Breakaway Books

Authored by Diana Chambers; Published October 2024; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

If you love Julia Child, the woman, as opposed to Julia, the chef, The Secret War of Julia Child will almost certainly intrigue and ensnare you. If you’re looking for a book about French cuisine, look elsewhere.

In The Secret War of Julia Child, we follow a fictionalized account of Child’s real-life service in the Office of Strategic Service, the predecessor to the CIA, during World War II. Starting as the head of the classified document registry, Julia proves herself to her boss and is sent to India and then China to set up their first registry offices. These adventures expose her to parts of the world she had only dreamed about and allow her to meet her husband, Paul Child, a seemingly uptight mapmaker also serving in the war.

Nothing that I knew about Julia Child (largely information about her culinary prowess) was reflected in this book, apart from the fact that she was a very large woman, physically. That fact does hang over the entire narrative, at least in Julia’s mind—but there is very little about Child’s cooking or love of food. Instead, it is her adventurous spirit that is featured in this novel, showcased in her service to the U.S. Government in wartime. I cannot say that I expected to learn as much as I did about the forgotten Asian theaters of WWII in this novel, specifically India and China, and yet, I did. For me, it was difficult to reconcile the rough and tumble conditions of war, including a torpedo attack, a plane crash, and multiple armed encounters, with my image of the beloved chef, but my imagination can always use a stretch. 

As for the plot itself, I had a hard time losing myself in it. The author seems to have felt compelled to stick as close to the truth of Julia’s life as possible—which makes the narrative a little slower and drier than it could have been. At times, the story moves at the pace of government, much as one could expect from the recounting of a bureaucrat’s experiences. On top of that, Julia’s love story with Paul is realistic in some very awkward ways, and while I am all for a good dose of reality in a love story, this just reminded me of bad dates, work relationships, and situationships that I have witnessed in my own life. But, a certain amount of these downsides are offset by beautiful descriptions of exotic locales and delicious new foods. Curiously, there is also quite a lot of commentary on Julia’s family, definitely an unexpected bonus when it comes to understanding Julia herself.

The Secret War of Julia Child will certainly acquaint you to the woman in a whole new way, and perhaps to WWII as well. This may not be the novel to read for gourmands, but if you’re a history buff, go for it.