|  | Home Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia | |
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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Elizabeth Gilbert | | Paperback: | 352 pages | | Publisher: | Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Publication Date: | January 30, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0143038419 | | Package Length: | 8.7 inches | | Package Width: | 5.6 inches | | Package Height: | 0.9 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 2229 reviews |
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| | Features | ISBN13: 9780143038412Condition: NewNotes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 The quest works, but the writing doesn't Jul 31, 2010
I wanted to read this book partly because I was interested in it as a phenomenon. I don't have a problem with the subject matter or the reasons why (or means for) Gilbert embarking on and writing about this trip. Good quests about the search for self are important, no matter their original impetus. Did she suffer the greatest heartache one might suffer to send her on this quest? No. But she did have the encourage to recognize her pain and then to thoroughly dissect it.
My problem, and the reason why I am finding it very difficult to make it all the way through this book, is the writing. I cringe at every "I'm so cute" or "let's make it rhyme so it's catchier!" So much of the prose is cloying and self-indulgent, the kind of tripe that would never be published without an established name, no matter how small, and a publisher's reputation (and dollars) at stake. Yes, Gilbert has some interesting insights, but those seem to be limited to two-three pages per section.
Of course none of this matters now that it is a Juggernaut with Julia Roberts attached to it. But if Gilbert wants to write another follow-up that this time might succeed, I'd suggest a brief "21 Things I Learned While Traveling." The only problem is that it might be difficult to find 21 truly insightful, interesting ideas to flesh out such a manual.
I wanted to like this, if only in solidarity to so many women who have read it. I understand she was not out to conquer the literary world. But how very, very sad that this is heralded as a book for the thinking woman when it reads like the very dregs of every romance novel.
Take a good writing workshop, Ms. Gilbert. Get a better editor. And best of luck on new "literary" adventures.
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 An inner journey Jul 31, 2010
I think Eat, Pray, Love is so popular because it plugs into the current zeitgeist for so many women, by telling a new kind of story. Rather than use the familiar romantic narrative (woman is subject to a grand sweep of events beyond her control, but through her qualities of patience, acceptance, loveability, she makes connections and fulfills her destiny, which is to suffer nobly), Eat, Pray, Love creates a story that is more real to actual modern women.
Gilbert stubbornly refuses to be swept away by anyone, she wants to make her own life on her own terms. When she suffers, she makes a big huge stink out of it and then goes out to try to do something about it. She doesn't romanticize her behaviour or omit to tell how much self-doubt she has to overcome. Rather than paint herself as heroic, she shows all her pathetic, crazy ups-and-downs. Women respond to this because that's what their own lives feel like. It's a breathe of fresh air, like when biographers stopped painting their subjects as saintly and started discussing their failings.
Of course to do this, Gilbert has to try to include a lot of humour and charm. She also very cleverly chose the narrative of an actual journey to relate a story that is really about her inner journey: to learn to savour the pleasures of life, to develop spiritually and to find a way to live that is balanced between the two.
The result is far from perfect, there will no doubt be much better books in the future on this same theme, but hers is one of the first that feels real and therefore has struck such a chord with women. I think many people who dislike the book so intensely prefer their heroines to suffer nobly, not get up off the floor and say 'to hell with this, I'm outta here.'
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
EAT, PRAY, LOVE Jul 31, 2010
FOUND IT ABSOLUTELY ENTERTAINING. MADE ME WANT TO TAKE OFF RIGHT AWAY FOR MY OWN JOURNEY.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Destructive work of Selfishness Jul 31, 2010
Just what women need; a book to encourage their self-absorption in the guise of "spirituality." What a crock!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Eat, pray, and self indulge Jul 30, 2010
Honestly with so many books, and so little time, I couldnt truly receommend anyone waste time on this drivel, albeit well written. It is trite, self indulgent and neither provocative nor engaging. GReat work if you can get it though!
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