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A review by loreash
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
4.0
I'm rarely compelled to write any sort of review, but it is different with this book.
This is my third book by Gilbert and I am enchanted by her writing style. Others have stated that she made several mistakes writing this biography. I disagree. I disagree because I don't believe it is supposed to be a biography. It's not hard facts about the the main "characters" life. This is a story... Told through the eyes of his friends, family, himself, and yes, even Gilbert. As with her other books, it's a study of a life through her eyes, mixed with hard facts, evidence, and other's voices. If you go into this thinking it will be a biography, you will be disappointed with her opinions and musings.
I enjoyed the book. Though I'm still unsure if I enjoyed Eustace Conway. My dad is a "mountain man" and I was actually hoping to read about someone far more similar to him. This was not the case. Eustace is compelled to fix this country and teach everyone to live a more natural way to the detriment of his own life. Living a simplistic lifestyle, in the woods, is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to help you become one with the earth and nature. When one goes backpacking for a week or two in the back country, you fall into the rhythms of our earth. You sleep when she tells you to, you awake (at the butt crack of dawn) because she is greeting you. The light hours you work hard to hike, set up camp, prepare food, tend to any wounds, and try to enjoy yourself while you're at it. Eustace doesn't seem to know HOW to enjoy himself in just about anything he does dealing with nature! He teaches that this is the best way to live, yet he is miserable.
This is my favorite passage, and it pretty much sums up the books for me: pg 265 "have you ever wondered," I asked, "if you might benefit the world more by actually living the life you always talk about? I mean, isn't that what were all here for? Aren't we each supposed to try to love the most enlightened and honest life we can? And when our actions contradict our values, don't we just fuck everything up even more?"
Pg. 266 "you're always telling us how happy we could be if we lived I'm the woods. But when people. One up here to love with you,what they end up seeing is your stress and frustration at having so many people around and being overwhelmed with responsibilities. So of course they don't absorb the lesson, Eustace. They hear your message but they can't feel your message, and that's why it doesn't work. Do you ever wonder about that?"
This is my third book by Gilbert and I am enchanted by her writing style. Others have stated that she made several mistakes writing this biography. I disagree. I disagree because I don't believe it is supposed to be a biography. It's not hard facts about the the main "characters" life. This is a story... Told through the eyes of his friends, family, himself, and yes, even Gilbert. As with her other books, it's a study of a life through her eyes, mixed with hard facts, evidence, and other's voices. If you go into this thinking it will be a biography, you will be disappointed with her opinions and musings.
I enjoyed the book. Though I'm still unsure if I enjoyed Eustace Conway. My dad is a "mountain man" and I was actually hoping to read about someone far more similar to him. This was not the case. Eustace is compelled to fix this country and teach everyone to live a more natural way to the detriment of his own life. Living a simplistic lifestyle, in the woods, is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to help you become one with the earth and nature. When one goes backpacking for a week or two in the back country, you fall into the rhythms of our earth. You sleep when she tells you to, you awake (at the butt crack of dawn) because she is greeting you. The light hours you work hard to hike, set up camp, prepare food, tend to any wounds, and try to enjoy yourself while you're at it. Eustace doesn't seem to know HOW to enjoy himself in just about anything he does dealing with nature! He teaches that this is the best way to live, yet he is miserable.
This is my favorite passage, and it pretty much sums up the books for me: pg 265 "have you ever wondered," I asked, "if you might benefit the world more by actually living the life you always talk about? I mean, isn't that what were all here for? Aren't we each supposed to try to love the most enlightened and honest life we can? And when our actions contradict our values, don't we just fuck everything up even more?"
Pg. 266 "you're always telling us how happy we could be if we lived I'm the woods. But when people. One up here to love with you,what they end up seeing is your stress and frustration at having so many people around and being overwhelmed with responsibilities. So of course they don't absorb the lesson, Eustace. They hear your message but they can't feel your message, and that's why it doesn't work. Do you ever wonder about that?"