Thursday, August 7, 2008

Lisa's Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Review:
This book was given to me by a friend as a birthday gift and I cracked it open immediately, simply because everyone, everywhere (on the trains in my city at least) was reading this and I enjoyed.

The premise is a simple one - after a nasty divorce, a despairing Liz (I feel I can be informal) embarks on a yearlong journey, literal and figurative to find herself. She divides up her year by visiting Italy to experience pleasure, in the form of eating pasta until she is 25 pounds heavier. In India, she spends another four months at an ashram, seeking the divine through meditation. Finally, she tries to find a balance between earthly pleasures and spiritual clarity by visiting Indonesia. I am not sure if she found balance, but she found something over there in Bali.

When I was done, I too wanted to take a year off to eat my weight in pasta in Italy and relax on the beaches of Bali, (sorry Ms. Gilbert, but I have no desire to emotionally exhaust myself by singing a prayer for hours on end). The writing is witty and clever and I saw her evolve from a broken individual to someone more whole.

I've read a few reviews where people hated this book, by stating it was too self centered. It's a memoir, so that didn't bother me. In the end this is all about Ms. Gilbert's experiences and how she found her peace. It's not a manual on how one another should live their life. I liked it because it was clear to me that she felt that it is important to be brave, when making life choices, difficult as they may be - a concept, I wholeheartedly agree with.

Final Take - 3.75/5

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