Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Reviewing Julie and Julia

I'm reading Julie & Juliaright now and everybody loves it. The front cover informs me that the Philadelphia Inquirer, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today proclaim it "irresistible", "hilarious" and "delightful". Meryl Streep and Amy Adams made a major motion picture out of it. Everybody also loves this. And them.



But. I can't stand it. Julie is beyond self-deprecating to the point of self-loathing. She's bitter. She's always in a foul mood. She hates everything and everybody including the people she ostensibly doesn't hate. Reading the book puts me in a sour mood. Every time I pick it up. Yet, I keep reading solely because I'm interested in her perspective on blogging. But, bleh. I just finished a chapter and now I want to throw myself at the nearest unsuspecting bystander and eviscerate them with a cynical and caustic tongue.

I've been reading a lot lately and I thought it would be fun to review some of the books I've really enjoyed.  Yet this foul mood of a book has plunged me into a foul review of a foul blog post and totally fouled up my book review idea. EeaaaYYYHHHH FOUL!

So, uh, I say don't bother. But, what do I know? Everybody else loves it. Have any of you read it?

UPDATED: Eh, maybe it's not that bad. It's been a little while since I picked it up and everything seems a little rosier and I guess it can't be that bad!!?! Can it...?

2 comments:

Hausfrau said...

Yes, I read it last year. I had some of the same feelings about it that you have, but I stuck with it since it's about two things I really like, cooking and blogging. I ended up feeling pretty okay about the book, but then I heard about her next book, Cleaving, and became a bit irritated with her again (she cheats on her husband, among other things). And actually, I think I like the "Julie and Julia" movie better than the book.

Unknown said...

The movie was very entertaining, more so because we understood it to be based on a true story. Can anything Meryl Street is in be bad?