A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.94 (740 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B004V6APTU |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 312 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-02-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"False Advertising" according to The Dixsonian. This book is not about Julia Child and Paul Child. The inside flap of the dust cover breathlessly states "Bestselling author Jennet Conant brings us a stunning account of Julia and Paul Child's experiences", but fully eighty percent of the book recounts the story of an OSS colleague of the Childs, Jane Foster. Foster was a drunken, flighty, trust-fund- supported party girl who was also an American Communist that spied for the Soviets. Some of the rare mentions of the Childs are made to simply state their impressions of Fost. One Star The best part of this book is the inclusion of a fictional agency dedicated to battling Cthulhu.. Not What It Promises To Be R PRIUS My son gave me this book assuming that I would enjoy it as much as "Julia and Julie". Not so. I expected to hear about Julia McWilliam's and Paul Child's romance and courtship under the backdrop of their employment with the OSS (the precursor to the CIA). I was expecting big spy stuff clashing with romance, gastronomy, and the Childs' trying to conceal their relationship from the higher ups. Face it, if you use 'covert' in a title someone has to be concealing something. Right? In this case, the answer is WRONG. In reality,
The eager, inexperienced 6-foot, 2-inch Julia springs to life in these pages, a gangly golf-playing California girl who had never been farther abroad than Tijuana. She also details the tumultuous years when they were caught up in the McCarthy Red spy hunt in the 1950s and behaved with bravery and honor. It is a fascinating portrait of a group of idealistic men and women who were recruited by the citizen spy service, slapped into uniform, and dispatched to wage political warfare in remote outposts in Ceylon, India, and China. Best-selling author Jennet Conant brings us a stunning account of Julia and Paul Child's experiences as members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Far East during World War II. Single and 30 years old when she joined the staff of Colonel William Donovan, Julia volunteered to be part of the OSS's ambitious mission to develop a secret intelligence network across Southeast Asia.