Book (Phenomena?) Review: Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

source: bite.ca

Lauren thought: 

I had long meant to read Eat, Pray, Love because I felt it was important to read it prior to seeing the film, and that I should see the film because it was one of those ‘cultural moments’ of my lifetime and generation that it would be shame to not take part in.  So, I bought a copy of Eat, Pray, Love with the intention of drowning out the rest of the world’s opinions until I could form one for myself.

The book has been read by literally millions of people around the world and has had an undeniable impact upon Western culture of late. Many of my peers, and indeed, many of the people I most admire and look up to, are part of the group who have made Eat, Pray, Love their most recent bugbear, referring to the book’s movement as part of ‘the problem’ of bourgeois Western society and sneering down upon its Oprah’s Book Club sticker seal of approval.

My favourite books have all been ones which have completely changed my opinion of them throughout the read. I started off passionately disliking Eat, Pray, Love. Passionately. Disliking. I would whinge and groan the minute anybody asked me how it was, complaining that Elizabeth was so overly melancholy and weak that it was making it impossible to enjoy her story. How could the book be so depressing if I was only twenty pages in? How could I possibly persevere?! Of course, being a book about stepping out of melancholy and into happiness and finding self empowerment, this all began to change once I’d gotten out of the divorced-midthirties-writer-with-severe-issues scene setting and into Italy. It was then, with Elizabeth’s tales of pasta and gelato and beautiful men and balmy evenings, that I began to appreciate her writing style and the lessons she had to share, and I found myself whipping through the first section on pleasure 

I really enjoyed the format of the book. The one hundred and eight short chapters worked for me at a time when I was very busy with work and could only find space to read during lunch or in the early mornings or evenings. The chapters are short, a couple of pages at the most, which meant I could finish at the end of a chapter every time I read; a wonderful point of closure for anyone with slight obsessive compulsive tendencies such as my own. It also meant, after the initial stages, that the book was very pacey and moved along through the chapters without pausing for too much sentimental reflection, something which, in my opinion, is the key element that saves the book from becoming soppy and over the top.

As Eat, Pray, Love moved through the three sections and into India (Pray) and Bali (Love), I was interested by the information Gilbert passed on about Eastern medicine and spiritual practices while telling her tale. At the time of reading I had been practicing yoga for a couple of months, and reading one short chapter included which gave an overview of yoga and it’s benefits completely altered my perception of the exercise. In particular, the excerpt, “Why do we practice Yoga?” he asked again. “Is it so we can become a little bendier than our neighbours? Or is there some higher purpose?” stayed, nagging, in my mind for days (ch 38, p 127). It was simple little sections like this found throughout the book that I found inspiring, or which opened my mind in a new direction.  

It’s important to recognise that this book is not a self help book, even though it has been talked about pretty much as one since its release. At no point does Gilbert give instruction to her reader, lay down home work or try to fix anybody else’s problems. She simply tells a story, her story, and it happens to be a pretty remarkable one that many people have found inspiring.

There have been grievances aired by those who do not think that a woman in Gilbert’s position; wealthy, physically healthy, surrounded by supportive friends and with a brilliant career, had the right to take the course of action that she did. There is an underlying tone to this response that speaks to all who have found Elizabeth Gilbert’s words comforting, for all those who have been inspired to make change in their own lives, to pipe down, stop complaining and get on with it. There is always this kind of response when one group of people get inspired to ask questions and demand better lives. In this instance, it’s saddened me to see authors, musicians, independent artists and merchants whose work I like and whose opinion I formerly respected call this book and the effect it has had on people ridiculous, silly or ‘part of the problem’ within our society. It saddens me because if any of these people chose to pack up and head off on a spiritual meditation and yoga retreat in India they would be applauded and lauded as the Kings of Cool, and they know it. Effectively, they want to deny others the right they give themselves to happiness, which is completely unfair. Just because a person is a housewife, or because they’ve chosen to stick with a 9-5 job or they enjoy working for large corporations, because maybe they’ve chosen the path in life that is less ‘cool’, does not make them less worthy people or mean that their lives should be less filled with joy.

I can honestly say that I really enjoyed reading Eat, Pray, Love. I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, but then most books aren’t, I enjoyed it because it addresses a lot of topics I’m currently interested in. I think that the public response to the book, both the love for it and the hate, have been very telling of where our society is at right now and has changed the way I think about my audience when I’m writing myself. After reading the book I did, as planned, go and see the film and I liked that too. I think it would be a much better film for those who had read the book than those who haven’t, having the knowledge to augment the stories that movies just don’t have time to get through. Eat, Pray, Love; I wouldn’t say it’s completely changed my life, but I do think it’s made an impact for the better, as most books do, and I’m very glad I gave it a try.


Ell-Leigh thought: 


Let me start with this fact: I saw the movie first. And the movie, despite it’s potential for brilliance and the casting of Javier Bardem, James Franco and Billy Crudup, was not very good. The trailer also featured the song Sweet Disposition by the Temper Trap, which meant to me that this film was going to be great (it also featured in the (500) Days of Summer trailer, and I wasn’t wrong there now, was I?). I was a bit disappointed.

I didn’t have too much of a problem with it, except perhaps the ending. I loved the gorgeous colourful settings and the lessons we get to watch Elizabeth learn. I related to her depression and marveled as she pulled herself out of it.

I told my Mum she should go see it. She didn’t like it. Who was Julia Roberts to travel around the world the moment she decided she didn’t like her husband anymore? There wasn’t even a problem in their marriage, she couldn’t put a bit more effort in and give it another try? Geez, if we all had the money to take a huge trip around the world every time we thought we wanted to be single again… etc, etc.

Reading the book I discovered that a lot of the things I disliked about the film were the parts that weren’t part of the original story. The prose is honest and easy to read and the short chapter format works really well as it allows for many ideas to be discussed without losing our attention. At the end of each of the sections (Italy, India and Bali) I felt as though I could have read so much more about each place, and it ignited my yearning to travel, something I’d been quite sick of until I started reading. The book is insightful and inspiring, especially if you’re feeling philosophical. Personally I liked the book and like Elizabeth Gilbert as a writer, however I fit into the readership this book is aimed at. Would I recommend it to my 18-year-old male cousin who just started a carpentry apprenticeship? No. Would I recommend it to his 20-year-old sister who is interested in travelling soon? Yes.

Eat, Pray, Love is a memoir. It isn’t a guidebook, a self-help book or yoga-for-dummies. It is the story of what one woman did when she realised her life was in crisis, and how she found her way out of it and back to a place where she could love again. Sure, she may have had the money (only because she got a book deal out of her planned trip) and other means to get herself there, but who are we to judge how this woman changed her life? And who are we to judge those who take her story for what it is and enjoy it? Oh yes, she’s so bourgeois, taking a trip around the globe to fix her upper class problems. Give me a break. If I were in her shoes, depressed and recently divorced I would do whatever the heck makes me happy again, whether that be growing my own veggies, working my way through a Morrocan cooking book or, perhaps, flying half way around the world and learning to meditate like a boss.

Taken for what it is, Eat, Pray, Love is clever, insightful and invigorating to read. Italy is so delicious and extravagant, India is so thought provoking and inspiring, Bali is so hopeful and blissful. Each one has something new to offer, and each chapter brings a fresh new idea. You might as well give it a try, millions of fans can’t be too wrong, can they?

Book Review: Never Let Me Go

“You’re waiting, even if you don’t quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don’t hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you – of how you were brought into this world and why – and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs.” (p. 36)

Lauren's Opinion:

 

Never Let Me Go is the story of a group of children, their growing up and their dealing with the expectations that life has for them. The thing is these children aren’t quite normal children and their lives, while at first seemingly regular, are far different from anything we could imagine.

This book is slow and heartbreaking and Ishiguro crafts the words so delicately that at times the prose nears poetic. The central idea of the plot is made early on and quite clearly. I know as a reader I understood it quickly, but it’s an idea so horrifying to really comprehend that I still spent the whole story hoping that I was wrong.

Narrated by central character Kathy H, her account of her childhood and adolescence is tragically cheerful and the description she gives of the English countryside, her school buildings and friends is stunning. Ishiguro is a master of creating intelligent characters with great psychological depth, and from the seemingly incidental characters like Moira B and Jenny B, to the supporting leads Tommy and Ruth, he has obviously taken great care to bring these people to life.  

I first heard about Never Let Me Go when Kater posted about it on All This Happiness, and after reading her review and watching the film trailer I couldn’t believe this book hadn’t caused more hype in my world, though judging by the string of awards it won and was nominated for, it obviously did in the book world. The film is finally being released here today (!) and I’m really looking forward to seeing it. I’d really recommend that anyone who wants to see the film get a hold of the book first, though from all accounts the movie version is just as wonderful.

A look at the film trailer, just to whet your appetite:  

Ell-Leigh's Opinion:

Ishiguro tells the story with such precision and subtlety, creating the world of a young schoolgirl with such wisdom it’s as if he had grasped it straight from reality. The tension builds delicately and remains as a shadow informing each moment. The characters are so relatable and truthful that the questions of ethics and morality affect deeply, all the while the full extent of the reality isn’t yet known. It’s a book so complexly and beautifully written it’s difficult to piece together sentences about it, it’s a book that will both satisfy and confront you. It is brilliant, a precious gem.

 

Book Review: The Family Law

When I realised I only had two chapters left of this wonderful book, I felt a sense of loss; I would never again be able to discover this book for the first time. I proceeded to mope around my apartment for the next 15 minutes, heartbroken over its imminent conclusion… And I still had two chapters to go.

As a Frankie reader for years I expected this book to be well written, funny and touching, but as it turned out it was all that and so much more. It is a beautiful book full of hilarious anecdotes and tender moments, bizarre stories and obscure instances that pang with a strangeness that fiction simply cannot provide. I had pompously assumed that the book would be quite ‘samey’, each chapter being just more ironic domestic narrative like the last – how wrong I was. It grew beautifully, with each chapter bringing a new layer of complexity and understanding to its characters. It feels cliché to say that I feel as if Ben Law is like a friend to me after reading this (rather than just a writer I follow on twitter) but it’s hard to describe it in any other way; I feel now as though I have the kind of new understanding of the world that comes with seeing it through a friend’s eyes.

This book is a great read, it’s warm, hilarious and charming, and I imagine I will read and reread it until its covers fall off… At which point I will desperately order another copy (to read and reread until its covers fall off too, probably, and then rinse and repeat). Seriously, just find a copy of this book and read it.

You can get a copy of it (and the image credit comes from) here

Book Review - "I Wouldn’t Start From Here: A Misguided Tour of the Early 21st Century" by Andrew Mueller

“If any of us harboured doubts that the pre-war tales of Iraq’s fearsome weapons stockpile had been the most fabulous crock of nonsense, they were dispelled by poking around the offices. On one floor, each room was devoted to one of Iraq’s potential enemies. There was a Turkey room, a Saudi Arabia room, an Iran room, an Israel room. The walls of each were covered with maps of the corresponding country, red stickers indicating potential targets. Around these maps, rather touchingly, were pictures of fighter aircraft, cut out of the back issues of Jane’s Defence Weekly that littered the floors. The Iraqi defence establishment which, we’d been told, was plotting to lay us waste in forty-five minutes, had in fact been making collages. If I imagined the Iraqi officers making ‘Zoom! Kapow!’ noises as they stuck the pictures up, it was kind of heartbreaking. A wall was covered with a lovingly painted artwork of all the things the Iraqi air force hadn’t had: fighter plans, AWACS aircraft, satellites.”

(Taken from Chapter 10: Iraq, Baghdad, p 122)

It’s hard to stick a genre to Andrew Mueller’s I Wouldn’t Start From Here: A Misguided Tour of the Early 21^st Century, though Picador (publisher) have typed it as Memoir/Travel. Wherever it fits, it’s a remarkable tome that is a must read for those interested in the affairs of our world for the past decade.

In the authors own words, I Wouldn’t Start From Here “is a random history of the twenty-first century so far as seen by one peripatetic hack” (p 3). An Australian journalist, though he doesn’t count himself as a ‘proper’ one, Andrew Mueller has experienced and reported on wars and conflicts across the globe. He has come into contact with oppressors and the oppressed, soldiers and civilians, thieves, murderers, martyrs and refugees. As the book guides the reader through accounts set in Jerusalem, Kosovo, Baghdad and many others, it is the stories of these people, told without prejudice or bias, that shine through.

Mueller writes with both compassion and a dark comedic edge, his prose is alluring and yet refreshingly blunt. His ability to encapsulate an entire event; its politics and hype and tragedy, within a few words, make this book really special and sets it apart from others in its field. He is a master of selecting the clearest imagery to give the reader an exact idea of what was going on in the war torn countries he visited.

The book is hefty, but then, so has been the history it covers. Handily divided up into chapters each covering a separate conflict and place, I found it made for a long term read, Mueller’s captivating writing does not bore over time. In each chapter I found myself falling for the various characters he met along his journeys and hoped, though I fear it isn’t the case, that they were all still out there surviving. Definitely the most remarkable aspect of this book, Mueller time and again brings war away from a dispute over land, oil or religion and back to the killing, terrorising and freedom taking of people, a message sometimes lost in our ever noisy, media blasted world.

In today’s modern world it can be difficult to keep up just with what’s going on around the globe, which wars have started and ended, who is hating who and which countries do and don’t exist. Mueller’s book gives a stunning yet easy to access guide to what’s been going on in the last decade (or so) and is an all out great and informative read.

Edit: I neglected to add that I actually borrowed this book from my dad (who has since reminded me of my forgetfullness regularly!) who has an amazing knowledge of war history himself and obviously pretty good book taste. Just goes to show, good literary taste can transcend generations!

As You Wish; or, Ell-Leigh reads The Princess Bride, sighs melodramatically every 5 minutes for rest of the week.

I tend to read books after I see the movies, eg; The Lovely Bones, Eat Pray Love, Interview with a Vampire. Most of the time one tends to out-do the other in my opinion, one I enjoy more, one’s plot is significantly more entertaining or likeable, one has an attractive cast and all the other has is my imagination (a device which has its ups and downs). Many times when I’ve seen a film and have a copy of the novel in my hot little hands I don’t know what to expect from it, especially when I’ve enjoyed the movie so much. This was the case when I decided to read The Princess Bride.

My sister had just finished reading it, and so we rented the film from our nearby Video Ezy. Like many people my age, I watched this film over and over as a child, and when I went to read the novel, I had a very different picture of what this novel was going to be like. This is one book that shouldn’t be judged by its movie.

Imagine the film – Pretty maiden turn princess, Carey Elwes being nothing short of the perfect man, crazy-ass cliffs, sword fights, piracy, an epic battle of the wits, Billy Crystal… Now imagine it’s deeper, and darker, and with more layers. It also has an amusing, entirely fictional account of the dramas the author went through getting his overweight son to read the “original” novel, apparently written by one “Morgenstein”, and then his attempt to “abridge” it. It is clever, tightly knit and adorable; an inconceivably good read.

Not that it is necessarily more “adult”; the themes are just much darker, the torture is crueler, the heartbreak is deeper. Humperdink’s character in particular is fleshed out a lot more in the book – he is truly terrifying and evil, on par with some of the most horrible villains fiction has ever created, with his gruesome “Zoo of Death” and morbid hunting obsession. Inigo and Fezzik are given detailed back-stories, which the reader can’t help but eat up like some delicious comforting stew. The story is precisely what you want from a fairytale, and reading it is nothing short of joy.