A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession
Having slogged through a series of dead-end jobs in New York City, Julie Powell decided to chronicle her ambitious attempt to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking within one year, and the popularity of her blog, the Julie/Julia Project, led to a memoir—Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen ( )—and a 2009 movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Cleaving picks up Powell’s story two years after Julie & Julia ends.
The Story: Despite her recent success, Powell is uncertain what to do next. "It was confusing and distressing to find myself, so soon after that whirlwind year came to a close, more or less where I’d been before." Her marriage is in trouble, and the intense, sadomasochistic affair she has been carrying on with an old flame, "D," has just come to an end. Depressed and directionless, Powell obtains an apprenticeship at Fleishers, a small, family-owned butcher shop in upstate New York, where she learns to slaughter pigs, break down sides of beef, stuff sausages, and appreciate the art of butchery. After her training, Powell sets off on a worldwide "Grand Tour of Meat," finally returning home to face her husband—and, unexpectedly, "D."
Little, Brown and Company. 320 pages. $24.99. ISBN: 9780316003360
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"The situation is complicated on a number of levels, but Powell’s nuanced and articulate storytelling illuminates those sticky places where love and desire can tangle one up in a confusing mess of emotion. … At the end of Cleaving, Powell isn’t compelled to tidy up the scrappy ends or even give the reader a clear sense of what is to come. She leaves it much as it started, raw and unfinished, like marriage and life itself." Kim Schmidt
Chicago Sun-Times
"Powell is a strong and lively writer and manages to make a fine story out of her exploits with rolling roulades of turkey, de-cheeking pig heads, or negotiating racks of ribs with a band saw. … Reading Powell’s accounts of bondage sessions and erotic phone calls with a man known through most of the book simply as D. will likely ruin this book and retroactively sour Julie & Julia for many." Allecia Vermillion
NY Times Book Review
"Powell’s not kidding about the ‘obsession’ part: she pathetically texts and e-mails into the ether for almost a year, then fleshes her longing into a book that doesn’t spare the reader a single full-frontal flashback. … Her reliance on snark and pop-cultural references is cheap, but her sincere interest in butchery and love for the Fleisher’s crew bring the book’s slasher scenes to life." Christine Muhlke
Los Angeles Times
"Despite some fine writing about butchery, and some not-so-fine writing about romance, Cleaving turns out to be not much more than a rambling recitation—not to say defense—of all sorts of bad behavior. … No doubt Powell has been as honest as she knows how to be, but she’s an unreliable narrator, vain and self-pitying by turns, and lacking necessary perspective." Dinah Lenney
Miami Herald
"There’s nothing wrong with a bit of kink. Where Powell miscalculates is by making a book out of material as raw as the meat she handles. Consequently, Eric’s betrayal, hurt and humiliation happens not just once but in effect every time someone reads Cleaving, a development that leaves readers far more squeamish than the animal bits." Ellen Kanner
St. Petersburg Times
"Early in the book, Powell writes cockily that she has a ‘surprisingly strong stomach.’ Honey, after Cleaving’s S&M interludes, raunchy anonymous assignations and recipes for headcheese, so do we, so do we." Laura Reiley
San Francisco Chronicle
"Reading this book is like watching an automobile crash in slow motion, as the author engages in page after page, chapter after chapter, of self-destructive behavior, treating both herself and her husband abominably. … At the end of it all, one is left wondering why anyone would write such a book. And, more to the point, why anyone would want to read it." Nicolette Hahn Niman
Critical Summary
So if you enjoyed Julie & Julia, you shouldn’t spoil that experience by reading this book—or even the rest of this review. Cleaving aspires to boldly lay bare the inner workings of a global industry and an intimate relationship, but it falls short in both spheres. Though Powell is at her best when writing about meat, these sections are too few—and too graphic—to sustain the story. "The squeamish—morally and otherwise—should read elsewhere," advises the New York Times Book Review. Powell’s explicit account of her kinky affair with D. alternately bored and repelled critics, as did her smug attitude, recklessly self-destructive behavior, and spitefulness toward her beleaguered husband. Unfortunately, Powell’s second memoir appears to have been churned out to please a pushy publisher rather than readers in general—a recipe for disaster—and its considerable flaws overshadow her intriguing view from the butcher’s counter.
Cited by the Critics
Heat | Bill Buford (2006): After a chance meeting with brilliant but temperamental chef Mario Batali, New Yorker editor Bill Buford leaves his comfortable desk job to work in Batali’s innovative three-star Italian restaurant, Babbo, for free. This funny and intelligent account, praised by the critics, details his grueling transformation from journalist to cook in one of New York City’s busiest kitchens. ( )
Eat, Pray, Love | Elizabeth Gilbert (2006): Depressed and bitter after a nasty divorce, Gilbert, a novelist and short story writer, embarks on a journey to find healing and peace—indulging in the sumptuous pleasures of Italy, exploring asceticism in India, and seeking a compromise between the two extremes in Indonesia.