All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation

Writing in verse, Gilbert expresses that she “came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity” (xi). This line is a famous part of the prayer shared at Alcoholics Anonymous.

Gilbert reflects on the death of her partner, Rayya, whom she describes as an expressive and passionate woman. In the months after Rayya’s death, Gilbert would often feel her presence and have conversations with her in her head. However, as the years passed, she felt that Rayya was less accessible to her. She was saddened and confused by this. Time marched on, and Gilbert drastically changed her life, confronting her dependencies on drugs and alcohol and abstaining from relationships to focus on her own self-development.

Suddenly, on Gilbert’s fifty-fourth birthday, she felt a “churning, energetic current of pure Rayyaness” in her little New York City apartment and felt that her partner was speaking to her (1). Gilbert claims to transcribe what Rayya’s spirit said to her: Rayya acknowledges their relationship’s turmoil and dysfunction as well as its intense love, and she encourages Gilbert to stay focused on her addiction recovery and her writing work. Gilbert credits this conversation with inspiring her to write this book, in which she tells the full story of her relationship with