Sunday, August 15, 2010

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Memoir

After the hype this book has been receiving (and now with the movie coming out), I thought I'd give it a try. I'd heard good and bad things so didn't know what to expect, but I was skeptical. Eat Pray Love is the journey of Gilbert after getting divorced and breaking up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend and determining that she needs to do something for herself.

Gilbert starts in Italy simply because she loves the way the Italian language sounds. She lives there for a few months, eating everything put in front of her, learning Italian with a Swedish friend she meets there, and slowly coming off of her depression medications.

Her next stop is in India where she learns meditation, devotion, and self-restraint at an Ashram. Yet even here Gilbert learns about herself, with the help of an out-spoken Texan. Gilbert's final stop is in Indonesia where she learns about healing from a medicine man and about love from a Brazilian.

The best part of the book was the first part; Eat. I found the second part (Pray) tedious and not as interesting as Italy. Perhaps that's because meditation holds no interest to me and I'm not an overly spiritual person, however I've heard this complaint from others as well. The final part (Love) improved but wasn't as good as Eat. I'm not sure I see why this book was so popular. It can't be simply because this woman followed her dream and 'found' herself, can it? I don't think I get it. I, personally, didn't gain anything from this book and found that it was a slow read.

First Line: "I wish Giovanni would kiss me."

Rating:
(3/5)

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