Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child

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Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 890 ratings · 144 reviews

Julia Child became a household name when she entered the lives of millions of Americans through our hearts and kitchens. Yet few know the richly varied private life that lies behind this icon, whose statuesque height and warmly enthused warble have become synonymous with the art of cooking.

In this biography we meet the earthy and outrageous Julia, who, at age eighty-five,...more

Paperback, 592 pages

Published April 13th 1999 by Anchor (first published May 4th 1997)

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Jan 02, 2010 RNOCEAN rated it 4 of 5 stars

Julia McWilliams was always adventurously hunting for food to fill her 6'2" frame. When, in her late 20s, the Smith College-educated Californian took a wartime job with the OSS that sent her to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China, she began cultivating a taste for authentic eatables as an alternative to service fare. Almost resigned to spinsterhood, she met and married Cambridge, Mass.-born government official Paul Child, who was on Asian duty, and accompanied him to his USIA posts in France and Germa...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am glad I read this book because it gave me a good picture of who Julia Child was and how she influenced the cooking world. In one respect, it is a love story about her life with her husband , Paul. She would not have gained the fame she had with out his support and character. The other part is about how she learned to cook, who she was influenced by, her friends and family and her work ethic. The sad part about this book is that it needed an editor. IT is over 500 pages long, often listing Ju...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Gizzard rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, 2012-nonfic, nonfic

I wavered between a 2 and a 3 for this book, and wrote a really long review that got lost. I dislike when people mark down books because they don't like a character or their religion, so I can't give this a good rating just because I did like the character. It is still a very flawed book.

Bottom line, this book is overly detailed -much of this detail shedding no light on Child the person or her career. Much too much, I would have loved the condensed version. It is also one sided- Julia was saint,...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Gemma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the record, if anyone ever has to do a report on someone moderately well-known for school, I would totally recommend doing Julia Child.

She had a fascinating life; she worked as a spy in India, was on television and became relatively well-known from the
‘60’s to ‘90’s. She’s also not a cliché, like a dead US president or European artist, so your teacher probably wouldn’t have heard as much about her, and she’s obscure enough that you probably don’t know all the details of her life.

That being...more For the record, if anyone ever has to do a report on someone moderately well-known for school, I would totally recommend doing Julia Child.

She had a fascinating life; she worked as a spy in India, was on television and became relatively well-known from the
‘60’s to ‘90’s. She’s also not a cliché, like a dead US president or European artist, so your teacher probably wouldn’t have heard as much about her, and she’s obscure enough that you probably don’t know all the details of her life.

That being said, An Appetite for Life was not the most enjoyable read in the world. As far as biographies go, I feel that it could have been shorter. I don’t really read a lot of biographies (this is the first non-illustrated one I think I’ve ever read all the way through). Maybe this just isn’t my genre. But I honestly think some editing could have been done here.

Do we really need to know the grade Julia Child got in her 10th grade English class? Do we really need the name of every single person she ever came into contact with? Do we need the details of her and her husband’s sex life?

For me, the answer is no. No, I do not need to know all or any of these things. This biography was over-detailed, so bogged down with random information that I feel the author lost her focus. There were some underlying themes that she kept semi-emphasizing at random moments, but because of the number of all those little threads, she was never able to follow up properly with any of them.

Take, for example, her friend, James (not sure if that’s it) Beard. Mr. Bear is supposedly important to her, and he’s gay. The author stresses both his importance to Julia and his sexuality for a few paragraphs and it seems like she’s setting up someone important, but then he’s mentioned maybe three more times throughout the course of the story.

Why? Is it really so important that we know all of this? Beard could have been omitted all together and the story would be no different. It would actually be better, because that would be one less name and detail I have to keep track of.

But it wasn’t only Beard. There were so many other things that this happened with. Beard is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sigh. This book could have been so much more interesting if only the author hadn’t gotten so caught up with all the detailing and just let the story flow naturally.

So, overall… Julia Child is fascinating, and I would love to read more about her. However, An Appetite for Life is extremely dense, and could have been handled much better.

3/5, because Julia is awesome, but her biography… isn’t.
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Jul 29, 2011 Laurie added it

Two reasons to read this book: one, to find out more about a beloved icon, two, to find details to undermine the myth created about the beloved icon in "My Life in Paris" and "Julie/Julia." To pursue either of these goals, you will have to get through 500 pages of earnest but ill-edited prose. We feel like we've heard about every restaurant meal Julia ever ate, every tribute by an adoring public, every bookstore signing. As for the myth-undermining motive, we learn that Julia actually took a coo...more

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May 14, 2012 Linda Harkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Queen Julia has done more than Freidan , Gloria Steinem and Co. to show American women a model of power in public and expressive self-discovery at home" (Christopher Lydon).

Fitch's biography is thorough and insightful and leaves one with a sense of reverence and respect for Julia Child (1912 - 2004). Having read and seen "Julie & Julia" despite Julia Child's feeling that book and movie were money-making stunts, I knew it was high time to read this biography. I was not disappointed. Child wa...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Leeanna rated it 2 of 5 stars

If you’ve read my blog at all, you’ve probably seen me mention “My Life in France” by Julia Child at least once. It’s a book I adore. The writing is fun, Julia’s personality shines through on every page, and it’s a fascinating tale of how “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” came to be.

Ever since reading “My Life in France,” I’ve devoured as many books on Julia Child as I can find. None have come close to that book for me. “Appetite for Life” is not a biography I would recommend unless you are...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Shara Faskowitz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Foodies, food historians, fans of Julia Child

Recommended to Shara by: no one

Exhaustive biography of the great Julia Child. Early on, the author states that while Julia did not give her personal interviews she did grant Fitch unprecedented access to her family letters and other papers. And out of that Fitch built what is probably the seminal biography on Julia.

So the good news is that Fitch was an experienced and well-known biographer when she came to the project, and she makes good use of the material to weave a mostly fascinating tale of an American icon--and not just...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Sario Lawrence added it

What a thorough book about one of America's greatest icons. Julia Child had a fascinating life that is documented in great detail in this book. Apparently Paul and Julia kept every letter ever written to/from them, because they are used as much of the basis of this book. You learn about her childhood, school years, spy years, and culinary career. Paul and Julia's epic relationship is the type of love I'd like to emulate in my own life.

All in all, it was an incredibly interesting and inspiring hi...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Alison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-autobio, non-fiction, read-in-2010

'Appetite for Life' is a perfect title for this biography of Julia Child - I enjoyed learning what a curious, interested, friendly person she was. It makes me want to go watch some of her old TV shows. However, my appetite for learning about her was not big enough for this 500 page book filled with too much unnecessary detail. I wanted to stop several times but decided to endure to the end. I did find a quote in a letter from Julia to her mother that describes my feelings about myself pretty wel...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Dvora rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: france, biography-history

Julia Child is (was) a far more interesting person than you might ever suspect. Even reading My Life In France doesn't tell you much about the varied and adventurous life she had, nor much of anything about her background.
The problem with this book, however, is not Julia's story. The problem is the poor writing (others say bad editing -- but it seems like poor writing to me). All the information is there, but nothing was left out and the information often just reads like a list. Paragraphs do no...more

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Jan 15, 2008 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars

An incredible book. An in depth biography of a fabulous character in American culture. Highest recommendations.

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Apr 09, 2010 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's a shame Noel Riley Fitch didn't learn something from her subject: just bring out the flavor of the food. Don't over complicate the dish. Or, don't provide so much detail you overwhelm your subject. Do I need an exhaustive list of Julia Child's classmates at the Katharine Branson School, who they went on to marry, and their childrens' occupations? Does a ship's manifest from 1943 help me understand what later inspired Julia to take classes at the Cordon Bleu? A tougher editor was badly neede...more

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Dec 16, 2009 Firecooked rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub, foodie-books

This is a biography with a big B: it was authorized; the author had full access to Julia Child, her letters, several family diaries, as well as letters and interviews with family and friends. It’s very much the historical work, sometimes overstuffed with minutia, names and dates, but does an excellent job of describing Julia and how she fit into the recent history of food as well as US history. The appendices describe all the source material, a great job was done in editing to only 500 pages. In...more This is a biography with a big B: it was authorized; the author had full access to Julia Child, her letters, several family diaries, as well as letters and interviews with family and friends. It’s very much the historical work, sometimes overstuffed with minutia, names and dates, but does an excellent job of describing Julia and how she fit into the recent history of food as well as US history. The appendices describe all the source material, a great job was done in editing to only 500 pages. In the end, I find myself awed and inspired by Julia and her works.

The early part of the book is slow, she grew up as a spoiled California party girl which was not all that interesting. The story picks up during the time she was in the OSS in India and China. Fascinating to me (as someone who doesn’t read big historical books, but lately, lots of WWII fiction) was the non-European perspective of WWII: the people and politics of the time, including the OSS, McCarthy-ism, and their influence on Vietnam.

Later in life, Julia Child was quite the celebrity between PBS shows and Good Morning America appearances in addition to her books. I never saw much of her on TV (but knew enough to fully enjoy Dan Aykroyd’s satire of the show), and never had the Mastering The Art of French Cooking cookbooks. I didn’t understand her real influence on food. Her memoir, My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme gave me much more background on what went into the first cookbook, but this book brought so much more to the story.

Julia was passionate about food, and wanted to share this passion with others. She followed through with incredible organization, detail and hard work to share the vision through teaching. She had the drive to get things right (and that would be her definition of right). Also impressive was the energy that Julia had, right through her 80’s, even with the problems of aging like bad knees and loved ones in nursing homes.

Julia’s vision started with an attempt bring the pleasures of cooking and eating to the American public, not the “America home economics with its undercurrent of nineteenth-century melioristic scientism”. (Definition of melioristic: the notion that the world can be improved by human effort). Her cookbook was out of step with the current fashion: “Americans were then eating canned vegetables with marshmallows melted on top, frozen chickens cooked in canned mushroom soups, frozen fish sticks, and dishes that could be served during commercials… Processed food products and junk food led to unwanted poundage, which in turn stirred up a wave of dieting and diet books … Avis [Julia’s agent:] commented about the “gunk” in the American kitchen and the increasing number of manuscripts for diet books she was receiving … “[There is:] not a single honest recipe in the whole book – everything is bastardized and quite nasty .. Desserts .. sweetened with saccharin and topped with imitation whipped cream. Fantastic! And I do believe a lot of people in this country eat just like that, stuffing themselves with faked materials in the fond belief that by substituting a chemical for God’s good food they can keep themselves slim while still eating hot breads and desserts and GUNK.” This was in 1959! (and its taken until 2009 for me to get all of the high fructose corn syrup out of my house, and even then some slips back in, last in the guise of Rice Crispy Squares).

The other theme that runs through Julia’s work was to help Americans overcome their “fanatical fear of food”. An example: “fear of food was endemic in suburbia. Every new health warning (Poisons in Your Food) reinforced America’s puritanical relationship to food and wine. Food was either a sinful or a bothersome necessity. The most popular food books in the early 1960s were Calories Don’t Count and the I Hate to Cook Book…” That said, she had some confrontations with other visionaries of the time, like Alice Waters. Julia felt that all the talk of organic foods and evils of pesticides would just further scare people from cooking.

I could go on.. but this book really hit home for me during my current quest to reduce the amount of processed food in my diet and understand the struggles of those around me with food. Plus I have another role model on living a full life, continuing to learn and share and grow (bad knees and all). The other take away: During the life of Julia Child, there was massive amount of written communication compiled, including letters, diaries, manuscripts, and written articles. I sometimes wondered if she ever made a phone call! But I can hope that in addition to more people cooking from the larger selection of fresh food available, that someday people can use our blogs, tweets, Facebook and other written communications to write inspiring biographies!(less)

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Mar 20, 2010 Cathie rated it 3 of 5 stars

What I liked about this book was how Julia Child discovered the loves of her life; her husband, her cooking, writing, teaching and entertaining. She didn't let age, nationality or gender discourage her from accomplishing what she enjoyed.
It did drag in places where the author went on and on about all the names in cooking; I didn't care that much about those things. I wanted more about Julia herself. Overall I enjoyed reading about Julia's life in California, her search for a career, WW II, disc...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

500 pages of Julia Child is a lot. Ms Child is worth 500 pages, though, and she offered up plenty of written material to base the book on, so it's an interesting read.

I'd say that unless you're really, really into Julia, reading "My Life if France" is enough. In fact, if you haven't read that one, you should.

Even though I'd already read about that portion of her life, I found the bits about her learning to cook and researching the recipes for Mastering the Art of French Cooking to be the most in...more

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Mar 05, 2009 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american, cookery-food, french, non-fiction, bio

I enjoyed this book very much because Julia Child herself is such a fascinating subject who led a fascinating life full of family, friends, travel, and of course, food. The only part of the book I will criticize is the amount of detail; it's mind-boggling. I can understand mentioning names of main characters, but this lady seems to have named and explained everyone Julia ever met; it got pretty tiresome. With less of that yearbooky, who-can-forget-so-and-so stuff, it would have been a shorter an...more

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May 04, 2012 Nari (The Novel World) rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to finish this book, I really wanted to like this book. The author is so WORDY with every minute detail of Julia and Paul's lives. It was exhausting just getting through part 1. I didn't even get to her life in Paris before giving up on the book. It was also a heavily biased towards Julia, in that, everything she did and was perfect and that she had no faults whatsoever. I wanted to learn about the real Julia Child, not some idolized version of her.

I read My Life in France, and...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Mara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A look into the life of Julia Child, who was a fascinating woman. The author's style gets grating after a while, but the material is interesting, so the book is a mixed bag. On the whole, though, I'm glad I read it, and now I have a desire to try to tackle Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's a good thing I don't have a blog, or I'd be tempted to go the Julie Powell route. You're welcome.

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Jan 03, 2013 Jennuineglass rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not quite what I was looking for, this autobiography was light on the personal dynamics of Ms. Child's life and heavy on the what/how of her public persona and achievements. I confess that by the end I was skimming over pages hunting between cost analysis of her latest book/show and looking for tidbits (and they were simply bits) of her relationships w/ Paul, friends, and thoughts of the places they traveled to. If you are looking for a full detailed journey of how she became the culinary icon o...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Marti rated it 2 of 5 stars

i enjoyed this book because i learned more about julia child, a most admirable woman. speaking about it to a fellow book group member, she mentioned how the author listed so many people in the text. one term that the author used at least twice was "close proximity." hey, ms fitch--proximity means closeness, so you are saying close closeness. a reader could flounder in names, and i'm not going to read any other noel riley fitch biographies if i can help it. a somewhat breezier approach would have...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Carla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: to-read-own

The only thing bad about this book was that it was long (too dense with research and information) -- not such a bad thing. I started reading this book (that's long been on my bookshelf) after watching the movie "Julie and Julia". Watching the convincing Meryl Streep as Julia and Stanley Tucci as Paul Child left me wondering what else I did not remember or know about their lives. The book left me in awe of Julia -- born in 1912, she is a classic example of a "modern woman". She had more than one...more

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Aug 10, 2008 Jodi rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who have trouble sleeping

Shelves: nonfiction

Man, did this book blow. How can you take a life like Julia Child's - worked in the early version of the CIA during WWII, started a new career as a chef at 39 and became a famous food author and presenter - and make it totally boring? I'm not sure how you manage to make Julia Child's life boring - but this author did it. Geez! I really couldn't finish this book and I would recommend ANY OTHER biography of Julia Child over this one. I think the author got bogged down in endless details of Julia C...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Kristine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Appetite for Life by Noel Riley Fitch, a Kindle book I began reading on September 8th. Quite a lengthy book and prolly the longest, in-depth bio I've read so far in recent history.

This biography depicts Julia as a well-rounded, larger than life, warm, vibrant being and her husband, Paul, as an intelligent, desirable man. It does well to describe her early childhood and time in France while I was less than impressed or engaged with her time in the OSS and frequent, insensitive cookbook criticisms...more

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Jun 24, 2010 Cindy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: loser-books, 10-10-10

Too much detail, too much gush. I may not finish this one.

Update:

Over the top, almost worshipful book about how MARVELOUS and REMARKABLE Julia Child was. It spend way, way too much time on her family history, both sides, her childhood, her education, and then finally got to her adult life and service in the OSS. That was only mildly interesting, and I decided I just couldn't forge through the rest of this book. I really like and admire Julia Child, but this was flat and poorly written. 1 star.

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Apr 26, 2010 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, food

Like most biography, I enjoyed this book more for its topic than for its writing and delivery. I really love the story of Julia Child's life, so I waded the sometimes-plodding prose to get at the details of her life in France, her marriage, her relationship with her family, her rise to fame, and her passion for food.

Her life inspires mine in so many ways, and this book definitely let me in on details that contributed to my heroine-worship.

I previously read her autobiography (My Life in France)...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Catie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wish this book had been edited down by about 200 pages. Julia Child led a fascinating life, but by getting caught up in minutia, Fitch makes reading about it an exercise in patience. Still, I'm glad that I picked it up--there were lots of fun tidbits, especially about her relationship with Paul. If the writing had been less matter-of-fact and the content less exhaustive, I would have enjoyed it far better.

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Oct 06, 2009 Susanhayeshotmail.com rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was enjoying this rather a lot but must confess I didn't finish. Would like to return someday but new baby in the house, followed by sickness, building up to a move and I just plain don't have time right now. My favorite thing about Julia Child, well, after her recipes I suppose, is that she didn't become the Julia Child we know until well into middle age. I also loved that at one point when things were not going well as regards her first cookbook and publication that she wrote something along...more

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Mar 07, 2009 Jerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Julia Child. She has a fascinating story and I liked this book a lot, though it really does get in depth at times in her ancestry. This also a story about a great love story between Julia and her husband Paul and their journey from coworkers in Ceylon to newlyweds in Paris. Its a good story and the food, which Julia is best known for, comes later. I think people will get to know Julia in this book, and I also recommend Julia's own book My Life in France which she wrote with her nephew Ale...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Life is about joy and food definitely brings that joy more often than not. As I love eating and truly enjoy cooking also I enjoyed reading about Julia Child and her adventure in cooking. It is not necessarily an easy read but I am glad I undertook it. There are places where it is tedious and boring but ultimately the story of her life is very impressive.

Just don't have time for this one right now - it is sitting on my shelf and someday I hope to get back to it but not right now.

In many ways I li...more

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About Noël Riley Fitch

Noël Riley Fitch is a biographer and historian of expatriate intellectuals in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. Every book Fitch has written has some connection with Paris and the artists who lived and worked there, including her biographies of Sylvia Beach, Anaïs Nin, and Julia Child.

In June 2011 Noël was awarded the prestigious Prix de la Tour Montparnasse literary award in France fo...more

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Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties

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