Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed this book. Another book I've read recently that was just waiting for the appropriate time in my life to be read. Years ago a friend lent me this book and I just finally got around to reading it. Luckily I see her later this week so I can return the original book to her. I'm gonna break this one down book by book...plus one. If you don't know the basic concept of this book basically it's a woman traveling for a year to Italy, India and Indonesia to help get in touch with herself and god after her marriage ended.

Italy eat
Wow this book starts off kinda scary. A marriage is ending, in fact it is failing and flailing and all the other potentially scary and sometimes unstoppable things that can happen to a marriage. I think most married participants can probably connect with some of what was going through Liz's mind in this 1st section of the book. Throughout her trip through Italy she shares brief snippets of two horrible relationships, one her marriage that was ending and another with a horrible actor who could make anyone never want to date again. In Italy she eats pasta, drinks wine, makes friends and takes fun trips. The goal of Italy was to relax and find pleasure in her life again. I loved the descriptions of the food and how she enjoyed and learned the language. Great way to start out the book and obviously her year.

India pray
In India Liz went to study Yoga from her horrible ex's Guru who she also adopts as her Guru too. She's at an Ashram where she spends the majority of her days praying, cleaning (mandatory labor to stay at the ashram) and again talking with her new friends she's made. Here she is learning to let things go, to focus on her relationship with god and the spiritual side of herself. This section was a little harder to get through cause all the meditation and Sanskrit stuff didn't hold a personal interest for me, but I found her dedication and determination inspiring and reminded me that I need to work harder on my relationship to god as well.

Indonesia -guess which one this is
At the end Liz ends up in Bali where two years before a medicine man had told her she would return and stay for 3-4 months to learn what he knows. He is basically the inspiration for this whole year of traveling she was doing. This was a section of the book I couldn't stop reading, I kept wanting to see what happened (even though you know cause the title of the book gives away the third word). In Bali she learns to smile with her whole self including her liver, completing her year of finding herself. And I don't think it's a spoiler so I wont mark it but in the end she realizes she can love again, even though her marriage failed and her last relationship was god-awful.

overall
I really enjoyed this book. I saw the movie and loved it but kept putting off reading the book. Again this is a book that I think I read at the right time. I know what it feels like to question everything in your life and know what it feels like to question if you have the right relationship with god and to actively seek that relationship if it isn't there. While yes parts of the book were annoying cause they were very self-serving, but it's a memoir so you kinda go into it already knowing that it's going to be a little self-serving. Overall I loved the book. I loved the division into three parts and I liked how the 36 chapters each all meant things to her, even if it chopped up the stories sometimes. Because of this book I think I'll read her follow up [b:Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage|6728738|Committed A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage|Elizabeth Gilbert|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255618440s/6728738.jpg|6924954] as well.



View all my reviews