Interview With Elizabeth Gilbert, Author Of Eat Pray Love: "I'm A Physically Lazy Person"

Saturday's edition of The Guardian has an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of perennial bestseller, Eat Pray Love.

On her "mid-life crisis":

"I think it was a crisis because the pressure was on to have kids...My ex-husband was very eager to do it. There was no neutral position. Me saying I don't want to have kids was effectively me saying I don't want to be married, if that's what the conditions of the marriage were. I'd also lived a very accelerated decade in my 20s. My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with people who were much older. I think I might have been temporally misplaced, so I thought I was 40. It was a premature midlife crisis."

On her ex-husband and their divorce:

"He and I, we don't speak any more. It was really severed and we absolutely disagree on the narrative. There's zero intersection. After months of therapy together, we still absolutely disagreed on what happened and I think the fact that two people can't even agree on the story line is pretty indicative of why we're not living together."

On her family dynamics:

"I had an easier life than [my sister] did because I had an easier personality and it was easier for people to be sweet to me."

On her work ethic:

"I resented every moment I had to work; I'm a physically lazy person. My sister was tougher and stronger and more disciplined. It was easier to do my chores for me than to get me to do them."

On her newfound fame:

"Or they want me to read their book. Or come and speak at their kids' schools. Sell their line of jewellery. Introduce them to a guru. Tell them if they should get divorced. It's been educational for me because I've spent a lot of my life trying to make sure people get what they want when they encounter me. I've always been afraid of saying no to people because I don't want them to be disappointed and dislike me. It's been revelatory to learn that when you say no to people, they're really disappointed and they dislike you."

Read the whole interview here...

Comments

[princessk]

I thought the travelling was a trusty (okay...maybe a little cliche) device for chronicling her "recovery" from the trauma of her divorce. I doubt few who go through similar life-altering experiences will embark on a literal yearlong odyssey like Gilbert did, but they still might relate to the grieving and renewal process that she undergoes through the course of her journey.

The places she goes to and the people she meets and the things she does over the course of the year are interesting in and of themselves, although my main criticism is that she's moving around so much that you often are left wanting to know more about a place but are whisked away. Good armchair travel for the winter months, though.

[flow555]

I absolutlely loved this book and bought quite a few copies to hand out to friends. Some of them loved it like I did, and others had strong negative reactions. I found it curious that the book was so polarizing. My theory is that Eat Pray Love is just too brutally honest for some people, who have not (yet?) gone down that path, of taking a long look at their lives warts and all. I find it hard to understand why folks would bother to criticize a person for honestly admitting that her life has gone wrong, and then taking the difficult steps to get it back on track. And then to share it all, with strangers! To me, it all very courageous.

[elenanatx]

I agree...it was a fabulous story. For all that didn't agree I figure they are envious of the freedom Elizabeth had to go about the world and find her peace. I have friends that have read it because I told them it was so good and they complained that it wasn't realistic, NOT! I told them they know me and know that my life has been an adventure so how can they assume she is not realistic. Noting but jealousy . Some of the people on this post think her way is only for First Class women, LOL Every american women who travels to other countries in search of finding freedom, peace and love for herself, does not have to do it like working for missionaries. Get real!

[ndem]

Everyone told me to read this book as I had lived for long periods in the same places she had....I completely did not relate to her experiences and it felt like a Prozac version of an out of touch gringo trail traveller...I did not get it at all. Something bored divorced housewives in bali read in First Class lounges.

[Blueline]

Wow, that's a bit hostile.

I'm not bored, not divorced, and not a housewife. I've never been to Bali or a "First Class" lounge. And I found this book to be entertaining and thoughtful.

I am a gringa, though. So I'm sure you'll dismiss my post as out of touch.

[tipsypaca]

Wonderful book, I'm saving my copy to re-read probably next year. I've given copies to friends and they all loved it.

[Promise]

I loved the book, have told many people about it, given a couple of copies away. Just last week, one of my friends asked me if Elizabeth was still with the new man. I wondered about that myself. So I'm very pleased to read this article and learn that she is indeed, living very happilly ever after!

[Theda]

I read her book.....I tried to like it and I wanted to like it. But I felt a lot of it was contrived and fictionalized. So many "memoirs" are nowadays. The ending seemed stereotyped and fake.

[Dr. Cara Barker - Huffpost Blogger]

I want to thank the interviewer, and you, Elizabeth, for sharing your story. I have no clue what your ex's version might be, and frankly, I do not care. Many, many times I have sent clients to the bookstore to pick up your narrative. You have a way of writing that invites the reader inside for a cup of tea, a chuckle, a tear, and most of all, hope through the ashes. My experience is that you are the real deal.

And, no, my dear, it is not necessary to do a thing for me. I simply want to thank you for being you in the way only you can be!

All the best,
Cara Barker

[cayuse]

Well you should love your neightbor as yourself and your enemies too.

Sounds like you have found a way. While most of us are in delusion of being selfish and justify it as independence and not enabling others bad habit. Myself ,I am struggling with my own senses as you are not with others, justifying one more cigarette, bottle of beer etc., and like you my senses do not like me either if I don't give them what they want. It's easier to give in.

[lewes17266]

cayuse,

try replacing the bad habits with something else and see what happens.

i mean, you are obviously already talking to yourself and you already understand the craziness of an ego-consciousness, so you have to talk to yourself and make up your mind to do this almost all the time.

you know, tell yourself "no, instead do this."

take a walk, have a club soda with lemon, eat a healthy fresh snack.

just as you would tell a person who you love "no" to wrong choices, tell yourself "no" too because you love yourself that much!