Elizabeth Gilbert uses her self-help book ‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear’ to inspire readers to become more creative and to follow their dreams and inspirations fearlessly. Through her positive attitude and use of personal stories, valuable advice, and witty commentary, Gilbert compiles a book that will inspire all readers to “have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden” (Gilbert 13) within themselves. “Big Magic” is broken up into six sections: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. In every chapter Gilbert expands on how each of these components aid in living a more creative, fearless, idea-driven life. However, I found the chapter on Permission to be the most helpful and comical. Although “Big Magic” does not contain a lot of comedy, this chapter added a sort of comic relief to an otherwise very serious book. When talking about how we do not need to receive permission from anyone else to do what we want, Gilbert uses her parents to exemplify this. She begins by stating that they are hard-working, supportive parents, but that they simply “did whatever the hell they wanted to do with their lives, and they did it with a rather fabulous sense of insouciance” (Gilbert 49). When her father wanted to own a Christmas tree farm, he moved his family to one, and when he wanted to own goats, he picked up Gilbert one day in his Ford Pinto filled with goats. As well as adding this type of comic relief, Gilbert tied in a way to show that no matter how weird our ideas are, we should definitely pursue them, just as her father did. These pieces of advice were quite enjoyable to read, as she complimented them with crazy stories. However, the repetitiveness of her mentioning her best-seller, “Eat, Pray, Love” in every chapter and tying it in with some piece of advice was not my cup of tea. In order to gain my attention, I need something fresh and interesting, not a constant and old reminder. If many personal stories, referrals to Gilbert’s best-seller “Eat, Pray, Love,” or somewhat overwhelming and highly-opinionated advice seem appealing to you, this may be the book for you. I particularly was not looking for a self-help book at the time, so I found this book to be a little repetitive and quite honestly somewhat boring. Although I could relate much of the book to my own life, there was no huge aha moment that truly inspired me to go out and change my life. However, I honestly believe that if you are someone who is looking for that little extra inspiration or permission from someone else, reading “Big Magic” may help you do so. All in all, you take what you want from “Big Magic.” Those looking for that help and inspiration will definitely get it from this book, but those who are not will either take some helpful bits away or have a very times reading through all 145 pages.
“Big Magic” is broken up into six sections: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. In every chapter Gilbert expands on how each of these components aid in living a more creative, fearless, idea-driven life. However, I found the chapter on Permission to be the most helpful and comical. Although “Big Magic” does not contain a lot of comedy, this chapter added a sort of comic relief to an otherwise very serious book. When talking about how we do not need to receive permission from anyone else to do what we want, Gilbert uses her parents to exemplify this. She begins by stating that they are hard-working, supportive parents, but that they simply “did whatever the hell they wanted to do with their lives, and they did it with a rather fabulous sense of insouciance” (Gilbert 49). When her father wanted to own a Christmas tree farm, he moved his family to one, and when he wanted to own goats, he picked up Gilbert one day in his Ford Pinto filled with goats. As well as adding this type of comic relief, Gilbert tied in a way to show that no matter how weird our ideas are, we should definitely pursue them, just as her father did. These pieces of advice were quite enjoyable to read, as she complimented them with crazy stories. However, the repetitiveness of her mentioning her best-seller, “Eat, Pray, Love” in every chapter and tying it in with some piece of advice was not my cup of tea. In order to gain my attention, I need something fresh and interesting, not a constant and old reminder.
If many personal stories, referrals to Gilbert’s best-seller “Eat, Pray, Love,” or somewhat overwhelming and highly-opinionated advice seem appealing to you, this may be the book for you. I particularly was not looking for a self-help book at the time, so I found this book to be a little repetitive and quite honestly somewhat boring. Although I could relate much of the book to my own life, there was no huge aha moment that truly inspired me to go out and change my life. However, I honestly believe that if you are someone who is looking for that little extra inspiration or permission from someone else, reading “Big Magic” may help you do so. All in all, you take what you want from “Big Magic.” Those looking for that help and inspiration will definitely get it from this book, but those who are not will either take some helpful bits away or have a very times reading through all 145 pages.