Recently I read Julie Powell’s new book Cleaving: a story of marriage, meat and obsession. I loved reading her first book Julie and Julia and this new book was okay but not as special as the first book.
Cleavingis another biographical work and it is a personal tale of infidelity and how the author dealt with that. Running away to learn the art of butchery and some independent travel gave her snatches of space to work through her issues. I loved reading the butchery segments and kind of wished that had been all there was to the book. They were Julie’s relationships and I don’t want to trivialise that but I didn’t feel I really wanted to read about it.
To be fair romance novels mostly bore me and I had to keep reminding myself this wasn’t just another novel but someone’s life. Usually I enjoy biographies but then that wasn’t the point of this writing either. I guess I just wanted more Julie and Julia and I just didn’t get it.
