The Yellow Envelope

January 23, 2017
In 2012, unhappy with the life she and her husband led in Portland, Ore., Dinan and her husband Brian made a decision that altered the course of their lives. Though Dinan looked successful to the outside world, she notes, in this uneven memoir, that all the middle-class trappings the couple had accumulated held no satisfaction. She was consumed by a “vast emptiness.” Her dreams of becoming a writer and seeing the world seemed to have gotten lost along the way to adulthood. The couple quit their jobs; sold all their possessions, including the home they had lovingly remodeled; and set out to travel the world. Before they left on their trek, a good friend offered a surprise gift: a yellow envelope filled with cash along with rules on how to share the money during their travels. Over the course of a nearly three-year trip, the couple visited India, Ecuador, Peru, Germany, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico. Dinan dissects her rigid personality and anxiety as she recounts their travels. The yellow envelope’s money helped Dinan understand the transformative power of giving financially and psychologically. Many readers will enjoy the uplifting moments Dinan experiences during her quest; others may find the slog through Dinan’s interior landscape irritating or just plain exhausting.

March 1, 2017
In 2012, sick of her job and uncertain about her marriage, Dinan (Life on Fire: A Step-By-Step Guide to Living Your Dreams, 2013, etc.) quit work and persuaded her reluctant husband to sell their house and other belongings and take off for more than two years to travel around the world.Along with them went the envelope of the title, which contained $1,000 handed to them by Dinan's former boss, with the instruction that the money was to be given away during the trip. She attached three provisos: "Don't over think it"; "Share your experiences (...if you want to)"; and "Don't feel pressured to give it all away." The first goal proved easier said than done; the second the author accomplishes in this book. At first waffling about whether she would seem condescending or culturally insensitive, she gradually began to feel comfortable with distributing the cash to a school where they volunteered in Ecuador, a rickshaw driver in India, a dog shelter, a Nepalese holy woman, and the owners of a turtle sanctuary in Bali. If the yellow envelope provides one strand unifying the book, Dinan's marital troubles form the other. Readers looking for insight into the locales through which the author traveled instead receive sometimes-repetitive descriptions of quarrels in which the author blames her husband for her unhappiness and he refuses to take the blame. The two separated temporarily, with the author climbing "into a rickshaw with two women I'd never met before to drive the length of India on some of the world's deadliest roads." Overall, Dinan narrates a memorable adventure even if she spends a good deal of time brooding about her marriage.Readers won't accuse the author of sugarcoating her experiences, and if the narrative sometimes seems to bog down in self-analysis, it's likely an accurate account of her interior life on the road.

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March 1, 2017
The truth burst from 28-year-old Dinan while she was on a run in a Portland, Oregon, park. She wasn't happy with her lifethe predictable desk job, earning a salary to cover the mortgage and car payment. Instead, she admitted to herself, she wanted to travel and write. So she gathered up her courage and convinced her husband to dismantle their life so she could pursue her dream. Before they left, friends gave her a yellow envelope containing $1,000 to be given away on their journey. The simple guidelines for handling the money, designed to make the experience as rewarding and stress-free as possible, gained significance as Dinan faced the hardships of travel through South America, India, Nepal, and more. Far from a carefree existence, her life on the road was fraught with challenges, including questions about the health of her marriage. This is a capably narrated, decidedly introspective, soul-searching travel memoir of the Eat, Pray, Love variety and will likely draw the same audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)