Books Tasted - Everything bookly (and a few other things)

Getting most of my books from the library (yay library!) puts me a little behind on the bestsellers list than everyone else on the earth, so I just recently finished Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, which has been on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 74 weeks.

After going through a painful divorce and a messy love affair, the author goes on a spiritual journey to balance love, pleasure, and spiritual fulfillment. She takes a year and spends a third of it in Italy, a third in India, and a third in Indonesia. Her book is likewise broken into three parts, with each section broken into short chapters.


Italy - this portion of the book was interesting and engaging. Her stories about the falling apart of her marriage and subsequent tempestuous relationship were emotional, witty, and often humorous, and definitely pulled me into the book. In Italy, she primarily talks about her relationship with the country's food, and for someone like me who enjoys eating and reading about eating, it is fabulous. This section was highly enjoyable to read. And then we move to...


India - ... who wha who's that now?! Oh sorry, I dozed off for a minute there and woke up with a start. In India, Gilbert moves from focusing on the pleasures of life to finding God. Seeking spiritual fulfillment is great and a worthwhile effort, but reading about someone finding it is rather boring. And unending. She writes unceasingly about the frustrations, awakenings, and joys of life in the Ashram, and it's just like when you talk to anyone who has found their spiritual path - tiresome after only a short listen. But you grit your teeth and smile and bare it because it would be awfully rude to tell them that their path to heaven is boring you to tears. I pushed through this section, because after all, this book is a best seller! Surely the next section will make up for it.


Indonesia - Here, Gilbert explains how she found her balance between pleasure and spiritual austerity. And wouldn't we all like to find this the way she did - renting a house in Bali, whiling away her days in meditation, reading, hanging out with a cool old healer dude, and chatting with the new friends she makes. And spoiler alert! finding a new lover while she's at it. This section frankly feels self-indulgent. Gilbert received a book advance before her trip that paid for her whole year abroad, and it's hard as a reader to have much empathy for her. It's great that she found fulfilment, but by this point you're beyond boredom and more into resentment. It took you a year off with no responsibilities to anyone but yourself and travel to exotic locales to find emotional and spiritual fulfillment? That's great, but doesn't necessarily make for inspiring reading for the many of us who don't or can't make this opportunity for themselves.

After I finished the book, I read some of the critiques others have written about the book. Not literary critiques, but just other readers' posts in places like Amazon.com. Most people either love this book and find it inspiring, or hate it and think it's completely self-indulgent, self-absorbed claptrap. I think it's a mix. I loved the section on Italy and think that trying to find your spiritual path is a worthwhile effort and not self-absorbed. She even managed to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a local friend in Bali to buy a house. That's not self-absorbed to me. However, the book focuses so much on what she wants, what she needs, all the thoughts in her head - well, I don't think anyone would be interested in reading my diary (if I kept one), and that's what this boils down to at a certain point. I love reading memoirs, but usually memoirs are either (1) humorous, (2) insightful into the general human condition (not just the writer's), and/or (3) show us a new aspect of human personality we hadn't noticed before. This book is humorous at the beginning, but doesn't feel all that insightful into the general human condition or make me feel more in touch with my fellow human being.

Honestly, I'm not sure why this book became such a huge best seller, although I think Oprah had something to do with it. But I've never read a book just because Oprah recommended it, so I would have to say to you that I do not recommend Eat Pray Love. However, if you already read it and loved it, no hard feelings! And feel share your agreeing or disagreeing opinions in the comments!