A book that truly irritates me...

[forcemequeen]

So after reading Julie & Julia I found that Julie Powell had just come out with a new one about her delving into the butchery field. I thought- wow that sounds amazing- and picked it up. Sadly, it ruined the good book run I was going on. The book is called Cleaving and is another biography about her time after she wrote Julie & Julia. The first ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY PAGES are about her slow wreck of a marriage and this guy "D" who she is OBSESSED OVER. She has sex with him for two years, which pretty much ends up ruining her marriage though they stick together, and then he finally ditches her and she just obsesses over him. Obsesses over him while apprenticing to be a butcher. The information about her time as an apprentice is awesome but the fact that it's all in the background of her stupid obsession with this idiot made me seriously want to strangle her. The book is written decently but is so fucking annoying that the only reason I'm still reading it is to see if she is able to make a point of the whole thing and make me like her again. Seriously. I haven't been this angry at an actual author for a while. Her obsession with this guy is childish, annoying, and whiny, and I think every chapter involves her getting drunk and texting or calling him- AGAIN- to which he never responds. Yes, yes, we get you're a stalker. You even say you're a stalker! Now get on with your motherfucking life. It's like reading your high school journal but some guy you love/d who you a) could not get and/or b) no longer is interested in you. The scene where she's in France with her hubby and sees two scarves, both expensive and one that would be perfect for her husband and one that would be perfect for her ex-lover, and then proceeds to buy the @#$#@@ scarf for her lover who hasn't talked to her or returned her calls in at least 6 months, made me want to gouge my eyes out. When she obsesses over where to send it for xxx-mas and ends up SENDING IT TO HIS MOM'S HOUSE, I started fantasizing about throwing the book against the wall. I hate her just that much. And every interaction with her husband involves her drinking, him being passive aggressive, and her crying and apologizing then thinking about having sex with D. Why the hell if this was your life would your write about it and/or why would your editor publish it? If I had seen this shit pass my desk, I would have been like "Hmmm.. let's cut this part down to thirty pages and forget about the rest. You'll thank me later."

FINALLY, after one hundred and ninety pages of this crap, she's finally a little less obsessed and starts traveling the world. So far so good though she still drinks heavily and cries herself to sleep tonight dreaming about D's arms around her. Jesus, I want to kill myself just thinking about this book and yet I can't stop reading it. One, because I bought it in hardback and that just pisses me off, and two, because I truly want to know if she becomes something worth the flesh she lives in by the end. Julie & Julia was such a charming book, but this... this I would not make my worst enemy read. Or maybe I would, just to horrify them.

So yeah, Julie & Julia? AWESOME book! Cleaving- only read it if you really, really hate yourself or like true stories that make you pity the person to a point of loathing.

Edit: I just realized I really really want someone else to read this to commiserate with me. Let me know if you're willing and I'll let you borrow my copy before I burn it (i.e. sell it back to Powell's)!

Come on, you know you want to.