Book reviews: inside the all-encompassing world of the Eat, Pray, Love aficionados
Plus: challenging ageism, the last acceptable prejudice; and a winning voice in the popular science field
by various authors
Riverhead Books (e-book)
2/5 stars
The music world may still lead the way in rehashing old stuff – unheard versions, expanded editions – but publishers are beginning to go one better. With the subtitle Life Journeys Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir, this volume of touchy-feely life-affirming essays is much more than a reboot of Eat, Pray, Love. It’s a worshipful book about that bestseller, content chosen and with an introduction by the high priestess of me, myself, I, Elizabeth Gilbert. Neglected, abused and adrift women learning to stand up for themselves – the 47 contributors are almost all female – in a lopsidedly male world isn’t a bad idea, but must the accompanying revelations be so cloying? And does Gilbert, author of the original volume, here commemorated on its 10th anniversary, really have to be deified? “Liz’s mantras are what get me through,” slobbers one acolyte. Eat was a publisher-subsidised ticket to enlightenment (with stops in Italy, India and Indonesia). Then again, it cures anorexia, depression, panic attacks and heartache, so perhaps I’m just too cynical about all this stuff. Give me Gilbert’s The Last American Man any day. Now that examination of the male identity would be worthy of articles discussing how it transformed lives.
by Ashton Applewhite