(with Alex Prud’homme)

I mentioned when I read Julie and Julia that I felt this book might be more up my alley. Indeed, I sped through this in a matter of days. While the book is focused on Julia & Paul’s time in Paris and France and later time spent in Provence, it oversees the entirety of their life together, with just enough background on the non-France parts to give context without detracting from that focus. There isn’t necessarily always a steady narrative flow—things, like her younger sister’s pregnancy for instance, are introduced, but then it isn’t until years later that the child is discussed again. But then seeing as Prud’homme collected these stories through interviews and casual conversations with Julia and wrote them into vignettes for her to read and amend up until her death in 2004 when he pieced it all together, it’s amazing how well it all comes together.

A really lovely book and ultimately sad because nothing lasts forever; here the wonderful good times become the past all too quickly.