Eat, Pray, Love

 

Summary (from the publisher): In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want--husband, country home, successful career--but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence.

 

Review: I'm just a few years behind on the Eat, Pray, Love train. To be frank, the premise of this memoir never overly appealed to me because of its self-indulgent message. I think the broadcasted takeaway message from this book was largely "if you're unhappy and miserable, just chuck it all and enjoy yourself instead." That is not possible for the vast majority of humanity because most of us aren't wealthy enough to frolic across the globe or have responsibilities whether to other people or financially that keep us tied to the life we chose. Furthermore, I felt insulted going in to this book that the idea of women's liberation was that she could now eat as much as she wanted and stop worrying about gaining weight. To be fair, this book is about more than I've alluded to above, and its more about self exploration and finding onself and not just indulgence, but I thought her whole journey a bit over the top.

 

I did like the confidential/conspiratorial and very frank nature of Gilbert's narrative. Gilbert is not afraid to make herself look bad and conveys both the positive and negative choices she has made. And I do think she's witty. The problem is, I think she thinks she's wittier than she is. It faintly annoyed me. I also sort of felt as if I had gone to get dinner with one of my close girl friends, and she proceeded to monopolize the conversation the entire time without once asking me about what was going on in my life. It felt very, extremely self-absorbed. Even her acts of goodwill, such as helping her friend in Bali purchase a house, seemed to be all about making her look or feel good.

 

Additionally, I do like in theory the idea of a woman not settling or doing what she feels society is pressuring her to do. Gilbert chooses the less acceptable path for an American woman, and you have to admire her bravery in doing so. I also admire her willingness to explore other cultures and ways of life and her openness to the unknown. Finally, the structure of the book itself had a nice flow with the three parts following her travels from country to country under the broad themes of eat, pray, and finally love. The novel was further broken down into 108 chapters to parallel the number of meditation beads on a strand, which was an interesting and thematically fitting concept.

 

Stars: 3