For years I’ve let other people’s opinions of the book
"Eat, Pray, Love" mar my perception of it. Without having read it, I believed my friends, fans, and fellow writers when they said the narrator was “spoiled” and “entitled” and I nodded eagerly when they said, “Isn’t it silly how Elizabeth Gilbert got to travel for a year staying in fancy hotels and eating at expensive restaurants all on the money from her book advance? Not exactly hard-core travel.”
These opinions from other people only fueled my already mixed feelings toward "Eat, Pray, Love" which, I realized at the time had something to do with jealousy and with life being unfair.
OK, I hated this book without ever having read it. I was an anti-Eat Pay Love-ite.
Back in 2006, my second travel memoir "Kiss the Sunset Pig" was coming out with Penguin Canada. I also wanted a US publisher so my agent sent it to Penguin USA. The reply from Penguin USA soon came. The editor really liked my book, saying it was “a hilarious, inspiring, exceptionally well-written personal odyssey, an original and fascinating quest.” But unfortunately, they couldn’t publish it. Why? Because that same year, Penguin USA was releasing another woman’s travel memoir that was similar, and although the writers “traveled in very different styles” the books were alike enough that they’d compete against each other, something publishers avoid. Also, the other writer was American, which would make it more saleable than a book written by someone Canadian and only a little bit American.
You can guess what that other book turned out to be. That’s right: “I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.”
Kidding! "Eat, Pray, Love" was released with Penguin USA in 2006.
Soon, you couldn’t go a day without Eat, Pray, Love raining down on you in some form. The book was an international best-selling mega sensation: Oprah, Eat-Pray-Love Vacation Tours, fan clubs, book clubs, t-shirts, a Julia Roberts movie. A Julie Roberts movie where the male lead was Javier Bardem! I realize this didn't mean that Elizabeth Gilbert herself would actually get to kiss Javier Bardem, but still, pretty close.
Meanwhile, Penguin Canada put about sixty dollars into publicizing my book.
So you can see why I had a slight resentment toward the book, especially when people told me how similar they thought our books were, or worse, they told me they liked mine much better. I didn’t want to hear that. Man, did I hate that book.
But then, last week, finally, after all this time, I read it. And as I read it, I found myself enjoying it. I found myself cheering Gilbert on through her difficult divorce and broken-hearted love affair, her escape to Italy to find the world’s best food. I was enthralled with her spiritual quest at the ashram in India. As for her finding a man in Bali, I was excited for her—and I’d once found a handsome man there myself and written about it. In short, I was thrilled for Gilbert’s hard-fought happiness at the book’s end.
I no longer resent Elizabeth Gilbert nor any of Eat, Pray, Love's success. As for the author being “spoiled” and “entitled” and “self-indulgent”, I find those criticisms unfair. Her book chronicles a year when she was trying to find another life for herself, one that truly reflected who she was. As several reviewers have pointed out, her book and both of mine really are similar—we just travel a little differently, as that editor had pointed out. We’re all entitled to tell our stories and if they’re well-written and true to who we are, they should be acclaimed. These are days of rushed multi-tasking and sound bites, when it’s easier to watch Netflix, or for kids to play video games, than to sit in a quiet corner and read a book. This means that every time a well-written book wins big, we all win. Every time an author becomes a millionaire, we should raise our glasses for the written word. Cheers, Eat, Pray, Love!
I so never thought I’d say that.
"Eat, Pray, Love" mar my perception of it. Without having read it, I believed my friends, fans, and fellow writers when they said the narrator was “spoiled” and “entitled” and I nodded eagerly when they said, “Isn’t it silly how Elizabeth Gilbert got to travel for a year staying in fancy hotels and eating at expensive restaurants all on the money from her book advance? Not exactly hard-core travel.”
These opinions from other people only fueled my already mixed feelings toward "Eat, Pray, Love" which, I realized at the time had something to do with jealousy and with life being unfair.
OK, I hated this book without ever having read it. I was an anti-Eat Pay Love-ite.
Back in 2006, my second travel memoir "Kiss the Sunset Pig" was coming out with Penguin Canada. I also wanted a US publisher so my agent sent it to Penguin USA. The reply from Penguin USA soon came. The editor really liked my book, saying it was “a hilarious, inspiring, exceptionally well-written personal odyssey, an original and fascinating quest.” But unfortunately, they couldn’t publish it. Why? Because that same year, Penguin USA was releasing another woman’s travel memoir that was similar, and although the writers “traveled in very different styles” the books were alike enough that they’d compete against each other, something publishers avoid. Also, the other writer was American, which would make it more saleable than a book written by someone Canadian and only a little bit American.
You can guess what that other book turned out to be. That’s right: “I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.”
Kidding! "Eat, Pray, Love" was released with Penguin USA in 2006.
Soon, you couldn’t go a day without Eat, Pray, Love raining down on you in some form. The book was an international best-selling mega sensation: Oprah, Eat-Pray-Love Vacation Tours, fan clubs, book clubs, t-shirts, a Julia Roberts movie. A Julie Roberts movie where the male lead was Javier Bardem! I realize this didn't mean that Elizabeth Gilbert herself would actually get to kiss Javier Bardem, but still, pretty close.
Meanwhile, Penguin Canada put about sixty dollars into publicizing my book.
So you can see why I had a slight resentment toward the book, especially when people told me how similar they thought our books were, or worse, they told me they liked mine much better. I didn’t want to hear that. Man, did I hate that book.
But then, last week, finally, after all this time, I read it. And as I read it, I found myself enjoying it. I found myself cheering Gilbert on through her difficult divorce and broken-hearted love affair, her escape to Italy to find the world’s best food. I was enthralled with her spiritual quest at the ashram in India. As for her finding a man in Bali, I was excited for her—and I’d once found a handsome man there myself and written about it. In short, I was thrilled for Gilbert’s hard-fought happiness at the book’s end.
I no longer resent Elizabeth Gilbert nor any of Eat, Pray, Love's success. As for the author being “spoiled” and “entitled” and “self-indulgent”, I find those criticisms unfair. Her book chronicles a year when she was trying to find another life for herself, one that truly reflected who she was. As several reviewers have pointed out, her book and both of mine really are similar—we just travel a little differently, as that editor had pointed out. We’re all entitled to tell our stories and if they’re well-written and true to who we are, they should be acclaimed. These are days of rushed multi-tasking and sound bites, when it’s easier to watch Netflix, or for kids to play video games, than to sit in a quiet corner and read a book. This means that every time a well-written book wins big, we all win. Every time an author becomes a millionaire, we should raise our glasses for the written word. Cheers, Eat, Pray, Love!
I so never thought I’d say that.
RSS Feed
