Quirky Quest (Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert)

Member Name: MALU

Product:	Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Date:	21/03/09 (262 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: engaging style, two thirds good

Disadvantages: one third less good

Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert has it all: at the age of 31 she's already published three books, is an acknowledged journalist, popular with her friends, married for eight years to her long-term boyfriend, co-owner of a nice house in the suburbs of New York. The next item on the list is a baby. Yet, one night she finds herself crying and praying on the bathroom floor, she suddenly knows that she has to get out of the marriage and that a baby is out of the question. The divorce is a long, contentious affair and the passionate love-affair she begins during that time leads to a suicidal depression.

She loves the sound of the Italian language and wants to learn it so that she can converse freely. This is an exotic wish for someone who's born into the world language No 1, why should an American learn a foreign language that's spoken only in one country on the planet? - She knows an Indian guru whose teachings she follows in a circle of devotees in New York. - A journalistic assignment takes her to the island of Bali where she meets an old medicine man who tells her she'll be back, learn his craft and teach him English.

What have all these events to do with each other? In order not to go under Liz decides to take one year as time out, she divides it orderly into three parts: four months in Italy, four months in India and four months on Bali. "I wanted to explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well," she writes. "I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two." She lost nearly all her money in the divorce process but got an advance on the book she'd write. Eat, Pray, Love is the autobiographic account of this year abroad.

Liz Gilbert claims that her travelling skills are meagre, she's tall and blonde, doesn't blend well physically in most places (certainly not in the countries she intends to visit), she's lazy on research and prone to digestive woes. "But my one mighty travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody. I can make friends with the dead..."

She takes a room in Rome, attends a language course, but drops out when she's learnt the basics as she thinks she can learn more by talking to people directly. Not surprisingly, it doesn't take long until she's accumulated a great circle of friends. She's in *Rome*, do we also read something about culture trips? I was dumbfounded, in four months she only visits the Pasta Museum! (an exhibition of noodles?) What does she do then all day long besides chatting up the locals? She eats! She gains 23 pounds in four months. She approaches people in the street, asks them where they'd advise her to eat and then has the most delicious meals on her own in no-name, hidden trattorias.

I really liked this part of the book, this was enhanced by the fact that Liz mentions many places I know from my travels, for example she ate in the same pizzeria in Naples I went to. I sent a message to an online friend of mine who likes travelogues, I told her to read the synopsis of the book on Amazon and order it at once, I was sure she'd love it. She was cautious, though, she obviously read more out of the description of the following part than I had done, she wanted to wait for my judgement.

Liz' next stop is an Ashram in India where she hopes to find enlightenment and spiritual peace for her troubled mind through meditation and she wants to get nearer to God. One critic writes, "... surprisingly, the Pray section turns out to be the most interesting part." 'One man's meat is the other man's poison' is all I can say. The post-modern literary concept of 'each reader reads their own book' comes to mind. This is all so not me! Liz quotes an American friend, "...there's a part of me that so wishes I wanted to do that . . . But I really have no desire for it whatsoever." I can go a step further: there is *no* part of me that so wishes I wanted to do that. Mind you, I don't feel guilty and have no qualms of conscience about that; you can call me shallow if you like, you're welcome. - And I feel cheated as a reader, first Liz tells us that she wants to stay in the Ashram for six weeks only and then travel through India but she stays there for all four months!

So the middle section flops for me? Here I have to say something about the style. Liz Gilbert is a wonderful writer, she knows the language well, she's educated, witty, funny, ironical, she can pull her own leg. It doesn't really matter what she describes, reading her is a pleasure. I'll always remember her two-hour long meditation practise outside in the garden of the Ashram on a bench when the sun goes and the mosquitoes come, heehee.

When her time in India is over, she's already found the balance she wanted to look for in Bali. This means she's not so engrossed in her own problems any more, she can now fully concentrate on other people. She finds dear friends, besides the medicine man she befriends a local woman and her daughters, they become her ersatz family away from home. "Is there no man in Liz' life?" you may wonder. She vowed to stay celibate when she set out on her journey, she had had it with men, but there is a fascinating specimen in Bali who makes her forget her vows. The outlook for her future? A transcontinental love life covering America, Australia, Bali and Brazil; A A B B, for her the perfect harmony.

This brings me to the end: who is the book for, who are the target readers? According to a review on an American site 'the entire female American population'. (The book is a mega best-seller in the USA, Ms Oprah invited Liz Gilbert twice to her show) The writer goes on 'This book has had the power to change many lives, including my friends' and my own.' Indeedy, I'm impressed. So all American women feeling that they have to break out of their lives have the opportunity and the financial means to spend a year abroad to find themselves and when they've done so, live in a relationship spanning the globe? A (German) neighbour of ours suffering from depression and panic attacks has made it only to the psychiatric ward of the nearest hospital, no publisher will be interested in what she has to say afterwards.

You have to be Liz Gilbert to live like Liz Gilbert! If you keep this in mind and read the book as *her* account and not a manual to follow, then you're in for a good read.

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Penguin
352 pages
RRP 7.99 GBP

Summary: a woman's quest for love and harmony