#51 Dear Rocky - The End of Eve by Ariel Gore

Dear Rocky,

I just finished reading my advanced copy of Ariel Gore’s The End of Eve: A Memoir.  I read it in three sittings and it only took that long because of things like work and sleep.  Three sittings may not sound that impressive to the avid reader, which I used to be, but considering I’ve finished an estimated total of three books in the past 18 months, three sittings is saying something.
One of the reviews of this book states that it is “damn near sublime” and I have to admit as I turned the second page I agreed and prepared myself for perfect word selection at every sentence.
We both share Ariel as a writing teacher.  The universe was certainly looking after me the day the Literary Kitchen was recommended to me for online writing classes.  I’ve not met Ariel face-to-face and therefore it is easy for me to create her as an enigma in my mind.
In my version of Ariel, she writes only one draft of everything and gets it right, off the bat.  She then walks down to her publisher who willingly accepts her latest masterpiece and returns home to begin her next best-seller.
Of course I know this is vastly romantacised on my behalf, especially since we were lucky enough to read drafts of Eve in our last class in the Kitchen.
Ariel writes the way I want to write – as if she is sitting and telling you the story.  She writes like she talks – at least, the way I assume she talks.

Our job is to review movies, not books, but before giving you my ideas about the movie version of The End of Eve, I’d like to make a few comments about this story about Ariel’s relationship with her mother Eve after Eve is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

Ariel challenges my idealised and idolised image in my mind of herself throughout this story as she communicates a subtle vulnerability at various times in response to Eve’s outlandishness.  At times, her quiet reserve frustrated me as I cheered for her to stand up to Eve time and time again, yet at the end it was the integrity and the strong sense of calm and inner peace that directed Ariel’s choices and responses that made me respect her even more.  She is now a goddess in my imagination – sorry Ariel!
I’m unsure how she conveyed this in words.  Perhaps it was the duration of the story, all the pieces together, that helped deliver that image of her to me.

Throughout the book, Ariel also talks a lot about food and shopping for food, preparing and cooking food, sharing food with loved ones.  I have to admit, I felt guilt-ridden and envious of the exquisite organic diet Ariel has.I wonder if the food helped give some symbol of normalcy in an otherwise very unconventional situation in a really interesting setting.  The message that life goes on even when our mother is dying.There’s a part near the end when Ariel interacts with her mum for the first time after not having seen her for ten months and Ariel comments that in spite of everything, she’s always really liked Eve.  This for me is the crux of the book.Through life’s toughest lessons, we have a biological, human need to feel loved by our attachment figures.  Eve described it so well after reading a book Ariel loaned to her, unaware of the message inside about love.  Waiting for love.The messages Ariel takes from her journey with Eve to the end are life changing and not just for Ariel.  But for her readers as well. 

I am so impressed and in awe.

Back to the movie side of things, I believe that this book would make a wonderful movie and I have carefully considered my cast.  Check it out:

Ariel Gore           -              Julianna Margulies

Eve                         -              Jane Fonda

Maia                      -              Peyton List

Sol                          -              Michelle Rodriguez

Maxito                 -              Blake Garrett Rosenthal

The Chef              -              Olivia Wilde

Can’t wait to read your cast list!  

Any other characters you’d care to explore?

Jodie

Read Rocky's review here!