Covert Affair, A: Julia Child & Paul Child: Love, Loyalty & Betrayal in the OSS [Hardcover]

 

 

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This is a well written book, but I would strongly argue that it is NOT about Julia and Paul Child, since the main character in the book, dominating every chapter, is their OSS associate and sometimes friend, Jane Foster. I would like the book better if the author didn't try to create hooplah by invoking the names of the Childs, and just marketed the book on it's own merit.

What a darling of a story! I can't imagine a more unlikely tale in history than the strange one that brought my parents together during WW II. Conant, who has already written the very fascinating and charming account of a group of British toffs in Washington during the war, has written another incredible tale of intrigue about two very compelling character opposites in the likes of Paul and Julia Child. Hold on to your seat when you read this page-turner. Here are a few of my critical observations about this very fine biography that looks at two very adventurous lives romantically coming together under very trying circumstances and remaining loyal to each other when they could easily have become victimized by forces outside their control:
1) Conant sets the context for the book by looking into the culture of military life as America prepared to enter the war. This was a world where idealistic and patriotic men and women were readily recruited to serve in secret organizations like Donovan's OSS (Operation of Strategic Services) to defeat the enemy behind the line;
2) Conant then proceeds to focus on a group of secret service operatives who found themselves assigned to the enviable climes of central Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with the task of helping the Allies maintain contact with much beleaguered Chinese forces;
3) Out of this isolated little community and its many romantic and social intrigues popped an unlikely relationship between a young, unsophisticated lady named Julia looking to serve her country and a much older, worldy-wise man starved for love and feeling stranded;
4) As a well backed-up history, both at the personal and impersonal levels, "A Covert Affair" brings into the mix a number of secondary characters to enrich the plot. The mysterious actions of operatives like their friend Jane, the extremely intelligent, creative and vivacious blonde, allow the story to intensify, especially as it reaches China and the outer limits of American influence in early 1945;
5) As the big story unfolds, there is plenty of opportunity to indulge in numerous little digressions into how Julia and Paul eventually tie the knot and pursue their lives together. Here, an amazing synergy formed where Paul, the bon vivant, encouraged Julia, the rube, to develop her interests in French cooking as a way of satisfying his culinary tastes. Plenty of humor as the tall Julia willingly and patiently labored over a small stove and even went to French cuisine school out of a desire to please Paul. It was her efforts to hone her kitchen skills and her love for exotic food that eventually led to her becoming a renowned authority on the subject;
6) No fairy-tale romance is complete without a dark side, and that came during the fifties when McCarthy started his witch-hunt for communists in the American foreign service. It was during these disturbing times that Paul and Julia needed their love for each other to withstand the pressures of relentless political interrogation about their former covert activities in China. Even with their little comfortable world threatening to disintegrate, this couple found amazing ways to reach out to their friends like Jane with much moral support;
7) This book succeeded in transporting me into places I will never likely go in real life with the idea of showing me that human love can be tested to the limits and still flourish.

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