Cleaving by Julie Powell

I don't know about you, but when I visit a blogger who reads, I take note of what they are reading. And then mentally or physically adding it to my list of books to be read. Some of you may have noticed that I was listening to Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsessionby Julie Powell. Before you go adding it to your list, I want to make sure you know that I just stopped listening to it. At chapter 6. I don't know how many chapters the book has, I don't care. I couldn't take any more of it.

The premise of this book sounded interesting, Julie Powell wanted to learn how to butcher meat. Since I also lament the passing of the local neighborhood butcher, I was intrigued with how one becomes and/or learns the trade of butchery. What I was not intrigued with was Julie Powell.

Now, let me state for the record, I love steamy and trashy. Steamy and trashy make for a fun read. But what I learned from this book is that there is steamy and trashy and then there is icky and nauseating, unfortunately this book falls into the later category. She has a husband, a lover, plus she is trying something she's always wanted to try, and she still manages to do nothing but whine and complain.

The final straw was the scene where she describes going over to her lover's apartment. Oh, and she is enthralled with having a lover... it's freeing! It's exhilarating! It's a wonderful thing! So, she goes to his apartment and he meets her at the door naked. He then proceeds to basically slam her against the wall and do her right there in the foyer. Then he carries her off to his bedroom past the closed bedroom doors of his roommates! Not only is she doing her lover, in his foyer, she is doing it while his roommates are home. Nice. Very classy.

The whole time I'm reading this, I'm thinking...do you have parents? Do you have brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, or heaven forbid, grandparents? People who may read this. People who have to look you in the eye after reading this. Why? Why would you write this? Catharsis? Therapy? If that is the case, then I spent about 3 hours listening to this book so far, so that means you owe me about $300, because therapist don't come cheap, you know.

I give this one star out of five. Only because she can write. The sections that had to do with butchery were very nicely done. If only she would take her writing skill and use it for good, instead of feeling the need to spew out this garbage.