Read by: Julie Powell
Genre: Memoir
I listened to Julie & Julia and utterly enjoyed Julie's journey and honesty (and, yes, her creative use of curse words). So I picked up Cleaving, preparing myself for sickening descriptions of butchering. I was NOT prepared (and this isn’t a spoiler) that she’s cheating on her husband. (!) That sweet man who got her blogging and changed her life. Honestly, it took me days to overcome feelings of betrayal. Julie!! Julie!! Why!!
But once I did, the audiobook went like this:
Part 1: Where Julie learns the art of butchering, which conveniently lends itself to about 200 metaphors of heartbreak, breakups and separating from your husband and lover. “Sometimes separating meat from bone isn't clean, you leave a lot of meat destroyed” (I paraphrased). At first I was like, "Cleaving"! I get it! Then, she started to hit me over the head with it, like maybe we didn’t pick up on the analogies. I get it, Julie. Geez.
Part 2: Where Julie wanders around the world and loses focus. “What was this memoir about?” She’s in Argentina eating alone in restaurants, watching the first snowfall. She's in Ukraine with a 22-year-old girl hitching a ride with a man who makes sausages. And in Tanzania drinking blood and getting accosted by a large cook. All while pining for sweet Eric and dirty D. There is some butchering, she sees animals killed and cut up. But really, it’s just a lesson in you can’t run away from some problems.
Part 3: Where Julie goes home and realizes that everything is still pretty much the same, except maybe her outlook. And she has to come to terms with it and get over it.
Overall, Part 1 and 3 were a candid journey of self-discovery and knowing thy self. Part 2 (the actual journey) I could have done without.
Grade: Greenlight
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