Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Despite its immense popularity, I avoided Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert like the plague for a long, long time.  It was actually because of its celebration that I avoided it; ever the individualist, I felt like picking up this book would just make me cliche or prove that I'm exactly like the million other readers out there.

But I gave in.  I went to Sam's and bought it.  And what did I think?

Fabulous.  Utterly fabulous.

Gilbert is a woman after my own heart: a writer, a traveler, a seeker of purpose.  She writes this memoir on her post-divorce travels through India, Italy, and Indonesia while she searches for purpose and peace, finding both along the way.  While I could go more in-depth on the plot, I'd rather tell you more about my reaction to this book.

The protagonist finds herself displeased with her life and unsure of where she's going, hence her self-seeking journey across the world.  From the start, I saw some of myself in Gilbert, posing a big "So what?!" to the universe.  As she makes her way out into the world and begins to find her truth, she realizes that there is more to life than the right here and now, the current pleasures or pain.  But then, at the same time, the here and now cannot be devalued, and one should not spend their hours dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.  There are people all over the world to love and receive love from, and we are all united by the great unknown.  Nobody can understand the purpose of life or the point of the universe or where we go when we die.  Nobody can explain why things happen the way they do or what is going to happen in the future; we are all just running blind. 

We have to enjoy the simple things.  We have to do the best with what we have and not worry about things that are really just sneezes in the great expanse of our lives.  It's so easy to get wrappd up in what's happening in our own home that we forget that there's an entire world out there.  We worry about rent or dirty bathrooms or getting that cute co-worker to like us, but what does this all matter when there's whole CONTINENTS with billions of people and places and things that we could never even imagine, that we've never even seen.  Yeah, I know, you've heard this all before...and yet somehow the lesson never really seems to stick.  It's something that takes drastic situations, like spending four months in a monastery in Bali, to gain a real handle on.

I don't know how to describe this book honestly.  The prose is readable but a bit wordy, the voice is funny but a bit forced, and the length is manageable but a bit too long.  But the message?  The spirit?  It's powerful.  It more than makes up for the author's techinical downfalls.

I also think this book is one of those reads that will mean something different to everyone who reads it.  There are a numerous epiphanies and messages scattered throughout the pages, but the ones that stay with you will be the ones that are most relevant to YOU specifically.  For that reason, I can't really tell you what you'll pull from Eat, Pray, Love, or if you'll even enjoy it.  But I do think that's it is most definitely worth a shot.

Happy reading!