The Signature of All Things

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

Rating: ⭐ 4/5

Date Read: 2015/01/13

Pages: 512

Elizabeth Gilbert has been hiding her cards. She bluffed her way to best-seller status with the inane Eat Pray Love, but it turns out she had pocket aces the whole time. I was reluctant to read The Signature of All Things, but relented when friends as picky as myself praised the hefty novel. I found the whole thing sprawling, philosophical, and populated with the type of characters I’d like to invite over for tea and conversation.

I had heard that The Signature of All Things was a book about mosses, and in many ways it is, but to call it just a book about mosses is to call Anna Karenina a book about a train. The story revolves around Alma Whittaker, although it does not start with her. It begins with Alma’s father, Henry, as a young man in Europe. I have to say that I enjoyed this bit the most: Henry’s a compelling character, and his botanical exploits take him all over the world.

We get Alma’s entire life story, from her birth in Philadelphia, to her early life as a botanist in her own right and her strange fascination with the spiritualist Ambrose Pike. An important note: it’s definitely not a great idea to ask about major relationship decisions by attempting to transmit one’s thoughts silently, through physical contact. That’s what therapists like to call poor communication.. The story can’t always maintain the intensity of the wonderful first section, but it does manage to stay lushly written and beautifully detailed throughout.

What I can’t understand is how such a talented writer could have written such a solipsistic travel memoir. I have to assume that it was either a money grab (who wouldn’t jump at a free, year long vacation) or that Gilbert is one of those people who just doesn’t do non-fiction well. My suggestion is to skip Eat Pray Love and grab this one instead: mosses beat whining any day.