Bob SpitzBesprekingen
Auteur van The Beatles. De biografie
Besprekingen
One of those “where were you?” moments for those of us of a certain age is “where were you when The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time?” I was a fourth grader, watching them on my grandparents television while the adults tut-tutted about the “long hairs” and their music. Inside, I was fascinated, as were all my classmates, especially the girls, who talked endlessly about “my favorite Beatle.”
The 2005 “biography” of the Fab Four brings back all those memories and so much more–much that was fascinating and some that I’d rather not have known. Spitz traces the history of the band from its beginnings with John Lennon and The Quarrymen, the meeting with Paul McCartney, the Liverpool years and the various combinations of musicians including the fan favorite drummer Pete Best whose home was a favorite hangout until he was unceremoniously ditched and Ringo brought on board on the eve of their fame. Spitz writes abbreviated biographies of each of the Beatles and their manager, Brian Epstein.
We learn how formative their time in Hamburg was and the significant advance they made under Brian Epstein’s management. Spitz takes us through all the things he did to polish their image, how they became “The Beatles,” his efforts to get them recorded and promoted, and the mistakes he made in setting up recording contracts. As their records hit the charts and they toured Great Britain, we see them reach the “toppermost of the poppermost.” Then Ed Sullivan. America. Beatlemania with its surging crowds, shrieking and swooning girls, and ever-increasing danger to the Beatles leading to their end of touring in 1966.
Spitz takes us behind the scenes and we see the genius of the songwriting duo of Lennon-McCartney as well as the eventual strains in their relationship, the guitarwork and growing skill of George and how Ringo not only provided the musical foundation for the band but also a certain emotional glue. We learn what it was like to record at Abbey Road. We observe the self-effacing genius of George Martin, who never profited beyond his modest salary, helping with the innovative work on albums like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
Spitz reminds us of the trip to India to learn meditation as the band sought both to grow spiritually and mend the growing artistic and personal rifts that would ultimately lead to their demise, particularly after Yoko Ono entered the scene, helping further alienate John from the others. We read accounts of the final recording sessions and the release of “Abbey Road” and their last live concert on a London rooftop, where amid all the tensions, they momentarily recaptured the joy of making music together.
Then there is the seamier side. The drug use beginning with amphetamines, marijuana, and eventually LSD, and in John’s case heroin, from which he was often strung out and increasingly erratic. The women. So many “birds” to have sex with, as was the case with many rockers. At one point, all were being treated for gonorrhea. There is the brilliant and sad Brian Epstein and his closeted gay life, including rough sex leaving him beaten and robbed, and his growing despair as he felt he was losing control of the Beatles, leading to his death, whether accidental or suicide, from an overdose of drugs. While they were rich, through Epstein’s mistakes and their own debacle with Apple, they foolishly lost millions.
There is the tragic. Going back to Hamburg days, the death of onetime bandmate Stu Sutcliffe, the firing of Pete Best and the way it was done. The betrayal of Lennon’s wife, Cynthia, and Paul’s girlfriend, Jane Asher. The end of the band itself, chronicled in agonizing detail. And later deaths: John, George, Linda Eastman McCartney.
This is a huge biography, coming in at 983 pages, including photos and notes. Yet it is a fascinating read that gives one a sense of the hard work it took to become “The Beatles” the genius of Lennon and McCartney, the trauma of Beatlemania, the behind-the-scenes accounts of the making of each album and so much more. At the same time, we see them as all-too-human, flawed and forming young men thrust into the fame and fortune they’d dreamed of but were not prepared to handle. What is astounding is to consider that most of the output of The Beatles took place over just seven fraught years, from 1963 to 1969. Yet they changed rock ‘n roll forever. Spitz gives us the “crowded hours” of that epic journey.
Overall, a fantastic book.
Despite those lofty fighting words on the flap, “Led Zeppelin The Biography” is hardly a reckoning. It is nothing more than a mean-spirited book report.
Spitz’s “reckoning,” apparent in his bibliography and chapter notes, is mainly sourced from the works of others. Almost every Zeppelin-related book, periodical, radio interview, and fan forum (huh?) out there is sourced. Harvested quotes and information are inserted to fit the narrative Spitz chose to spin, with little heed to whether the sources are inaccurate or innuendo, or whether selected quotes are used in proper context.
As other reviewers have noted, there isn't anything new in this book. The personal interviews that Spitz conducted are with mostly peripheral figures, most of whom fell out of favor with the band, rendering their statements less than objective. A few interviewees are identified mysteriously as “confidential” sources. None of the interviews produced anything beyond similar recollections made in other books. Credibility is questionable when certain figures alter their stories over the years.
Spitz editorialized throughout the text and made deliberate word choices to mock the group and manager Peter Grant. Some barbs weren’t subtle. Calling John Bonham, who died from alcohol abuse, “sh*tfaced as usual" was in poor taste. Spitz also overused creative license in what is supposedly a factual biography. Exactly how is it that Spitz can declare without quoting a source that Jimmy Page had a “cell-like bedroom” as a child, or that his parents had a radio on which “Jimmy worked its Bakelite dials with a safecracker’s expertise?” Spitz also took the liberty of inventing dialogue in numerous passages with no identified sources.
Amidst other factual errors that appear from cover to cover, Spitz made the bizarre error of stating that Sandy Denny sang on “Gallows Pole.”
Spitz included the requisite wokery which seems to be a requirement for an author to get published at this moment in time. However it is unrealistic to view events that occurred 50 years ago through the moral lens of today. In what world other than Spitz’s “reckoning” can Robert Plant’s blues singing be considered “cultural appropriation”?? As enlightened to new social mores as Spitz attempted to be in some areas, he fat-shamed Peter Grant repeatedly and ridiculed John Bonham for substance abuse disorder. Bullying isn’t very enlightened. Spitz also mocked journalist Chris Welch numerous times throughout the text, but sourced no less than three of Welch's published books on Zeppelin and Peter Grant.
The photos are stock images widely available on the internet. The dates for three photos relating to the notorious Oakland shows which took place in 1977 are erroneously captioned as 1979. A photo identified as a rehearsal for Knebworth is from a completely different time period.
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Musher_P | 5 andere besprekingen | Jul 10, 2023 |
Musher_P | 5 andere besprekingen | Jul 10, 2023 | Except, not really. Much in that book was claimed as exaggeration or fabrication. The authors relied on the recollections of Richard Cole, Led Zep’s ex-roadie, who had a motive to sell them out: money. The Zep members denounced it, in the same way the Beatles denounced the memoir of their first manager Allan Williams, who wrote about their wild times in the Reeperbahn District music clubs of Hamburg. (That book, too, set off a wave of retro Beatlemania.)
Led Zeppelin: The Biography doesn’t entirely avoid the sensationalism, which is too bad. But it’s also a much more thorough history, and for the most part avoids the snark of Hammer which was considered essential in rock journalism at the time. (The otherwise excellent Beatles bio Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation also had this problem.) For that alone I rate the book highly.
Indeed, if you read only one Led Zep biography, read this one. Everything is there, who did what and when and where, enabling the reader to connect the dots to a wider range of players in the music industry and how they all interacted. Dusty Springfield, for example, rated John Paul Jones so highly a session player on her albums that a chance remark by her led the band to secure a highly favorable record deal.
Even better, the business machine behind the band is laid bare, making it a case study in music management 101. Manager Peter Grant receives a strong case for being the unlauded fifth member of the group. Grant didn’t discover them like Epstein did the Beatles. He accrued them because he managed the Yardbirds who Jimmy had first played with, and, impressed with his talent, stole the proto-Zeppelin out from under Micky Most’s nose. How hard of a sell Jimmy did on Grant the book doesn’t say, but I’d bet his talent spoke for itself. It was only through Grant’s unwavering faith and strong-armed tactics the group became the powerhouse it was, along with the casual connections, lucky encounters, and twists of fate. Everything just clicked into place.
The book also gets right what Hammer did not. Page’s family did not own a car dealership in the Epsom section of London, he came from humbler beginnings. The band did not call them themselves the Nobs for a gig in Scandinavia because it was slang for balls, but because it was the name of an associate of theirs. The mud shark incident did not involve the Zep band members; it was conceived by Richard Cole and Carmine Appice, the drummer for Vanilla Fudge. Though that they watched and did nothing to stop it was questionable; whether there was anything to be stopped the book leaves up in the air, leaving the reader to decide if it was sexual assault on an out-of-it victim or willing participants in raunchy play.
Which to me was the biggest fault of the book, rehashing those old incidents at face value. Though the author adds moralizing from a present day viewpoint, no new spin is put on them. For example, in one part it’s hinted that underage groupie Lori Maddox (I’m using the earlier spelling of her name) was pimped by her mother to bag a rock star, but this is not explored any further, which is a shame. In fact none of the female associates of the band are explored in any depth. This might be an omission of the author’s, or the women might have been unwilling to talk. But one day I hope to hell to see the band’s history told from the viewpoint of the wives, girlfriends, and female associates of the band.
Also mildly annoying was the reinteration of the phrase "do as though wilt" -- a saying of Aleister Crowley, an occult figure Jimmy had a fascination with -- at certain times whenever the band does a morally questionable thing. But basic reading of Crowley and Thelema shows that it doesn't mean do all the evil you possibly can without fear of reprisal. That's the meaning Spitz put upon it. What it does mean is a sort of self-actualization, in the form of cause and effect. Which must have attractive to the young Jimmy Page who claims he read one of Crowley's books around the age of 11.
The in-depth basic information makes the book very readable for a newbie, but for Zep aficionados there are many new revelations. Like how Swan Song records, the band’s vanity label, passed on rock groups Heart and Queen because everyone running the label was too drugged and apathetic to run it properly. Post-Zep history is barely touched on, but then that would require a whole other book.
Comparing the book to Mick Wall’s 2008 When Giants Walked the Earth, also a very thorough biography, I’d say Spitz’s book comes out better, though it’s missing the personal touches of the band member’s lives. Though not the “you are [insert band member’s name]” fanfic chapter preludes, which had me cringing in secondhand embarrassment for the writer. In spite of that I enjoyed the book, but the Spitz book does the history better.
The book includes about two dozen well-chosen photos, among them a lovely pic of a very young Jimmy and Jeff Beck tuning their guitars, courtesy of one Linda Eastman, later known as Linda McCartney.
After all that I am seriously zepp'd out. But at some point I'll continue on with a Jimmy Page biography I started.
Julia Child, maybe the first wildly successful ‘celebrity’ chefs, has never really gone out of style. Her popularity has waxed and waned, but somehow, over the years she has become a pop culture staple and her life is endlessly fascinating.
That said, despite how liked and respected Julia was, a book with over a thousand pages dedicated to one person, who isn’t a world leader, or something, is perhaps a wee bit overboard.
This book is incredibly comprehensive, but unnecessarily so, for the most part. The approach is one of effusive positivity, portraying Julia in the best possible light, but is obviously researched- though, as with any biography, especially those in which the author hasn’t included many of the subject’s less than flattering aspects, one should always be careful about taking everything at face value. I do believe some of Julia's politics caused backlash the book sort of glossed over.
Beyond those quibbles, Julia’s story is certainly an interesting one. She was a late bloomer in many ways, proving it is never too late to achieve success- as she didn’t hit her stride until she was over fifty. She began with writing cookbooks, which morphed into her wildly popular cooking show on PBS, and eventually became a household name, a celebrity, and even brand.
I enjoyed the new HBO series about her segue into becoming a television chef and understand there will be a second season of the show- If you haven’t seen it, it’s simply delightful and very well acted. This book fills in some of the blanks- such as Julia’s difficult relationship with her father- a right wing conservative who disliked Julia’s more liberal opinions and made no secret he disliked her husband, Paul.
This book also details Julia’s life beyond her days on PBS, her complicated relationship with Simca,(Simone Beck), the French chef who co-wrote many of Julia’s cookbooks, but didn’t enjoy the same celebrity, as well as offering further details of her work during the second world war, which has been slightly over exaggerated, but intriguing all the same.
It’s incredible that Julia is still a top draw, that she became an icon of sorts, and that her life has been the subject of so much scrutiny and imagination.
The people she influenced, the market she pretty much invented, has become a part of our everyday lives now. I think Julia showed everyone, not just women, who were the primary cooks in families during the early sixties, that cooking doesn’t necessarily have to be a chore. It can be a source of, or outlet for creativity, imagination, and pride. It can bring people together, be a source of joy and comfort and I also think Julia, not being afraid to make mistakes, to laugh off her goofs and missteps, gave everyone the confidence to get in the kitchen and try something new and different and to keep at it until you’ve mastered it. She also proved it could be a lucrative career choice as well.
Julia didn’t fit inside any mold and used that to her advantage. We owe a lot to Julia and it’s good to see that her legacy lives on…
Overall, even with someone as charismatic as Julia Child- there can be too much of a good thing- and unfortunately, this book is a good example of that.
That said, I found Julia to be an inspiration- although, I didn’t always agree with her approach, her opinions, or decisions. She did indeed live quite a remarkable life, though, and there is no doubt she was a quite a character…. With butter and cream on top!!
That has not stopped many an author from writing biographies of the band or of the individual members. Each new release, and they seem to come every few years, purport to be THE definitive biography. These authors aren't stupid, they know the name Led Zeppelin will sell a book.
"Led Zeppelin: The Biography" by Bob Spitz, packaged as some sort of highbrow tome, contains nothing new. There are a lot of inaccuracies, and the same old tired sources make their regularly-scheduled appearances in the latest Zeppelin book. Bob Spitz seems to have intentionally written an unflattering portrait of the group. In seeking to capitalize on the "me too" era, Spitz is only dredging up material from previously published books, so nothing here is a revelation. But the marketing of the book and the timing of the release was shrewd; the author and publisher were sure to draw in some curious new readers who may never have picked up a Zeppelin book before.
Each individual reader must decide if he or she is going to believe what is printed in a book. The barrage of Zeppelin books began with "Hammer of the Gods" by Stephen Davis, which has been highly discredited, yet stories in that book from the band's disgraced and fired road manager are now repeated as gospel truth. It should be realized that many sources who participate in these kinds of books - whether "Hammer" or this most recent book by Spitz - have their own agendas. Foremost, many sources won't spill without being paid for it, and they aren't going to get paid for a boring story, so perhaps some embellishment occurs. Perhaps a source is happy to participate and tell an unflattering story due to a perceived sleight by the band or its associates back in the day. Perhaps someone sees an opportunity for self-recognition, with participation in a book a springboard to repeating the tale again, and another payday, maybe from a British tabloid. Why not, eh?
Here is what Spitz said about the members of Led Zeppelin in an interview with Spin Magazine: "No, I don’t know them. They were prepared to speak with me when #MeToo landed, and suddenly they weren’t talking to anyone anymore. But I’ve always felt that the musicians, who live in a bubble, are the most unreliable narrators. I left it to everyone else, those who were with them every step of the way, to fill in the details. Of course, I was despondent over losing the band members, but was reading a copy of David McCullough’s John Adams bio when I realized he never spoke to Adams!"
In the same breath, Spitz states that the band members were going to speak with him (highly doubtful) but then calls musicians "unreliable narrators." And to compare his inability to speak to the band members to that of a biographer who was unable to speak to a president who died in 1826 is comparing apples and oranges.
4 44Henry | 5 andere besprekingen | Mar 29, 2022 |
44Henry | 5 andere besprekingen | Mar 29, 2022 | 
Good coverage of Ron's early life and shift to conservatism.
The presidential years had some behind the scenes stuff, who was there, who said what, etc... but otherwise nothing I hadn't seen or read in the news.
The last complete president bio I'll be able to read for awhile and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about RR.
1 Rockhead515 | Jan 11, 2022 |
Rockhead515 | Jan 11, 2022 | 1 beaujoe | 5 andere besprekingen | Apr 16, 2021 |
beaujoe | 5 andere besprekingen | Apr 16, 2021 | So I was glad to find such a detailed biography. I didn't know until now that during World War 2 she worked in Sri Lanka for the OSS, which was the forerunner of the CIA. If you're like me and spend too much time watching Food Network, an organization quite different from the spy agency may come to mind - the Culinary Institute of America - but Julia Child worked for the spy agency. I also didn't know that she didn't start out caring all that much about food or in learning how to cook. It was her husband (whom she met in Sri Lanka) who was the foodie, and she started becoming interested in food so that she could cook for him. It didn't start out well - once she forgot to prick the skin of a duck to let the fat out and it exploded in the oven - but she gradually started improving as her sister-in-law started teaching her how to cook.
After her husband (who worked for the Department of State) was assigned to Paris, she signed up for cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu. While she was in Paris, she also made friends with several French women who loved to cook, and they helped her compile "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
I was also struck with how much has changed with food since then. When Julia was working on her cookbook, shallots, leeks, and Gruyere were all unavailable in the United States, but now it's easy to find shallots and leeks at the supermarket, and I can usually find Gruyere near the deli section, with other imported specialty cheeses as well. And there has been another change for the better: no more insane combinations of processed food. During the fifties, "an editor's suggestion for a "Harvest Luncheon" included a recipe for Twenty Minute Roast, which featured slabs of Spam slathered with orange marmalade and a layer of Vienna sausages broiled with canned peaches." (Page 280). Just reading about that combination made me sick. Even worse, when Julia's husband was reassigned to Oslo, the welcome luncheon the embassy wives put on included "a cluster of grapes and sliced mushrooms floating in a kind of pink-gelatin amniotic sac with a crown of frozen whipped cream crusted with rock-hard fruit," with a cake-mix banana cake and lime Jell-O for dessert! Whoever came up with those must have had no taste buds, and I'm having difficulty imagining who thought it was a good idea to serve such things to Julia Child. Well, actually, to anyone...
I also found it interesting to read about the emergence of nouvelle cuisine: "Heavy cream sauces and overworked recipes were replaced with imagination and ingenuity. Fresh flavors were emphasized, new combinations encouraged. The revolutionary concept...called for far lighter and delicate fare - a white wine reduction, say, instead of flour and butter and cream, an infused oil, maybe, instead of, well, flour and butter and cream. Sauces underneath instead of obscuring the main attraction. Perhaps Asian accents, more spices and herbs; vegetables cooked only long enough to release their flavor, crisp to the bite." (Page 400). In other words, exactly what you see on "Chopped" right now.
This book also told the story of how the Smithsonian National Museum of American History got Julia Child's kitchen, which is now on permanent display, and which I got to see there.
However, the book is also very long and somewhat repetitive, and near the end I started getting the feeling of, "I just want to finish this." But I did enjoy it overall.
So I was glad to find such a detailed biography. I didn't know until now that during World War 2 she worked in Sri Lanka for the OSS, which was the forerunner of the CIA. If you're like me and spend too much time watching Food Network, an organization quite different from the spy agency may come to mind - the Culinary Institute of America - but Julia Child worked for the spy agency. I also didn't know that she didn't start out caring all that much about food or in learning how to cook. It was her husband (whom she met in Sri Lanka) who was the foodie, and she started becoming interested in food so that she could cook for him. It didn't start out well - once she forgot to prick the skin of a duck to let the fat out and it exploded in the oven - but she gradually started improving as her sister-in-law started teaching her how to cook.
After her husband (who worked for the Department of State) was assigned to Paris, she signed up for cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu. While she was in Paris, she also made friends with several French women who loved to cook, and they helped her compile "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
I was also struck with how much has changed with food since then. When Julia was working on her cookbook, shallots, leeks, and Gruyere were all unavailable in the United States, but now it's easy to find shallots and leeks at the supermarket, and I can usually find Gruyere near the deli section, with other imported specialty cheeses as well. And there has been another change for the better: no more insane combinations of processed food. During the fifties, "an editor's suggestion for a "Harvest Luncheon" included a recipe for Twenty Minute Roast, which featured slabs of Spam slathered with orange marmalade and a layer of Vienna sausages broiled with canned peaches." (Page 280). Just reading about that combination made me sick. Even worse, when Julia's husband was reassigned to Oslo, the welcome luncheon the embassy wives put on included "a cluster of grapes and sliced mushrooms floating in a kind of pink-gelatin amniotic sac with a crown of frozen whipped cream crusted with rock-hard fruit," with a cake-mix banana cake and lime Jell-O for dessert! Whoever came up with those must have had no taste buds, and I'm having difficulty imagining who thought it was a good idea to serve such things to Julia Child. Well, actually, to anyone...
I also found it interesting to read about the emergence of nouvelle cuisine: "Heavy cream sauces and overworked recipes were replaced with imagination and ingenuity. Fresh flavors were emphasized, new combinations encouraged. The revolutionary concept...called for far lighter and delicate fare - a white wine reduction, say, instead of flour and butter and cream, an infused oil, maybe, instead of, well, flour and butter and cream. Sauces underneath instead of obscuring the main attraction. Perhaps Asian accents, more spices and herbs; vegetables cooked only long enough to release their flavor, crisp to the bite." (Page 400). In other words, exactly what you see on "Chopped" right now.
This book also told the story of how the Smithsonian National Museum of American History got Julia Child's kitchen, which is now on permanent display, and which I got to see there.
However, the book is also very long and somewhat repetitive, and near the end I started getting the feeling of, "I just want to finish this." But I did enjoy it overall.
I knew very little about [a:Julia Child|3465|Julia Child|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1345004268p2/3465.jpg] prior to reading this book. I had heard rumor of her work in the secret service, and I had seen one or two of her cooking programs... beyond this, I knew nothing. The movie Julie and Julia didn't really offer much in the way of information about her life - but still, it piqued my curiosity enough to make me quite happy to win this book.
It is always a joy to read something written by a master of the craft, and [a:Bob Spitz|20125|Bob Spitz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342032817p2/20125.jpg] is certainly a master biographer. The [b:Beatles|261971|Beatles |Lars Saabye Christensen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1292886222s/261971.jpg|253928] biography that [a:Bob Spitz|20125|Bob Spitz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342032817p2/20125.jpg] wrote has gotten much praise, so it is natural that his biography on [a:Julia Child|3465|Julia Child|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1345004268p2/3465.jpg] should do the same. From the very outset one can see his love of the lady dripping off the pages, so it was no surprise when he admitted the crush he harbored on her at the end.
Still, the biography held nothing back. The traits that made [a:Julia Child|3465|Julia Child|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1345004268p2/3465.jpg] a national institution were also the ones that made her quite eccentric. [a:Bob Spitz|20125|Bob Spitz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342032817p2/20125.jpg] highlights her love of men, her love of eating, her distinctive sense of humor, and her tireless work ethic. He explains her liberal bias, and the many troubles that she encountered both while working on her television shows and in the writing of her many books. [a:Bob Spitz|20125|Bob Spitz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342032817p2/20125.jpg] summed up her life beautifully, the good, the bad, and the utterly delicious. What more could you ask?
I think that the true measure of this book is the fact that I am not only recommending it to those that I am close to, but actually lending my copy to them. Not only do I want to discuss Julia's life with them, but I also want to visit her kitchen in the Smithsonian Museum of American History to pay my own tribute to this cultural icon. What better a feeling could this book have possibly elicited?
Bon appetit.
Julia Child looked at life squarely in the face and refused to accept defeat in anything she had put her mind to. That's the way she lived her life - right up until it was her turn to "fall of the raft" (as she called death)
This was a joy of a book to read.
Focuses on her development as a mostly directionless young woman to a strong writer and business woman. At times she's contributory between who she wants her readers and views to see her and and who she really is underneath the facade.
This was a difficult read, at times, because Julia Child was truly a product of her time. Her personal views on equal rights for women, people of color and the LGBT community, as well as her language make it difficult to like her at times from a contemporary place. That said, she was a product of her time; as a reader, viewer and home cook I have to give her credit for changing the landscape of American cooking. She elevated chefs in a way I don't think anyone else could have and she made it possible for average people to share there love of food, cooking and food related products on the blogs of today.
Mike O. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.
I've long been intrigued by Julia Child and not only because we share a name. I grew up watching her cook on public television, and her high-pitched, warbly fluting voice (a result of unusually long vocal cords, Spitz reveals) and her tall (6 feet 3 inches tall), ramrod-straight posture made a definite impression. She did not manage to inspire in me a passion to learn how to cook, sadly, but she was the beginning of my fascination in watching other people cook.
What I didn't grasp at the time, of course, was just how revolutionary she was. She along with James Beard revolutionized the way Americans look at food and food preparation — not to mention public television itself, which was in its infancy when her show, The French Chef began airing in 1963. That and her seminal cookbook [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] were unlike anything that had ever been seen before in this country. And to think she didn't even embark on that career until she was in her 40s.
Fair warning: This is a huge book, more than 700 pages when you include the acknowledgments, notes, index, etc. But it is not at all a slow read. The first 450 pages especially just flew by. I hated having to stop reading to go to work in the morning, and could not wait to get back to it at night. Author Spitz takes us from pre-birth to death with the amazing Julia, and you'd be hard-pressed to think of anything he left out.
It turns out that the outgoing personality we saw on TV was the real Julia: She was always gregarious, prone to troublemaking as a child, and fearless. But she didn't know what she wanted her life's work to be — it was easier for her to figure out what she didn't want to be, which was a conventional housewife. In the 1930s, that was a tall order. Before she latched on to cooking as her life's work (that happened when she and her husband were posted to Paris after World War II), she had a whole other career as a senior civilian intelligence officer with the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA) during World War II, posted first in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then China and was in charge of processing and routing all the intelligence reports coming in from the field of the Pacific theater. Even so, she chafed against what she thought of as "filing, filing, filing" and still longed for more.
I was pleased to read in the acknowledgments that Spitz knew Julia Child personally, having accompanied her to Sicily on a trip while he was profiling her for a magazine. And she knew of his intention to write a biography of her and planned to assist him, although she died before that collaboration got off the ground. Still, Spitz interviewed many of the prominent people in the Childs' life and made extensive use of primary sources such as letters and other documents that Julia donated to the archives at Harvard University. The book is well-grounded in evidence-based fact, and he makes no attempt to sugarcoat or gloss over some of the more difficult elements in Julia's life or personality.
The only quibble I could make is that the tone is a bit too breezy and gee-whiz for my taste. He could have reduced his exclamation-point usage by one-third and still expressed an appropriate amount of enthusiasm, for example. And he occasionally got fixated on certain words or phrases that made the reading a bit odd, like "finchy," which seems to mean "touchy or sensitive" about something or someone. Again and again he refers to "Paul's finchy nature" and "audiences were particularly finchy when it came to drinking alcohol" and women who were "finchy types with degrees in stupefying disciplines." I don't really know what the word means because it's not in any dictionary I've consulted. It was a weird tic but not enough to mar enjoyment of the book overall.
Julia Child, for all her patrician accent and affinity for France, was as American as apple pie. Her life story is an amazing journey, one that I think would be enjoyed even by people who have never contemplated the proper way to bone a duck or what the "correct" types of fish are for true bouillabaisse.
Bon appétit!
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The biography is a bit remote from the characters but thorough in covering the musical story of the band.