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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Book Review: EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert

Like many books, this one gained much fame after the author was featured on Oprah. When I first heard about it, I never fathomed that I would read it, but of course this year I’ve been doing everything I said I wouldn’t.

After reading the book I was curious about what Elizabeth Gilbert looked like. I mean, whenever one spends a book talking about a divorce, getting nailed by a 50 year old Brazilian guy ten times a day, and giving her “ass” away to someone, one is always curious – is this girl hot? Well for 35 years old, she was moderately attractive so I was surprised she’d be worried about finding love. But hey, we all hit the panic switch at certain times in our lives.

In a nutshell, this book describes the hell the author went through as she shed an unhappy marriage and then a rebound romance. On the verge of suicide, Gilbert decided to take a year off to travel to Italy, India and then Indonesia where she ate, prayed and loved (ie. bumped uglies) respectively. The purpose of this foray around the world? To heal from the pains of these broken relationships, and find herself all over again. (and to get material to write a book so that she could make a million bucks).

The book describes Gilbert’s mental state and her adventures in Italy where she packed on pounds having fun eating. It actually made me want to go to Italy. The more interesting part of the book involved the months she spent in India where she joined an Ashram and learned to meditate – this was probably where she made the most progress as supernatural things happened to her and she learned forgiveness. Finally, the trip to Indonesia was the most exciting part of the book since more characters were involved including a medicine man, expatriates who had turned into beach bums, and a needy family which almost jacked tens of thousands of dollars from the author. This last segment was also the redemption for the author as she once again found love as soon as she stopped looking for it. If you want to find out how that turned out, you’ll have to tune in and buy her next book!

Eat, Pray, Love did not live up to the hype that it had received on Oprah, however I do recommend it as it did have some interesting parts to it which may be kernels of wisdom for some of you out there. The most important part for me which I have read over and over again was the part about soul-mates and how they are meant to come into our lives and then leave – and in the process they teach us about our obstacles, addictions and everything holding us back in life. Basically these people are reflections of ourselves. Of course I loved this part because I truly feel that is what happened to me in my life. Yeah, yeah, break out the violins.

This was a fairly quick and easy read. For anyone going through a break-up who thinks life will never be the same, I recommend this book. Life will not be the same, but that is a great thing if you have learned to grow and become more “you” out of the experience. As the author says, the heartbreak sent her over the edge, but if it weren’t for them she would have never recaptured her true self. I can relate. Maybe you can as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVED the book! Important read for anyone, I think, but for those who dream of the "impossible", even better...

I'd love to follow you on Twitter, but couldn't find your email.

Ron
www.sexandtheuniverse.com
Twitter: sextheuniverse

Anonymous said...

Hi Neil,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Given the title of yours, just had to drop by. Great blog you've got here.

Eat, Pray, Love... Abraham-Hicks... all great stuff.

Keep up the great work.

Sonia