Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 self-help memoir Eat Pray Love turned the writer into a pop culture phenomenon, championed by Oprah. She became an emblem of white woman spiritual fulfilment/enlightenment/liberation.

Almost two decades later, Gilbert is back with a new memoir titled All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation. But as she herself admits, the Gilbert we come to know in this latest book is far from the "nice lady who wrote Eat Pray Love".

 It focuses on 18 turbulent months in Gilbert's life, after she gets together with her best friend Rayya who has a terminal cancer diagnosis. Both women are addicts and Gilbert goes into detail about the love and dysfunction that unfolds between them.

 Hannah and guest host Jen Wong ask: Where does the book's brutal revelations leave the acolytes living Gilbert's Eat Pray Love lifestyle? Do we now know too much about Elizabeth Gilbert? And why did she publish those poems?

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Show notes:

The Conversation All the Way to the River review: Wealthy, whiny and wildly tone deaf: Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir exemplifies 'priv-lit'

Jennifer Wong's upcoming events: Events — Jennifer Wong