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An Unforgettable Night with Julie

Kerri Provost

May 17, 2010

Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia will be the special guest at One Unforgettable Big Summer Night, Hartford Public Library’s annual fundraiser.

You may have heard of the film, which was based partially on her book, which sprang from her blog/cooking project. The film shows the protagonist to be a floundering, cute, straight-outta-J.Crew female with little-to-no agency at the start. The Julie played by Amy Adams seems reminiscent of Sandy from Grease — an adorable girl that one wants to smack until she develops maturity, determination, direction, or all of the above. Julie of the book is flawed, somewhat bitchy, harder to love, yet has wit and a self-deprecating sense of humor (”It’s a good thing there’s always another disaster to poke a hole in the old self-esteem before it gets dangerously inflated”) which has been misconstrued by would-be critics on Amazon.com as “whining”. The latter, an unlikely role model for young women, has much more resemblance to people we know in real life — the kind of woman who can not/will not have personality botoxed out of her. Between these two fictionalized versions of Julie Powell, there’s no competition when it comes to which one I would most want to hear speak.

Besides hearing from author Julie Powell, the cost of admission to One Unforgettable Big Summer Night also covers a sit-down dinner, wine, music, and parking at the CT Convention Center. There will be a silent auction and brief live auction.

Don’t our taxes and late fees cover all of the library’s costs? For smaller libraries with few services this may be the case, but money can only be stretched so far when the library has several branches, all types of free classes and activities, art openings, film screenings, public forums, live music, free lunches for youth during the summer, and, of course, books and other media.

For more information, go to the Hartford Public Library’s website.