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A review by bhnmt61
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
4.0
Of course I’ve never met Elizabeth Gilbert but I still want to dislike her. The way she presents herself is (to me) annoyingly self-confident and unconflicted, and while I can go along with a fair amount of woo-woo, she is sometimes too much woo-woo for me. I like my mysticism grounded with a bit of snark and some common sense, thank you very much. I barely made it through Eat,pray,love, finding it more and more smug as it went along. BUT. She is also annoyingly wise, and good at putting that wisdom into words.
This book, Big Magic, a book about creativity, is just as annoyingly full of itself as Gilbert’s other work- it just astonishes me that she can write what amounts to an artistic self-help book and use herself as the example of all the good and right ways to approach creativity. Who does that? Aren’t you supposed to occasionally have problems with creativity? Shouldn’t you build camaraderie with your readers by showing how you share the same struggles they do? Apparently she doesn’t think so. According to this book, Gilbert has had a handle on how to be creative since she was about eight and made a vow to pursue her writing, and she is able to use herself as an example of all her recommended approaches to creativity. And you know what? It still works. Even given all these gripes about the book, even though I nearly put it down a couple of times, I learned a lot and I will probably even re-read it at some point. I don’t know how she does it. I’m really irritated at giving it four stars but I liked it that much, when I wasn’t rolling my eyes.
This book, Big Magic, a book about creativity, is just as annoyingly full of itself as Gilbert’s other work- it just astonishes me that she can write what amounts to an artistic self-help book and use herself as the example of all the good and right ways to approach creativity. Who does that? Aren’t you supposed to occasionally have problems with creativity? Shouldn’t you build camaraderie with your readers by showing how you share the same struggles they do? Apparently she doesn’t think so. According to this book, Gilbert has had a handle on how to be creative since she was about eight and made a vow to pursue her writing, and she is able to use herself as an example of all her recommended approaches to creativity. And you know what? It still works. Even given all these gripes about the book, even though I nearly put it down a couple of times, I learned a lot and I will probably even re-read it at some point. I don’t know how she does it. I’m really irritated at giving it four stars but I liked it that much, when I wasn’t rolling my eyes.