Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has been recommended to me lots of times over the past few years, and for some reason I always bypassed it, but once my friend Shannon came through for me in the long-distance book swap and sent it my way. Thanks, Shannon - keep on sending them, and I won't have to renew my library card!Eat, Pray Love is the story of Gilbert's travels through Italy, India and Indonesia in search of enlightenment, pleasure, balance and all sorts of metaphysical extraterrestrial stuff. And at times, the book was quite lovely. Gilbert has a great voice as a writer, and her descriptions of places, events, people and especially food were wonderful. But overall, I found it a little hard to swallow. I do not begrudge Gilbert the book advance that paid for her travels - she is clearly a talented writer, and good for her that her publisher paid her to travel around the world. Nor do I think that a spiritual journey with a goal of balance and enlightenment is a fruitless journey. I think we could all do with a more balanced life, more fun, more pleasure, more meditation, and a lightening of the spirit. But goodness gracious, do we have to read all about it? I got so bogged down in the details of Gilbert's time at the ashram in India, in her moments of epiphany on bathrooms floors... I liked it, I really did, but damn, Liz. Maybe some things should be kept to yourself - does the soul need to be laid so bare?
Eat, Pray, Love - B
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