Julie and Me

 JULIE AND ME

    I was so sorry to read that the author, Julie Powell,  passed away in October (2022) at just forty-nine years of age.  Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, One Tiny Apartment Kitchen (2005) and her subsequent book, Cleaving, moved and delighted me because of her sense of humour, soul-searching honesty and willingness to undertake challenges.  As a writer, I learned something important from her books that has nothing at all to do with cookery.

    As you may know, in the early years of the 21st century, Julie Powell decided to cook her way through Julia Child’s classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and kept a daily blog of her successes and disasters, interspersed with her memories and personal experiences.  This blog was the basis for her 2005 book, and the 2009 movie, Julie and Julia, starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.  As Julie cooked and blogged, she imagined Julia Child by her side guiding and encouraging her.  

    Julia Child (1912-2004) learned of Julie Powell’s project when a friend with the Los Angeles Times printed out Julie’s blog procession for her. Mrs. Child was less than enthusiastic. Allegedly she said that the blog didn’t seem serious and that Powell couldn’t be much of a cook if she had such trouble preparing the recipes.  She didn’t like Powell’s use of four-letter words and thought that Powell’s project had just been a stunt.

    At the end of the movie, when Julie’s blog has caught on and she is getting offers from publishers, she learns that Julia Child is less than thrilled by her blog. Julie is terribly disappointed that Mrs. Child thinks she has been disrespectful and frivolous.  When her husband suggests that Child is crazy for not liking the blog, Julie retorts: “She’s perfect.”  Then he says, “Julia Child in your head is perfect, but the Julia Child who doesn’t understand what you’re doing is not perfect.”

    Now, what has all this got to do with me and my writing? Well, my most recent Canadian historical novel has been inspired by an amazing real-life woman who died ten years ago. She is an icon in some circles in Canada.  Academics have written about her but no one has written a biography or novel about her. 

On completing the first draft of my novel, I had a moment of panic because of the extent to which I have departed from the true story of her life. I have done a great deal of fictionalizing.  I have invented scenes, created characters who are composites and complete fabrications, changed family configurations, changed the names of some people, organizations and locations, but not others. Novelists are “allowed” to do these things, as long as one doesn’t tamper too much with history; for instance, one can’t  change the dates that a world war began and ended.

    I had qualms, though, for fear that I had changed too much and that the people who knew the woman who inspired my novel will take exception to the emotions, behaviours, beliefs and opinions that I have given my fictional protagonist.  While I never thought the woman who inspired the novel was “Perfect,” I liked, admired and was in awe of her. Those who knew her feel the same way and may feel that my novel falls short in my portrayal of her.

    The real person who inspired my novel, while generous and approachable, could be a tough editor and critic.  She told one author, who tried to write a biography of her some forty years ago, that she wasn’t satisfied with the way the project was coming along. That put an end to it. Another author, who co-edited a writing project with her, said it was the hardest work he’d ever done.   The thought occurred to me that the source of my inspiration, if looking down from heaven (!) might hate what I’ve been doing and think that I have one hell of a nerve undertaking it.  Yet, in writing it, I felt very close to her, or to the character in my head.

    Then I remembered the ending of the movie, Julie and Julia, where Julie’s husband tells her that the Julia in her heart and mind is perfect. In other words, the imaginary Julia had validity and worth. Those who criticize my novel for departing from “the truth”, whatever that is, may be non-fiction readers and writers who don’t understand what an historical novel is, and don’t grasp the difference between “based on,” and “inspired by.”

    In the movie, Julie Powell says, of Julia Child, that she “didn’t know what to do with herself”, who “loved her husband” and “found joy.”  Though I have departed from the true story of my central character, I have created a character who finds her role in life, loved her husband and found joy, and I feel fine now about creating her (thanks in part to Julie Powell.)