"Cleaving"

I recently read Julie Powell's new book, Cleaving. You may remember Ms. Powell from her book Julie and Julia which was recently made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. I had read the book but hadn't seen the movie until last weekend when I was flying down to West Palm - the plane had DirecTV which was pretty cool.



The book Julie and Julia is based on Powell's blog, The Julie/Julia Project and I looked at it for the first time today after finishing Cleaving. She's a bigshot writer now (every lowly blogger's dream I think!) and has another blog here at http://www.juliepowell.blogspot.com/ and I couldn't help but feel a teensy bit six degrees of separation because here indeed is my own blog hosted at blogspot!

And also, Ms. Powell and I share a mutual admiration for Joss Whedon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer although I don't think she likes Firefly and Nathan Fillion as much as I do. Also, after Julie and Julia was published, she proceeded to have a torrid affair, which is what Cleaving is sort of about. Also, it's about become a butcher.

It was an interesting, although not great, read. I had some problems with it, mainly, I found it to be self-pitying and whiny. Here is a woman who has seemingly a wonderful husband and a decent career and yet is insistent upon going down some crazy destructive path, engaging in anonymous unfulfilling sex in order to drive her lover out of her head and yet she will not set her husband free. They decide, in so many unspoken words, to open the marriage and they each go off and have affairs. Yet, her husband is always angry with her and yet tender and comforting by turns. Its confusing. Part of me wanted to tell her to grow up and move on.

In her defense, I got the impression she's been with her husband a very long time and perhaps did not date around so much when she was younger, unlike myself who has dated a lot and experienced all kinds of mental anguish, from being with a guy who treats you like crap and yet still compels you to stay with him, to wanting to leave and not wanting to break anyone's hearts at the same time. I get it, life is full of heartbreak, but have the balls to break it off when it becomes unbearable! Don't endlessly whine about having your cake and eating it too! I found I had to dig deep to find some sympathy.

There was another part that really disturbed me. Julie takes a trip to Africa and spends some time in a Masaai encampment. After having a drink one night with her guide, another man follows her back to her tent and propositions her. When she rebuffs his advances he comes back and tries to rape her. Then he steals her BlackBerry. Never once does she scream out for help. Instead you get this crushing feeling that on some level Julie feels she deserves to be assaulted. Maybe I am misreading but she never defends herself.

Interspersed throughout the book are BtVR references. My favorite is a quote from Spike about how much he loves someone: "Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet..." I think I need to watch Season 6 again.