My Review of Cleaving by Julie Powell

I finished reading Cleaving by Julie Powell last night- it's the follow-up to Julie & Julia. The book was difficult. Not difficult reading as much as the subject was dark and tough to get through. Julie & Julia was light and hopeful, this book was the opposite. She's in love with her husband, doesn't want to leave him, yet she's carrying on a long term affair, and having sex with random strangers. Eric, Julie's husband is also having affairs. She's just flat out miserable the whole book, and it's wrenching. I liked it, but it wasn't the normal read for me.

There were two main themes running through the book. One theme was Julie learning butchering, a typical "Man's Job" in this part of the world. The other theme was addiction. Julie is addicted to her lover and to alcohol. She has been spurned by her lover, and spends most of the book thinking about him. I am totally opposed to cheating. If you are going to be unfaithful. at least have the decency to end it with your current significant other before you enter into anything with a new person. I do think people are monogamous, and that being in a sexual relationship with more than one person at the same time is just wrong, and maybe that's why this book was so hard for me. It was someone who I liked in an earlier book, who I now dislike.

There is so much pain in this book, emotional pain, physical pain (various body aches brought on by butchering) and mental pain (Julie torturing her husband by downloading a song he sent her to their shared computer comes to mind). Julie and Eric are in this mind-fuck (sorry, but I can't think of a better term) of a relationship. They bring nothing but pain to each other, and yet, neither one of them can end it. That could be another issue for me. Julie and Eric got into their relationship at a young age, and really became adults together. They don't see a life outside of each other, which may be similar to my husband and myself. Maybe that's why I had problems with this book. Are my husband and I also destined to come to misery like Julie and Eric?