I am one of the millions of people who have read and liked Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.It is a memoir of a woman who searches for her own recovery from a sad divorce, a passionate but failed rebound romance, and a general dissatisfaction with her life. She implores her new sense of spirituality to guide her to Italy, India, and Bali over the course of one year to discover her own self without the distractions of romantic love, occupational pressure, and the past always ready to drag her back down again.
Many reviews have been full of praise for this book. I like it. I like it a lot, actually. Some reviews have painted Gilbert as selfish and self-absorbed. Well, yeah. The book is about her. She is pretty honest about the ridiculousness that can be be our own narcissistic tendencies, but we all have them and they can all be the reasons for our own undoing. I enjoy how Gilbert can take those "always in our head moments" where we hope that no one can read our minds and find humor and even reflection in them.
A part of me was annoyed to find out that even Oprah loves and has had Gilbert on her show many times. (You know how Oprah kind of bugs me.) It makes sense because this is a story about growth, hope, and knowledge...especially about who you really are as a person.
I like how Gilbert used her past as a driving force and not an excuse to move forward in her spiritual, emotional, and physical life. She did not speak to the sordid details of her failed marriage or wreck of an affair, but more how that brought her to her year long quest and its implications throughout that year.
Maybe because I was partially alliterate (can read, chooses not to...not something that I was particularly proud of) in 2007 or that I was reading bad books, but I enjoyed this book the most last year. Quick. Funny. Thoughtful.
6 comments:
Yay. I have this book and have been meaning to read it since last July. I expect I'll enjoy it too.
Sara- I think you mean illiterate not alliterate. They mean different things.
No, I mean aliterate...can read, chooses not to. Illiterate means unable to read. I can read.
Anonymous, you should check out dictionary.com.
I love your book reviews.
I love your knowledge of vocabulary.
Amanda
hahahahaaha! I love how you typed out "I can read." That was my giggle of the day.
I've read books since Eat, Pray, Love but can't seem to remember them--obviously they weren't as good. That's the only annoying thing about reading a really good book--for me at least--it takes awhile to find another really good book to fill the void.
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