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The Signature of All Things A Novel Elizabeth Gilbert 8601401166511 Books

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The Signature of All Things A Novel Elizabeth Gilbert 8601401166511 Books

I have devoured Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love twice, reading it voraciously. I have even had a session with her Bali medicine man, Ketut Liyer. So when a friend recommended Gilbert’s novel The Signature of All Things, I knew I must immediately purchase it and read it. The book is an amazing achievement. It is a saga of one woman, Alma Whitaker, from her birth to her imminent death. We follow Alma through her early teenage years to old age, filling most of the nineteenth century. We see the world through her eyes, a world that includes Pennsylvania, Tahiti, and Holland. Through it all, she views the world with the questioning sensibility of a true scientist as she ponders our purpose on earth and the evolution of mosses, her specialty. She encounters some remarkable characters along the way: her stern, incredibly rich father; the charming young man with whom she falls in love; the frail, ethereal orchid artist whom she marries; the strange English missionary in Tahiti; the strong, beautiful, god-like Tahitian native; her supportive Dutch uncle; and the unusual younger scientist with whom she shares a theory of life. There are women, too, in her life: her sister, her teenage friend, her childhood nursemaid, her mother, and a strong Tahitian woman. But Alma lives in a man’s world, and her life is most influenced by the men she encounters. Gilbert’s novel is meticulously researched, capturing the worlds of botany, of the Tahiti of the mid-1800s, the era of Darwin’s theory, and the spirituality that Alma is exposed to. Gilbert’s writing is skillful. She manages to make us believe that her novel is not one written in the 21st century, but rather a work that could have been written by Henry James or Charles Dickens. This rich work is not an easy read. It is just short of 500 pages, most of it narrative that is complex with science and nature. But its message is a grand one…we are on this earth for a reason, and quite possibly, there is a spiritual force that guides us, communes with us—and that those that come before us never die. They remain in our hearts and minds to continue leading us, counseling us, and loving us.


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The Signature of All Things A Novel Elizabeth Gilbert 8601401166511 Books Reviews

I think I am the only person on the planet who did not like Eat, Love, Pray. In fact, not only did I not like it, I actually kind of hated it. Therefore, when a member of our reading group suggested we read The Signature of All Things by the same author, I resisted the suggestion with all my might and charm. Alas, I lost the battle (my charm ain't what it used to be).

This is why I was surprised down to my socks when I gobbled the first 300 pages of this book down like a giant bucket of popcorn at the movies. I couldn't believe this book had been penned by the same author as Eat, Love, Pray. The writing was robust, the characters were compelling, the storyline riveting and most of all, there was a historical and educational richness that made you feel like you were getting smarter and smarter with every page you turned. In this way, Gilbert's novel reminded me of the historical fiction by authors James Michener and Leon Uris. I had even started imagining my critique to my reading group that would include such accolades as "one of my favorite books of all time."

Not so fast. Around page 300 I hit the skids with this book and hit them big. The reading went from sailing through chapter after chapter with the wind at my back on a sea of glass, to slogging my way through each page as if I were hip deep in a muddy bog with three bags of groceries in my arms. My sense is that Gilbert ran out of steam. In some ways, the story deflated slowly, as with the fortunes and foibles of some of the main characters, but mostly, there was a sudden shift in tone, storyline, and even the style of writing. I swear it seemed like a different person took over the writing of the last 200 pages. The longer that this workman-like writing and irksome plot continued, the angrier I got that the author had taken me to the celestial heights of reading pleasure, only to drop me to the dark depths of reading despair. Okay, that was a little dramatic, but you get my point. I wish Ms. Gilbert's editors had applied as firm a hand to the end of the book, as they did at the beginning.

Now, once and for all, I am done with Elizabeth Gilbert (unless, of course, she shows up on my doorstep and politely asks me to read her next book and then I certainly will.) -)

Final note almost everyone else in my reading group felt the same way I did. There were a couple of people who didn't like the book from the start, but for those who did, their feelings had changed drastically by the end.
I have devoured Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love twice, reading it voraciously. I have even had a session with her Bali medicine man, Ketut Liyer. So when a friend recommended Gilbert’s novel The Signature of All Things, I knew I must immediately purchase it and read it. The book is an amazing achievement. It is a saga of one woman, Alma Whitaker, from her birth to her imminent death. We follow Alma through her early teenage years to old age, filling most of the nineteenth century. We see the world through her eyes, a world that includes Pennsylvania, Tahiti, and Holland. Through it all, she views the world with the questioning sensibility of a true scientist as she ponders our purpose on earth and the evolution of mosses, her specialty. She encounters some remarkable characters along the way her stern, incredibly rich father; the charming young man with whom she falls in love; the frail, ethereal orchid artist whom she marries; the strange English missionary in Tahiti; the strong, beautiful, god-like Tahitian native; her supportive Dutch uncle; and the unusual younger scientist with whom she shares a theory of life. There are women, too, in her life her sister, her teenage friend, her childhood nursemaid, her mother, and a strong Tahitian woman. But Alma lives in a man’s world, and her life is most influenced by the men she encounters. Gilbert’s novel is meticulously researched, capturing the worlds of botany, of the Tahiti of the mid-1800s, the era of Darwin’s theory, and the spirituality that Alma is exposed to. Gilbert’s writing is skillful. She manages to make us believe that her novel is not one written in the 21st century, but rather a work that could have been written by Henry James or Charles Dickens. This rich work is not an easy read. It is just short of 500 pages, most of it narrative that is complex with science and nature. But its message is a grand one…we are on this earth for a reason, and quite possibly, there is a spiritual force that guides us, communes with us—and that those that come before us never die. They remain in our hearts and minds to continue leading us, counseling us, and loving us.