Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 11:25 PM
Sat Dec 19
19 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
| Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan Morrissey
| Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
| Twitter
Sadie Stein
| Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
| Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
| Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Lizzie Skurnick
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Weekends/Commenter Moderator:
Hortense
| Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/08/09
12/08/09
There has been a lot of talk on the internet that if you don't like 'Cleaving", it's because you are jealous of JP's success - are you kidding? Her blog/book gave hope to bloggers/cubicle workers everywhere,I couldn't be more happy for her, but this book is just horrible,it smacks of the dreaded second book syndrome - rushed out by her publishers to profit from all the publicity around the first book.
It is completely self obsessed,narcissistic, masochistic navel-gazing. Every time you think that Ms. Powell will find something to distract her from her favourite subject-herself, you are disappointed.
The most interesting sections of the book, her travels in the Ukraine
/Kenya and Argentina seem almost an afterthought to her absolute self-flaying, self worship.
It reminded me of a toddler or Elizabeth Wurtzel(kind of the same thing) the constant craving for attention, whether good or bad and the constant need to push the envelope-if I do this -will you still love me?, if
I say this, will you still love me?
I read a review on Amazon that I thought was very funny and pretty much sums up this book and I thought " Snap! I wonder if Julie Powell knows that you have already plotted her next book for her:
"I have an idea for you Julie for your next book....work as a mechanic for a while and think of all the sexy lines you can come up with....lube job, check your oil, rotate your tires, fill er'up...get the picture? And like a car that had broken down(like your marriage)..you can resurrect a car and your marriage at the same time! How's that for a new book project? Might get a movie deal out of it too! "
She is a good writer- this is not a good book,it is just skanky and tawdry and silly. I just want to smack her round the head and tell her to grow up and use her god-given talent.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/07/09
12/08/09
"Tobias: You know, Lindsay, as a therapist, I have advised...
[falls off the bed]
Tobias: ...a number of couples to explore an open relationship where the couple remains emotionally committed, but free to explore extra-marital encounters.
Lindsay: Well, did it work for those people?
Tobias: No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... but it might work for us."
12/08/09
#openrelationships
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/09/09
12/09/09
Beats cheating which yes, I despise!!!!!
12/09/09
12/07/09
I ... feel I may have missed something.
I ... feel it may not be a problem.
12/07/09
I think that if they do a movie adaptation of THIS it's going to be a creepy art-house flick.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
What a great line, applicable to so, so many things these days. Well done. (no pun intended!)
12/07/09
Bwahaha.
"It's off the menu. Louis'll make it for ya."
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I also think a LOT of people forget that the original J&J blog began in August 2002. I don't even think I'd ever heard of a blog seven years ago, so all the "Ugh, what a weak attempt to get famous via a blog" criticisms seem unfair, since it wasn't such a common road to success in ye olden tymes.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/07/09
Sadie, I'm going to have to disagree with you on the quality of the writing. She repeats her descriptions over and over. For example, take her obsession with describing shit as "such and such thing". "a delicate thing" "a fine thing" " a clumsy thing" over and over.
Also, her metaphors are insane. I wish I had my copy here, but there is an instance where she's describing a guy who wants to fuck her and says that he wants her "like a six year old wants the biggest stuffed animal at the fair" (quote is from memory so may not be 100%). What? Why would you bring up a child during your sex metaphor? What is wrong with you? That's not sexy.
She can write food porn. That I will give her. I haven't eaten meat in five years and even I want an oxtail after her description.
OH, she needs to stop calling tenderloin insipid. She does it at least twice.
I have a million tiny criticisms of this book. I agree with Sadie's comment about cultural tourism. I don't know how to describe my discomfort with Powell's description of - and relationship to - butchers. It's a weird fetishization.
I feel like she got super lucky, and yet not really. She has this jackpot of an idea (Julie and Julia) capitalizes on it (good for her) and the book sells a bajillion copies, yet for her second book it's like it wasn't edited. I thought it was an interesting story, and Powell has a knack for trends, I just wish this whole story was in more capable hands.
12/07/09
In short, Ms. Powell will never, EVER get out from under the giant shadow of Julia Child.
12/09/09
and how awesome is it that Julia Child loved Tu Lan? :)
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
Color me disappointed (No offense Julie Powell).
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09