CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (NPR, 9-27-14)
Eat Pray Love author gets quizzed on Dieting, Blasphemy, Hate
Elizabeth Gilbert was a successful magazine writer in New York when she went through a life crisis and decided to travel the world. When she got back, her book Eat Pray Love become one of the biggest best-sellers of the past decade, along with its sequel Committed. Her latest novel is called The Signature of All Things.We've invited Gilbert to play a game called "I refuse to eat, pray, or love." Three questions about dieting, blasphemy, and hate.
PETER SAGAL, HOST: And now the game where we take people who have accomplished big things and ask them to do a very little thing, that is, play our game, Not My Job. Elizabeth Gilbert was a successful magazine writer in New York when she went through a life crisis and decided to travel. When she got back, her book Eat Pray Love became one of the biggest bestsellers of the last decade along with its sequel, Committed. She has a new novel out called The Signature of All Things. She joins us now. Liz Gilbert, welcome to WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME. (APPLAUSE)
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| Author Gilbert (Jennifer Schatten/The Penguin Group/NPR) |
ELIZABETH GILBERT: Thank you.
SAGAL: So there might be one or two people out there listening who neither read Eat Pray Love nor saw the film with Julia Roberts. So could you describe it briefly for them?
GILBERT: There might be one or two men out there.
SAGAL: Yes.
GILBERT: Yeah, to be very specific.
SAGAL: Who were afraid to admit it to their significant other.
TOM BODETT: No, my wife and I sat in the warm morning sun feeding each other grapes and read it to each other. (LAUGHTER)
- AUDIO: LISTEN TO THE STORY (11:15 mins)
BODETT: Now I'm sitting between two women, I can't speak freely. (LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well, so this is -- you, as I said, you were going through a life crisis. Your marriage ended, it was not going well. You said, I'm hitting the road. You went to Italy, and then Indonesia and India. And then you wrote a book about these -- about the lessons that you learned. Am I summarizing it correctly?
GILBERT: Yeah, you just did it beautifully.
SAGAL: Thank you.
GILBERT: Yeah, I ate my way through India, and actually -- ate my way through Italy. What am I saying?
SAGAL: I was about to say, you haven't read the book, have you? (LAUGHTER)
GILBERT: I haven't, actually. I did it all in upstate New York. I was just hoping I wouldn't get busted.
SAGAL: And this -- didn't you sort of create a movement of women finding themselves?
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| Elizabeth Gilbert as played by Julia Roberts |
GILBERT: I hope so. That wouldn't be such a terrible movement to be responsible for. I certainly didn't set out to do that. My first books, by point of comparison, sold upwards of dozens of copies each. So I was not in any way prepared for that kind of a response, but I'm so surprised by it but delighted by it.
SAGAL: Are there women or anybody who had negative experiences like, "Yeah, I tried to follow in your footsteps. I went to Italy, I got food poisoning, drugged, woke up with one kidney. Thanks a lot!"?
GILBERT: (Laughter) Yeah, but the kidney they woke up with was on their plate. It was actually their meal.
SAGAL: Oh yes, that's even better. So one of the things that's happened - and this was probably something you didn't expect when you were a working magazine writer, is that you'd become kind of a self-help figure. You just did a tour with Oprah, right?
GILBERT: Yeah. I'm actually on tour with her right now. Well, not right this very minute.
SHELBY FERO: Is she there?
SAGAL: Is she there? Is she there?
O'CONNOR: Could you put her on?
GILBERT: Hang on a second. Ladies and gentlemen -- no. Yes, that's been an amazing thing. That's sort of like getting a phone call from the president.
SAGAL: Oh, it's better than that. (LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: President has to call people, Oprah chooses. What is it like being part of like an Oprah revival meeting? More
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