This book has been around for several years already. It got huge publicity from Oprah and was recently made into a movie starring Julia Roberts and for those reasons alone my initial thoughts were “avoid it like the plague”. And now, after having read the book (because my sister dropped it in my lap and said “read this”) I hesitate to review it because there are several thousand reviews already published.
In a nutshell: Elizabeth Gilbert was depressed and struggling with a bad marriage, cheated on her husband, went through a nasty divorce and out of guilt ended up giving her husband everything in the settlement. She was already a well known writer and world traveler. In the midst of a nervous breakdown her publisher asked her if she wanted to write a book about “searching for happiness. And since she was planning on traveling for a year dividing her trip into four month increments in Italy, India, and Indonesia she took the expense paid trip as a “sign from God” and embarked on her journey.
Many people loved this book and just as many people hated it. I think readers expected it to be inspirational and it wasn’t. Some readers complained that it seems contrived. Elizabeth had exactly 4 months to eat, 4 months to pray, and then exactly 4 months to bring the story to a happy conclusion.
My opinion is that Eat, Pray, Love was mildly entertaining; humorous in parts and sad in others. In general, Elizabeth was whiny and acted like an airhead. She was like a dog chasing its tail, drowning in self-disappointment and depression and spending a lifetime talking about it and seeking happiness in superficial ways, running from here to there and back again. Did she have attention deficit disorder? Was she mentally unstable? Did she really cure herself? Really?
At one point I laughed out loud when she thought she was given an honorable position at the Ashram to greet all the newcomers and help them….like a concierge. She was probably so disruptive to the natural atmosphere of the Ashram that they had to find a way to channel that menacing hyper non-stop talking. And to brag about not doing anything cultural while she was in Italy, the most beautiful, historical, cultural paradise on earth. I didn’t understand her, or particularly like her.
However, I must say that after I finished reading Elizabeth’s book I did some research and discovered that her favorite philosopher is Marcus Aurelius. Aha. She is not an airhead. She espouses the stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius believed that humans must exercise self control, fortitude, clear judgment and inner calm. The ultimate goal: self discipline, virtue, and inner tranquility. Among many wonderful reflections, Marcus said in his Meditations that chasing dreams, seeking spiritual fulfillment by traveling and experiencing new and different things does not necessarily bring enlightenment, ” tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind” and “a happy life is one lived in accordance with nature” and my favorite, “retire into thyself.
Many reviews made fun of the fact that Elizabeth is now remarried living the conventional life in New Jersey. Perhaps she found her inner peace after all.
Rated 3 Stars. I use a rating scale of 1 to 5. Books rated 1, I seldom finish; books rated 2, I usually finish but would never recommend to anyone. 5 is the highest rating.
ADDENDUM: Recently a reader commented that my review was “unprofessional” for stating Elizabeth Gilbert cheated on her husband. That conclusion is derived from information on page 18. Elizabeth offers that “David, the guy I fell in love with as I was taking leave of my marriage…..I clung to David for escape from marriage as if he were the last helicopter pulling out of Saigon.” and further down the same page, “my husbands silences were broken only by his occasional communications reminding me what a criminal jerk I was…. I moved right in with David after I left my husband.” Elizabeth’s love affair therefore, clearly began prior to the conclusion of her marriage. I think it is fair to suggest that she was already seeing David prior to their separation.
