On Gloomy Days

It’s a very nasty day here in Cambridge, all billowy and cold, down to the bones cold. I’ve been quiet again. I’m just not reading much that excites me these days. Right now I’m reading Cleaving by Julie Powell. I’m not sure why though. Trust me to say that I’m not here to trash her or her book. There are plenty of other internet trolls to do that. I’ll just say that I’m not enjoying it. It’s pretty much a rip off of Elizbeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, but with a much less likable more self-involved author. It’s her memoir about her crappy life after Julie & Julia. She and her husband separate, get back together, she’s sleeping with someone else, she discovers she’s into bondage, she learns some butchering skills too. That’s the thread that’s supposed to tie it all together somehow. Also, she travels. See? Elizabeth Gilbert. So maybe I am trashing it after all.

I can’t stop reading it for some reason either. I think it’s because I want to know if it gets any better or if she has some sort of great breakthrough that makes her likable. I don’t know. I’m just hoping I can finish it tonight.

Also, Notes from No Man’s Land by Eula Biss is totally worth reading by the way.  You might have read some of her essays in Harper’s. She’s got a few of her essays listed on her website. Check them out.

3 thoughts on “On Gloomy Days”

  1. Pingback: carolyn kellogg » Blog Archive » I put down Cleaving, too

  2. Debbie

    i read julie/julia and was left unsatisfied. i finished it to see if it got better or if i liked julie but never did. there would be one or two good lines that kept me going to the end but i was left wanting more julia and less julie

    the movie was far more satisfying

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  3. JoAnn

    I read along with the Julie and Julia blog when Powell was cooking. I found it entertaining and so I bought the book when it was published. AWFUL! She is just so self-absorbed and irreverent in the worst possible way.

    And to add insult to injury, I sent her blog link to a good-cooking friend. At that point, she was asking for donations (to buy the food to cook) and he sent her a VERY generous donation. AND SHE NEVER THANKED HIM!

    A month later, I posted a comment on her blog and mentioned this lapse….needless to say, my comment was never published and she still did not thank him.

    So am I surprised at your reaction to CLEAVING? Nope!

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