return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
    Cleaving by Julie Powell

Cleaving: Book summary and reviews of Cleaving by Julie Powell

Cleaving

Cleaving
A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession
by Julie Powell
Published in USA Dec 2009,
320 pages.

Publication information


Critics' Opinion: 
Readers' Rating:  Not Yet Rated
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book

Cleaving Summary

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.

Cleaving Reviews

"How on earth could New York recipe nut Julie Powell top the triumph of her first book, Julie and Julia ....The answer is, of course, that she couldn’t. But she has had a jolly good stab at it — literally. .... Powell's book is highly readable, but there is something about it that doesn’t quite hang together. ... Ultimately, Powell is saved by her beautiful writing, effortlessly ­filling pages with virtuoso descriptions of animal slaughter and human travail. .... Still. I can't help feeling her eyes might have been slightly bigger than her stomach on this one." - The Sunday Times (UK)

"My God, I would hate to read this book if I was poor old Eric (husband). He comes across as slow and steady, and sometimes cuddly. But what his wife wants is brutal — or, at the very least, vigorous — sex with her lover, and she keeps on telling us about it...." - The Spectator (UK)

"As long as Powell's story stays within the picturesque micro-community of Fleisher's, all is well. Her narrative is vivid, well structured, intense and moving. It is when she ventures out into the untidy precinct of the rest of her life that things go wrong." - Daily Mail (UK)

The information about Cleaving shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's online-magazine that keeps our members abreast of notable and high-profile books publishing in the coming weeks. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.

Julie Powell Author Biography

Julie Powell was born and raised in Austin, Texas. A theater and fiction-writing major, she moved to New York with her husband-to-be Eric and worked temp jobs for seven years. She started a blog - The Julie/Julia Project - that became a best-selling book and later a film staring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Her second book, Cleaving was published in 2009.

Link to Julie Powell's Website

Other books by Julie Powell at BookBrowse

Julie & Julia jacket

Recently Published Biographies/Memoirs

more...


Become a Member
Click Here
Editor's Choice
  •  Jun 19 
  •  Jun 17 
  •  Jun 15 
If You Find Me
Emily Murdoch

If You Find Me Jacket

There are some things you can't leave behind…
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah Jacket

Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Jacket

The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
The Expats by Chris Pavone
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Top Ten Guidelines For How to Behave in a Book Club
Movies Based on Books: Summer 2013 (May - August)
Jewish Themed Young Adult Books, Not About The Holocaust
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The best book I've read in a very long time and the first ever Bo Caldwell novel for me. I'd never before read anything about missionaries to China,... read more
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
With a poetic voice, Ratner plunges us into this personal trial of a royal family wrenched from their home in Phnon Penh, Cambodia, during the late... read more
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Ark Angel
Anthony Horowitz
2. I'm Looking Through You
Jennifer Finney Boylan
3. Little Princes
Conor Grennan
4. Wonder
R.J. Palacio
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple
Paperback (Apr/13)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
Paperback (Mar/13)
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
by Kristopher Jansma
Hardback (Mar/13)
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
by Mohsin Hamid
Hardback (Mar/13)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
Children of the Jacaranda Tree
by Sahar Delijani
4.5 Stars            (Jun/13)
Her Last Breath
by Linda Castillo
4.5 Stars            (Jun/13)
Crime of Privilege
by Walter Walker
Four Stars            (Jun/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
Amazon cuts off 5200 affiliates in Minnesota (Jun 19 2013)
With Minnesota's online sales tax law due to take effect July 1, Amazon has played a familiar card by cutting ties with 5,200 members of its Associates... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: We've been discussing guidelines for book club etiquette. Which of these do you think are important?
Read the book
Listen thoughtfully to all members
Take notes while you're reading
Stay on topic when you're speaking
Enjoy yourself
Don’t get drunk
Bring chocolate, everyone likes chocolate!
Eat before you come so you don’t devour the snacks
Compliment others sincerely
Have a good sense of humor
Don’t fret the small stuff
Select Any That Apply
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters

Online Book Club
More about
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
You Only Get Letters From Jail


one of the finest and truest collections of 'American' short stories I have ever read

Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"T M T C, T M T Stay T S"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Lawrence Osborne
Carol Rifka Brunt
Kent Wascom
Jennifer McVeigh
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us