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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Eat, Pray, Love, Write Sequel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s take a swing through Spoiler-town, specifically for the book “Eat, Pray, Love.” If you have not read it and do not want the ending spoiled, click out now.
I said:
Click.
Out.
Now.
Still here? OK. I have to admit I enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, even though it has become one of those books some people roll their eyes over, and not without some reason. On the one hand, Gilbert is guilty of all the sins of self-absorption that memoirs are heir to these days. On the other hand, she lived a pretty cool adventure.
The Wall Street Journal ran a great article recently about the book, but mainly about the very savvy marketing thereof. It was a minor success in hardback (hey, even that’s something), but really took off when the publisher started pushing the paperback edition like $10 bags at a Dead concert. The paperback edition has been riding the best-seller chart for 32 weeks, and now a movie version is in the works, according to the Journal, starring Julia Roberts.
But here’s what bugged me. Gilbert is working on a sequel. As much as I liked “Eat, Pray, Love,” I’m not at all sure I want to read a sequel. “EPL” was nicely contained, three adventures in three countries, with a happy ending: She finds the lover she needs to complete her. Fade to black, violins up, roll credits.
In today’s pop culture, every success seems to breed a sequel. We all know how well that works, as a rule, in the world of movies, and I’m hard pressed to come up with cases where it’s worked well in the book world. (Alexandra Ripley’s “Scarlett” anyone? Didn’t think so.) Series like “Lord of the Rings” and Harry Potter are different: They were never meant to be one-shots.
So what am I forgetting in terms of literary sequels that worked? Or didn’t, for that matter? And will you read what presumably will not be titled “Eat More, Pray Harder, Love Several More Guys?”
A P.S. on Gilbert, whom I do not mean to trash even though that was kind of snarky: She is coming to the Decatur Library on Oct. 4 to promote the new paperback edition of her first book, a collection of short stories titled “Pilgrims.” The New York Times Book review said of it: “The distinctive cant of Gilbert’s stories recalls the off-kilter worlds of T. Craghessan Boyle, and she embraces the bizarre and fabulous with similar enthusiasm.”
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