I didn’t want to like this book.
Firstly, it’s a self-help book (eye-roll). Secondly, it’s about “magic” and the “mysteries” of the “universe” (eye-roll x 2). And thirdly, it’s written by an author who divides people like cheese or chocolate.
I digress. I had to read it for book club, so I pushed on, forced to read it by peer pressure and with the knowledge that come at the end of it, I would be able to rip it to shreds over a huge glass of piss a fine Pinot Noir.
And it was awful. There was so much eye-rolling that my corneas began to ache. But by the time I finished the book, by the time I made it to book club, it wasn’t me ripping it to shreds. I was the one standing there, gallantly defending a self-help book that I normally wouldn’t have pissed on if it was on fire.
I’m calling it magic.
It’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic.
You may remember Gilbert from her best-selling midlife-crisis-tome Eat Pray Love. Now her latest book is dividing book clubs. It’s split my friendship group squarely down the middle. There are two types of people in my life now: those that love Gilbert and her teachings and those who want her to STFU and magic herself into a Balinese Ashram with no WIFI or connection with the outside world. Ever.
Listen to the excellent book discussion, here. Or keep on reading, below:
Listen in itunes OR Open the audio in another window
There is no middle ground.
The book is all about how to live a more creative life. Why? ‘cos life can get boring and creativity is great. Got it? Cool. Yep. With you there.
But the central premise of this book is where things get a bit… ummm… esoteric. The argument that Gilbert puts forward is that no one actually owns any original ideas. Instead, they float about in a kind of spiritual ether, like idea-ghosts, which raises questions that go unanswered: Do they grow in a jelly-like mucas-eggsac thing? Do elves make them? Do they live like farts in jars, just fermenting until a wizard releases them?