Michael J Fox - A Lucky Man

If you grew up in the 1980’s like I did, you will remember the sitcom Family Ties, and the blockbuster Back to the Future movies. If not, you might have watched the Spin City TV series in the 1990s. Michael J. Fox starred in each, but disappeared from our screens after the fourth season of Spin City finished in American in May 2000. You may have wondered why he was no longer starring in the hit sitcom that revived his acting career after a number of Hollywood movie flops – a puzzling development. Lucky Man is Michael’s story about his early acting career and the effect that being diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease had on not only his career, but his family and his outlook on life.




This is a candid look into the life of a very private person. Unlike today’s celebrities who strive to be on the front cover of every magazine and having their personal life displayed for all to see, Michael J. Fox took great pains to keep his personal life as private as possible. No magazine spreads for his marriage in 1988 to Tracy Pollan, and his four children are rarely seen in the limelight. So it is admirable the way in which he has taken up the gauntlet to be the face of Parkinsons Disease. Parkinsons is a disease that affects the older part of the population, usually being diagnosed between 50 and 60 years of age.  Michael was 30 when he was diagnosed which puts him in the rare group of less than 10% who are under 40 when they are diagnosed. This group tend to keep their symptoms hidden for as long as they can in order to protect the welfare and finances of their families. As Michael puts it, fear of being marginalised and misunderstood – stigmatised – is prevalent amongst the younger people who suffer from the disease and loss of their job is a very real possibility when employers are made aware of the physical issues that accompany their disease. As a celebrity and already set up financially for the future, Michael recognised that he could do more than most.

This is not a depressing book despite the subject matter. Michael J. Fox tells his story in an uplifting way, and as he says, the ten years between being diagnosed and writing the book have been some of the happiest of his life. The diagnosis made him take stock of his life and the excesses that came with the success he was enjoying. In his eyes, he is a lucky man.

Lucky Man is well written and I enjoyed the insight into the world of television. Most of all I found his humility and optimism something we should all aspire to as this is someone who seems to have everything, but has to deal with a life crisis just like any one else. I picked up his new book , Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, which was released last year, at the bookshop yesterday and I am looking forward to reading the latest in his journey.

"Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" by Julie Powell

On Saturday night I was home alone – my husband in Bendigo, my younger children in bed, and my oldest son out at a party. I poured a glass of wine and popped in that DVD that I’m sure my husband wouldn’t be interested in watching – Julie & Julia. I was dying to watch it as I missed it at the cinema and I had read Julie Powell’s book, on which the movie is based, last year.

The book tells the story behind the blog, “The Julie/Julia Project”, that Julie Powell wrote in 2002/3. At the time of starting the blog, Julie is working in a government job answering calls from people affected by the 9-11 Twin Towers collapse, approaching the big “3-0” milestone, and feeling she has nothing to show for it. What she needs is a challenge!  Using her mother’s copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published in 1961 by pioneering American TV chef Julia Child, Julie decides to cook every recipe in the book in 12 months, and to write about it in a blog. Surprisingly, the blog caught on, and Julie’s fan base grew.

You can still read Julie’s blog online and I had a look today. Why was the blog such a success? Maybe it was something to do with the newness of blogs. Since the advent of TV we have become obsessed with celebrities, and anyone can become a celebrity by posting their life on the internet. Blogs were embraced then, much as today’s younger generation have taken Twitter to heart today. Maybe it was the style of the blog – it was witty and funny, and written in a style that made you think you were having a conversation with a friend. Maybe it was the subject matter. I’m sure that many of us can identify with Julie’s ups and downs as we try to cook new dishes. The triumph of doing something complicated well, and the despair when things don’t turn out to look as the picture in the cookbook does.

The movie is slightly different than the book as it runs as two parallel stories – the one written by Julie Powell, but also that of Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep), an American diplomat’s wife based in Paris after the WWII, looking for something to do with her time. I was fascinated with Julia’s story and would love to read the book based on it, My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme.

"Lunch in Paris" by Elizabeth Bard

What a great book this is, but I am biased as I love reading about people living in places that I dream of living in. I was engrossed in Elizabeth’s story from start to end. I laughed, I was sad, I got lost in her descriptions of the places, the people, and particularly the food of her Paris, the one that the tourist rarely sees. To complement the story, the recipes of some of the dishes that Elizabeth talks about, are scattered throughout. You can see by the picture opposite that I’ve already made the delicious “Chicken and Sweet Pepper Stew” featured on page 51.

Like any good love story, it starts with the meeting of two people, Elizabeth, an American living in London, meets a good looking Frenchman, Gwendal, on the stairs at an academic conference in London. As someone who has conducted a long distance relationship with my husband in the early days of our relationship, I could relate to Elizabeth’s descriptions of her weekends with Gwendal, where she saw Paris through the eyes of someone just visiting without the challenges of actually living there. The fact that Elizabeth doesn’t speak very much French is not a problem when the only person she talks to is Gwendal and his English is fine, the student flat that Gwendal lives in is quaint rather than freezing, and when they venture out, there are museums and galleries to visit, the food markets, boutiques and tearooms in the Passage Vivienne to explore. But after moving in with Gwendal five months later, the realities of living in a country where you don’t speak the language, where the social norms are so different, and there is no job on the horizon sink in.

I appreciated the honesty that Elizabeth brings to her story. I could feel her spirits, high on the euphoria of love, slowing slipping with each passing chapter as she deals with the challenges of everyday living in a strange city. Social situations are headache inducing when you don’t know the language and everyone else has known each other from childhood. In monetary matters, Gwendel and Elizabeth’s differing attitudes to debt become apparent when they want to buy an apartment. As Elizabeth writes – “debt, it turns out, is not universal. As hard as this is for Americans to believe, most of the world does not live life off of borrowed money. Most French people do not possess a credit card as we know it”.

Writers at the Convent - #1 Paris

I had a lovely afternoon on Saturday listening to a range of people talk about the books they had written.  I realised how much I like knowing what was in the author's head when they were writing the book or getting a feel for the type of person the author is.  It was the first time I had been to Melbourne's Abbotsford Convent and the surroundings are beautiful.  There are a few places to eat with umbrellas and tables outside and I was greatly tempted at 5 p.m. to sit down and order a glass of wine, open up one of the books I had bought and take in the view - but my husband and I are having an alcohol free month for February after the excesses of Christmas holiday period. Never mind, maybe next time.

My first session was with Shannon Bennett and Elizabeth Bard featuring food and Paris.  Shannon's book, "Shannon Bennett's Paris" is a mine of information about dining, accommodation, and foodie places to go in Paris, with a focus on Michelin starred restaurants, luxury accommodation, markets, bistros, and patisseries for the sweet treat.  For those of us not contemplating a trip in the near future, there are Parisian recipes to try at home.  Now you might think that you will never dine at a Michelin starred restaurant, but many of the empty nesters in the audience had not only dined at Shannon's Vue de Monde restaurant in Melbourne, but were looking for tips as to where to go in Paris for a similar experience.  Shannon made the comment that with the advent of celebrity chefs and sophisticated cooking shows on TV, we have become more aware of fine dining as a source of entertainment, not just food and thus are prepared to spend more when we go out.  He impressed the audience to think of going to a restaurant in Paris as going to the theatre, where the surroundings and the presentation of the meal at the table are as important as the food.

Our Father Who Wasn't There

I've taken to listening to Radio National in the morning as I do all those things around the home that comes with having a husband and three children, and I particularly like the "Life Matters" and "The Book Show" segments. This morning I was listening to an interview with David Carlin who has written a book called "Our Father Who Wasn't There", to be launched in Victoria at Readings in Carlton on 17th February.

It is a non-fiction book, but reads like a detective novel. That's because David Carlin never knew his father, Brian - he died when David was six months old. As David grew up, he noticed that no one talked about how his father died.  It wasn't until  he was 14 that he found out that his father committed suicide but even then the "why" was unexplained.  In the community where David lived - a country town south of Perth, the 60's were a time when death wasn't talked about and suicide was a taboo subject. Fourty five years after the death of his father, David pieces together the puzzle to understand who Brian was from the memories of friends, family, and publically available information such as Brian's military records. David discovers a man who was successful in his career, funny, and popular, but in private, a deeply troubled man suffering with bouts of mental illness, and struggling to deal with events in his past.


This story caught my attention and held it because it echoed many conversations I have had with friends and family over the last few years about the cohort of 40 plus year olds in our society who are not in a stable relationship, and who are battling with the acceptance of living alone, not having the family that they always assumed that they would have, and living in a the community which is too busy to draw these people in and provide that sense of belonging that we all need. There are many "Brians" in society today, and the issue of how we as a society support people in this sort of need is still one that we haven't come to grips with.

You can listen to this interview, by taking this link to the Radio National website: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2010/2801766.htm