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Julia Child: Life as a Spy?

  • Marlon Mata
  • April 14, 2011

With such a friend, who would Julia Child need as an enemy?

That is pretty much the idea behind Jennet Conant’s book, “A Covert Affair: The Adventures of Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS”. Despite these two people being the mere supporting players in the story, the fact that they got something to say is still worth mentioning. Besides, a good marketer would know that adding them would be quite the marketing genius.

Even so, the book is one well-researched piece of work.

Julia Child: Life as a Spy?The story revolves more on the adventures (or misadventures) of Jane Foster, a fellow officer of the OSS (the precursor for the modern CIA), and how it affected two of her close friends, the Childs. It is a time of the McCarthy witch hunts, and the time when allies become the worst of enemies. This backdrop is what makes the book even more interesting. No doubt finding out that one of the country’s best-known cooking personalities was involved in something like this would be an interesting story.

As a member of the OSS, Jane Foster was just like the academics of a university. She is young, brilliant, analytical, and knows her way around. The only problem, it seems, was her inclination. She is outspoken, a member of the left, and the type who would be waving “red”flags all over her place. Plus, she was sort of bohemian in regards to her lifestyle. Things like these would only make her bosses back in the US nervous.

The story in the book could be seen as more of a historical piece than a true-blue spy thriller, but Conant knows her material. Researching the topic well and crafting it into a believable narrative, it really is a book that deserves our attention. It is certainly worth your time and money reading.

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