account of how her interest in food and cooking developed, and how she came to take the path she took. She and Paul saved letters, so the book is rich with authentic detail about the events of their lives. My only regret is that now that I've finished it, I can never come to it again to listen for the first time. It made me feel much closer to a woman I've never met, but miss terribly.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful story, worth listening to but...

...as mentioned in other reviews, and I almost feel sorry for the narrator, she is not a French speaker, but tries. I cringed most at ca y'est pronounced as "ca y'esT". Yikes. It's still worth it, though. And other than the French, she's actually quite pleasant. The story is second to none if you love Julia Child. I'm grateful she lived long enough to finish the project. It's a gem.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Well narrated

OK, the reader's French isn't perfect, but if you know some French you can tell what she's aiming for and if you don't ... well then who cares! More importantly, she pulls everything else off with a beautiful, lively performance.

The book conveys a nice sense of Julia Childs' personality, her experience learning to cook in a country she's crazy about, and some sense of the zeitgeist during the late forties and fifties.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Narrator Choice Is Key

While it was Saturday Night "spoofable" Julia Childs distinctive voice was almost iconic. The narrator for her biography however is stilted and almost shrill. I have tried several times to finish this book and just cannot handle her voice. Too bad. Not a bad accounting of Julia's life.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

This narrator cannot speak French.

This narrator is a perfectly fine storyteller...in English. But she mangles the French language so badly [and there's SO MUCH FRENCH in this book] that it's painful to listen to. I cringe every time she turns a beautiful French place name or food into a sound resembling a cat being strangled.

I have endured several hours of this and am enjoying the story, but may have to abandon it and read it in the paper version instead. It's just too painful.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A Glimpse Into the Humanity of a Legend

Julia Child has always been a paragon of culinary talent, and those of us who bought her first volumes learned quickly that there was a great chasm between reading one of her recipes and turning it into the great creations she made so effortlessly. It was easy to suspect that there was some ingredient missing, and this book finally identifies it: Julia herself. In the telling of her life story, she describes those missing ingredients: an insatiable curiosity and continuing desire to learn, her incredible capacity for hard work, her ability to make friends on all levels, and the close partnership she enjoyed with her husband.

Despite her many years on television, Julia Child was always a private person; in this book, knowing clearly it would be her last, she finally speaks -- often with great candor -- of the close relationships that shaped her life: her husband, her father, her sister, her colleagues Simone Beck and James Beard, and her many friends. The insights she provides into a life in the foreign service are fascinating. Her recounting of the writing of her first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking makes one appreciate far better the monumental result. Her many years on television are described with humor and modesty.

The writing is generally well-done -- the book skips around a bit at times and feels a bit unbalanced considering the scope. The narrator works hard to speak very clearly and to speak French with a fine accent -- she succeeds but at the same time keeps you always aware that she is working hard to do so. But these are only minor problems. For what the volume accomplishes, it deserves high points, for it provides an insight into the humanity of someone who for many of us has been a legend in her own lifetime. Merci!

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7 people found this helpful