I picked this up after hearing about it on NPR. I didn’t expect to like it. I picked it up because reading about someone’s downward spiral sounded vaguely interesting and the radio show made it sound appealing. I had no interest in reading Julie and Julia, despite liking the movie (Meryl Streep as Julia Child, of course). Julie and Julia, I imagined, was a perfectly put together polished piece of prose about a quaint rags-to-fame story of a girl in Queens. I thought I might like it because I enjoy cooking, and there’s cooking in the book. But that was all that really interested me. I thought the movie would be the end of me and anything to do with Julie Powell until I heard about the cleaving book.

Here’s another thing: I don’t eat mammals. I’ve never eaten mammals, aside from some rogue bits of bacon and pepperoni pieces here and there. My parents didn’t eat mammals and so when my brother and I were growing up they didn’t feed them to us. We were welcome to eat them if we so chose, but both of us are technically grown-ups now and we don’t. I’ve alwasy found the bloody packages of meat at the grocery store to look completely disgusting. I don’t like even going near them. Eating the meat of something huge? With fur? That nurses its young? Disgusting! I’ve never eaten stake, or ribs, or even pork, and I’ve never wanted to.

Until I read Cleaving. The way Julie described cutting up, cooking, and eating that meat I wanted to try it. My craving for cooked animal parts was so intense that I had to eat the meatiest thing I could find in my kitchen, which happened to be a can of chicken noodle soup. Before reading Cleaving, I never thought to myself, “I wonder what ribs taste like!” The other day I was at a restaurant and spotted salad with skirt steak on the menu. It sounded good.

The butchery descriptions and recipes were not the only parts of Cleaving that I enjoyed. Partway through reading the book I went to Goodreads to update my status and I was shocked by the negative reviews. One reviewer on Goodreads wrote: “Now, ask yourself: would YOU want to read the true story of a fat, ugly, mildly famous chick’s crumbling marriage, her unabashed accounts of rough sex with her lover and complete strangers, all held together by the glue that is … (wait for it) … the art of butchery?”

Yes, please. (I have to add, though, that the physical appearance of the author never influences my opinion one way or the other.)

Then there are complaints that it’s “choppy.” I thought this, too, or to be more precise, I do think this. It is choppy. It chops back and forth from her work at the butcher shop, to her pining for her ex-lover, to her silently seething husband, to her field trips to various exotic meat capitols of the world. I was thinking about this choppiness and suddenly it reminded me of something. It reminded me of the chopping and pulling apart of meat at a butcher shop. Julie wasn’t just chopping up meat but her who life was being cut into pieces.

It’s a memoir. It’s about real life, and real life doesn’t always have the most smooth transitions or perfect build of climax and falling resolution. I’ve always been suspicious of memoirs that flow perfectly. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs would be a good example of a memoir that narrates just a little too perfectly.

Cleaving is a rough, dirty, dead-honest, and most of all choppy look at one woman’s life. Maybe I will, one day, try a bite of steak.

Books Left: 94
Current Book: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

One of the Borders near my office is going out of business, so everything was on sale today! It was bittersweet, because I liked the particular Borders, but mostly sweet. I ran around the store with the sort of glee normally found only in TJ Maxx commercials and that Shopaholic movie. Here’s my loot:

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty – I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out when I was in high school but for some reason I never did. As you can see from the bookmark I already started reading it. I think my experience reading it now is going to be much different than it would have been back then (I believe I was in high school or the early years of college).

Cleaving by Julie Powell – I’m not sure why, but this book interested me a lot more than her other book, the one the Julie and Julia film was based off. I think it’s because I read a review of this book that said it detailed a downward spiral in Julie’s life and somehow that sounded appealing.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender – I was so excited that they had this in stock: a new book by my favorite author! (I guess this is like finding cheap designer jeans that fit at TJ Maxx.) I really wish Bender would write another novel, but I am overjoyed to have this short story collection in my hands.

JavaScript: Pocket Reference by David Flanagan – I’ve heard amazing things about the plot! (Alright, you got me. It’s for work.)

Mystery Book CD DVD Item by ? [Not Pictured] – Borders had a sign up suggesting that we shop for Christmas gifts while everything was on sale. I was determined to be purely selfish in my purchases, until I found the perfect, ahem, item, for my dad.

Yes, this means I’m procrastinating on the project. I even have Wide Sargasso Sea here on my right, staring at me with the evil eyed stare that only a book you’re supposed to be reading but aren’t can give.