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" \n Cosmo: Readers are going to be pretty shocked when they find out the follow-up book to Julie &amp;amp;amp; Julia is about slaughtering animals and (almost) destroying your marriage to Eric. What inspired you to write such a confessional book? Julie: I wrote Cleaving to understand why I had an affair.  Cosmo: Judging from the headlines, people have affairs every day, but most cheaters do everything they can to keep their affairs a secret. (We&amp;#039;re looking at you, Tiger Woods.) Since so many people are cheating, why do you think it&amp;#039;s still a taboo subject? Julie: It&amp;#039;s taboo because it&amp;#039;s terrifying. Americans have made an enormous emotional investment in the tenets of conventional marriage because it makes us feel safe. To portray a woman \u2014 especially a woman \u2014 having an affair that isn&amp;#039;t &amp;quot;justified&amp;quot; by any lack in her husband, but comes out of real confusion, is to question the boundaries and rules people trust in.  Cosmo: Is it safe to say that you don&amp;#039;t think cheating is a relationship deal-breaker? What would you say to couples that want to stay together after one person has cheated? Julie: To get through it, you have to acknowledge all the anger and confusion and hurt, examine it, feel it, and then ask yourselves \u2014 which is stronger, your feelings of betrayal or of love? Cosmo: What is your relationship with Eric and D like now that Cleaving is in bookstores and everyone is talking about your affairs? Julie: It&amp;#039;s a tricky time for Eric and me. He has taken the tack of just stepping back and letting the hoopla run its course. D has been generous too (he signed a legal consent to allow Cleaving to be published) but we don&amp;#039;t speak.  Cosmo: What turned you on to butchery? Julie: I grew up in Austin where all our meat came from a supermarket, wrapped in cellophane. So when I was introduced to old school, old New York butcher shops, I fell in love with the smells, with the sights, and especially with the men. Cosmo: We&amp;#039;re all about equality, but butchery kind of seems like a man&amp;#039;s job. Were you trying to bust up stereotypes when you decided to become a butcher? Julie: You know, I didn&amp;#039;t consciously think of it in that way. But I&amp;#039;ve always been fond of breaking into boys&amp;#039; clubs and proving myself as one of the guys, so I&amp;#039;m sure that was part of the appeal. Cosmo: In addition &amp;quot;bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan,&amp;quot; you know how to pull it off the pig and chop it into tiny pieces. What advice do you have for readers who want to try something totally unexpected or even controversial? Julie: I&amp;#039;m a big believer in that little voice in your head. Following it can get messy (Cleaving is nothing if not a testament to that) but it will also get you to places you&amp;#039;d never see if you just kept toeing the line. If something is telling you to do something crazy, I think you should listen. If everyone else thinks you&amp;#039;re insane, that might be a very good sign. Cosmo: At the end of your first book, Julie &amp;amp;amp; Julia, readers got the sense that Julie Powell had found her happy ending. But instead of living in bliss you were having a scandalous affair and learning how rip the bones out of bloody animals. Did you feel like you were leading a double life? Julie: By the time I started publicizing Julie &amp;amp;amp; Julia, my marriage had changed disastrously, and I did feel at times like I was being dishonest, though I wrote the truth about my relationship with Eric back then. One of the reasons I wrote Cleaving was to honor the difficulty of our marriage, and express how even the strongest of relationships go through dark periods. Buy Cleaving now and become of fan of Julie on  Facebook!  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/advice/a3073/julie-powell-memoir-interview/>