Monday Moments - All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert

 All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert is a stunning memoir about love, passion, abuse, craving, and redemption. 

cover blurb : In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) met Rayya Elias. They became friends, then best friends, then lovers - a pair of addicts on a collision course to  catastrophe.  Self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner.  What if your most devastating heartbreak opened  a pathway to your greatest awakening? 

I have to say this was amazing, frustrating, annoying, and yet compelling to read. I don't think I would have  liked these two in person when they were fighting - way  too intense. Rayya sounds like an intriguing person who could be way, way too much.  Elizabeth Gilbert can be almost too into herself (in my  opinion). And Yet......I found myself turning  pages, shaking my head, and fascinated at watching the trainwreck. Then sad for the finale.  

This would not be everyone's cup  of tea,  but I'm glad I read it (yeah, I sorta speed read through a lot). 

July Junque: Day 26

Ever since Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert has been on an upward trajectory. I liked that book (especially the eating in Italy section), and have read others. Her latest, The Signature of All Things, is now in paperback. I reviewed it many moons ago. She's interviewed in Entertainment Weekly (August 1st issue) and seems down to earth with a good sense of humor.

Here are few blurbs from that interview -
they ask her to name a book considered overrated - Having written a book that many people consider grossly overrated, I feel the only polite thing for me to do here is to gently dodge the question. (I am deeply sympathetic to authors who get pegged. We are a brotherhood of the apologetic and the abashed.)

any books you wished you'd written?  Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. All you can do in the presence of such singular genius is to bow down in wonder.

time you tried to buy your own book?   I recently tried to buy a copy of The Signature of All Things, in an Atlanta bookstore, only 10 minutes after I had finished a big event there. I asked the clerk and she'd never heard of it.  Say what?  Oh well, never mind.

things you've written that make you cringe and/or proud?  I feel cringey whenever I read passionate old essays of mine.
I am sincerely proud of all my books, though. If you've worked at something with all your heart, then you should feel free to love it with all your heart - no matter how it holds up or doesn't hold up over time.

July Junque - good writing advice - stay proud of your work, if you truly gave it your heart and soul.

Book Review: The Signature of All Things

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert is an impressive story of "desire, adventure, and a thirst for knowledge." (cover blurb). The book covers the late 1700s and into the 1800s following the Whittaker family. Henry Whittaker, a poor English boy, makes his fortune in South America and turns his vast botanical knowledge and connections into a broad business based in Philadelphia. His daughter, Alma, born into a now wealthy household, is brilliant but not beautiful. Her research takes "her into the central mysteries of evolution. But she falls for a man who draws her in the opposite direction - the realm of spiritual, divine, and magical. "

From London, Peru, Philadelphia, Tahiti, and Amsterdam - "The Signature of All Things" is a sweeping panorama of life. Its unforgettable characters - missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, geniuses, and the mad - all tell a tale of life's ups and downs. New ideas, new discoveries are exciting. Then there's heartache and heartbreak - nothing new there. Elizabeth Gilbert's rich writing kept me mesmerized. This is a dense read, but fantastic in its details, emotions, and plot lines.

p. 447 Alma writes "Anything less than a fight for endurance is cowardly. Anything less than a fight for endurance is a refusal of the great covenant of life."

"The Signature of All Things" will stick with you - the characters, nature, and you'll find yourself looking at moss growing on a tree in a whole new light.