Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession
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Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do—until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs—tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world—from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart. Publishers Weekly Powell flounders in her latest cooking-themed memoir. Trying to end an affair, the married Powell leaves town and seeks distraction in a butcher shop. She explores her obsessions with meat and with her lover—but listeners will quickly tune out. Her sarcastic inflections, flat tone, and nervous voice that worked reasonably well with Julie and Julia sound supercilious and affected here. The clunky performance cannot redeem the uninspired prose, and Powell—who compulsively cheats on her “saintly” husband—is difficult to empathize with. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Dec.)
Author's Note ixPrologue 1Part I Apprentice1 Love and a Butcher Shop 172 Boned Out 333 Fajita Heartbreak 634 Stuffing Sausage 855 Break Down 996 Off the Hoof 1237 Opus Nauseous 1458 Meathead Holiday 1609 Too Close for Comfort Food 23110 The Dying Art 25311 Hanging Up the Knife 266Part II Journeywoman12 Carniceria 28313 Still Undercooked 31814 When in Tanzania 359Part III Master?15 A Butcher Returns 419Epilogue 439Acknowledgments 449Index of Recipes 451
