Post #33 – Women’s Memoirs, Author Conversations – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
This is treat week at Women’s Memoirs. I think most of us are in that period of limbo that only comes once a year. We’re either enjoying the quiet after the Christmas rush, or 
waiting patiently to launch ourselves madly into that clean slate we call the New Year—full of aspirations, resolutions and wonder at what it holds for us. Then, again, maybe you’re feeling a little of both. We’ve decided to use this time to have a little fun and hint at some of the new things coming to Women’s Memoirs in 2010.
Monday is our usual interview day. We don’t have a new author interview for you this week, but don’t worry. Our hiatus is coming to an end. We will start a new Author Conversations series on January 4th.
Cooking Up Some Memories
I didn’t get to see Julie & Julia when it first came out, but like many I was intrigued with Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Julia Child. I think I bought the DVD the first week it was available. If you haven’t yet seen the movie, I recommend you buy the DVD or order it on Netflix. It’s charming. If you love cooking and memoir, Julie & Julia is a treat.
Actually Julie & Julia should appeal to Women’s Memoirs readers on several levels. The movie is an artful blend of two memoirs—Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (paperback, Little, Brown, 2009) and My Life in France by Julia Child with her nephew Alex Prud’homme (Knopf, 2006). How can we help but cheer to see a memoir become a mainstream success?
Second, the connection between memoir and food/cooking is one that is near and dear to Matilda’s and my heart. We’ve been posting our KitchenScraps on Women’s Memoirs for months now. During December, we’ve published some wonder Christmas memories and treasured family recipes. We hope you’ll check them out. KitchenScraps is the first series in what we call ScrapMoir, which combines some of the best elements of memoir and scrapbooking. We’re always looking for new stories that combine family and food memories with photographs and, of course, a recipe. I’ll share more of our thoughts on this tomorrow and include a writing prompt for you.
Finally, the book Julie & Julia is one of the early examples of a blog morphing into a book deal. This one was particularly successful since it also led to a movie. I’ll write more about this on Friday as part of Women’s Memoirs Book Business.
This Is Interview Monday, After All…
Although Matilda and I don’t have a new Author Conversations for you this week, I scoured YouTube to find a couple of interviews for you. The first is an excerpt from an Archive of American Television interview with Julia Child (June, 1999). It’s particularly fun because she takes us briefly into her kitchen.
The second clip is Wine Spectator’s interview with Julie Powell. She discusses how her life was changed by her project. Wait until you see her beat-up copy of Julia’s book. That volume has most definitely been through the cooking wars. Julie also talks about a few of the movie’s departures from her story. I think it’s fair to say that director and film writer Nora Ephron sanitized Julie’s blog and story just a bit.
Enjoy!
Our Amazon Links
We’ve put up links to Julie & Julia (the DVD and the book) and to Julia Child’s incomparable Mastering the Art of French Cooking and My Life in France. We are an Amazon affiliate, and while your price remains the same whether you order through us or not, we do earn a small percentage of the sale when you click on any of the links on this page. So if you are thinking of buying any of these products and do not object to Women’s Memoirs making a small bit off your purchases, we’d be pleased to have you use our links.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Kendra and Matilda,
Couldn’t agree more with you, the movie Julie & Julia is a must see, we rented the DVD two weeks ago and I watched it three times in a row, while my husband and I stopped the movie every now and then the first time around to see certain moments twice. For instance when Julia throws a glance inside a passing pram and her husband tightens his embrace.
Nora Ephron’s adaption of the memoirs is brilliant. The telling moments showing Julia Child’s sorrow over her inability to have children perhaps lost to the masses, but a gift to bereft parents. Julia Child’s life work, her gift to home-cooks is a wonderful example of transcendence. Her book became her baby, her audiences the children whom she taught all she knew (there’s more to learning how to cook than turning out a good dish).
As it happened to be, I read a N.Y. Times review of “Cleaving: a story of marriage meat and obsession” Julie Powell’s latest book, an hour before watching the movie. Unfortunately, I should add. Apparently Ms. Powell’s held back information in her first memoir, material that would have given the story of the younger couple more meat so to speak. As it was, I kept on thinking about the big secret we were withheld while watching Julie & Julia. The result? I loved Julia Child’s story and want to read her memoir, but am not interested in reading Ms. Powell’s.
For a memoir writer it’s something to keep in mind, your story may be interesting or intriguing, withholding the truth from your authors (and yourself) makes for a less than satisfactory result. No matter how high the ratings, or how big the sales. You’ll know there’s something missing, and so will your readership/ audience, even if they’re not quite aware what it is.
But, let’s face it, the truth is hard to come by, and often it presents itself in bits and pieces and over time. So what is a writer to do, wait until it all comes together? That may take a lifetime. Well so be it.
Some are able to share what they know at any given time, while others wish to wait until they’ve found the grail.
All we can do is continue doing the write thing.
Happy New Year!
Best,
Judith
Hi Judith,
Thanks for the comments. I too have read a little about Julie Powell and her new book “Cleaving.” Fortunately I saw the movie first. I also picked up on the baby issues. The first reference, when Julia and Paul are walking in the park and Julia follows the pram with her eyes is so subtle. It’s not until the middle of the book that Julia’s feeling are made overtly. Very well handled. And your metaphor is spot on. The book is her child and her audience/students her children. Excellent.
As to the memoir issues, I think it’s fair to say that Nora Ephron didn’t write a memoir. She took two memoirs and used them to create a screen play. The memoirs were her primary source material for a crafting a cute story.
I haven’t read Julie Powell’s book (although I’ve read quite a bit about it). I have read Julia’s “My Year in France.” I suspect that Julie’s is the truth; it’s certainly more graphic. Julia’s book, completed shortly before her death, is interesting and well worth reading, but I’m not sure it’s really a memoir as much as a look back at a lifetime. I’ll have to think about that.
I do think, however, that a person can write a memoir at any time in their life…provided they have something to say. A teen who has survived a terrible accident or disease as a child or great family tragedy or disfunction may have something to say to her audience/readers. And I see no reason it can’t be “true.” I also think that the same woman could address the same issues many years later and write a different memoir. Her perspective will be different. She’ll have more of life to draw upon. Is one better than the other? It’s hard to say. I guess I’ll take the easy way out on this one and simply say, it depends.
Thanks, ladies. Julia Child was a mentor when I began cooking for real, in my late teens. And Julie Powell did accomplish something that was powerful in her life. Nora Ephron, a very funny writer with an ear for the poignant, created a pretty good screenplay. So I’ve seen the DVD and have the books on my wish list. I’m glad you devoted the space/energy to them. Your idea to include the video links was great. It was satisfying to see and hear both Julia and Julie. Thanks again, for another fine author(s) column. And while I’m at it, let me say how much I enjoyed your Christmas blog post. What wonderful memories you shared.
Best wishes to you both,
Susan/s
Hi Susan: Thanks for your lovely comment. One of our goals for 2010 is to create more of a sense of community among women interested in writing their memoirs. You have helped to get us started. We look forward to more of your comments in the coming year.
I especially like that you shared some of yourself. It is amazing how many people that Julia Child influenced. I had a good friend who watched every Julia Child show (the original series). I remember some of the marvelous dinners that my friend fixed. I no longer know where she lives, but I still remember those times with her.
Best wishes for 2010.
-Matilda
Thanks for the kind words Susan. It was fun putting this together. I had an excuse to watch a lot of YouTube footage of both Julie and Julia–a guilty pleasure.
I second what Matilda wrote. We thank you and all the women (and a few men) who have made 2009 such a fulfilling year for us. We passed the 500 comments mark today, a most fitting way to wrap up the year.
And we have many new projects and additions for 2010, as well as the continuation of old regulars and favorites. Author Conversations resumes in a couple of weeks.
A safe New Years Eve to everyone and a happy, healthy, successful New Year.
Hi Kendra,
Good point. You’re absolutely right a writer may come back to a subject later (whether it is one or ten years) to write about the same subject with a different perspective. Kathryn Harrison comes to mind, who first wrote a novel, then a more honest (yes truthful) memoir about the incestuous relationship with her father, and after that she still wasn’t finished, for there remained enough to be said about her relationship with her mother.
It seems Julie Powell did that with “Cleaving”, she went back and wrote about what she had left out before. To be honest, I’m not sure whether I’d have missed what I called “the truth” if I hadn’t read the NYTimes review, we’ll never know. I just think the story of the younger woman would have been more compelling, more dramatic, had we seen in the movie what we can now find out in the second book …
Our discussion makes me remember that it’s not fair to judge a book by the movie made after it. There are more creators involved after all. Personally I would have liked the scenario writer to have created a link between Julie’s egg donations and ovarian problems, and Julia’s childlessness, but she didn’t. Her choice must have been to give Julia the heavier load, and perhaps that’s only just, if only because she’s the éminence grise.