Julie Powell

Julie & Julia author Julie Powell has a new book out: it's called Cleaving, and it tells of the troubles in Powell’s marriage and how she coped with them by working as a butcher. From her Q & A with Lynn Andriani at Publishers Weekly:

PW: This is definitely a heavier book than Julie & Julia. Do you think readers will be surprised?

JP: I think there’s a difference between people who come to Cleaving from Julie & Julia the book, and from Julie & Julia the movie. For any reader who is invested in Julie & Julia this is a turn. It’s a darker book. It’s delving into the situations and relationships that felt very safe in Julie & Julia. But I also think that there is a through line, if you look at one book and then the other. I think people can see that if they read Julie & Julia the book. If they come out of the Nora Ephron romantic comedy, there’s going to be some psychic whiplash. To see this moment of crisis a couple years later is going to be disturbing for some people. But I wrote Cleaving in deference to marriage. Marriage is not a box; it’s a thing that grows and moves and has crises. Cleaving is about that part—what happens when things are not tied up with pretty bows anymore.

PW: You’re kind of a throwback, first cooking your way through the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then going to work as an apprentice at a butcher shop. What drew you to another old-fashioned institution?

JP: There’s a...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue