Rating:

In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want — husband, country home, successful career — but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to exmine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence.

After almost a month of reading, I’m finally done with this one. To some that might be normal, but to me that’s kind of strange, because I’m a normally fast reader, and I really liked this book, which should have made me read even faster. But there were some distractions that stopped me — like work, and Breaking Dawn — which made me read this slower than usual. But really, I’m not complaining, as this book is probably one of the nicest, most feminine and most honest non-fiction book I’ve read among all that I own (coming very very close to Flashbang and Blue Like Jazz).

I’m not a big big reader of non-fiction, really, and the only ones I’ve read are usually by Christian authors. I picked this one up only because of what a friend posted in her blog, and I’m a sucker for quotable quotes/passages in books (hence, this post). Eat, Pray, Love was like a chicklit non-fiction. It was both light and deep at the same time, often very funny as the author makes fun of herself a lot, and a lot touching as Ms. Gilbert opens up her life and heart and thoughts during her year of traveling (and even going back to her childhood) to the reader.

In a way I think that even if she wrote from her own experience, there’s a general common thread in her experiences and realizations that run through all of us, especially for women. I honestly couldn’t relate to her experiences as being a divorced woman, but I can sort of relate with her feeling lost, feeling sad, needing peace badly, and even being broken hearted (in some sense, that is). Ms. Gilbert managed to touch on what I think are universal themes in a woman’s (and maybe even in a man’s) life.

Each section of the book is a gem in its own. I loved her food adventures in Italy (EAT) and it made me want to really enjoy my food (I even managed to make my own Eat Pray Love meal, haha) and visit Rome and all other places she visited just to see it. I especially loved her reflections and learnings while she was in India (PRAY). I don’t necessarily agree with everything she believed in and talked about in that particular part of her travel, but there were a lot of stuff there that I think are also what Christians need to learn. In fact, there was this part of the book where I learned something really important that helped me make my choice a few weeks back. As for her Bali (LOVE) adventure…it’s probably my least liked one mostly because I really couldn’t relate that much on the last parts, but I have to agree that I loved the people she met there, and it thrills me to know that they really are real people, as shown in the photos here (just look at Tutti!).

The book isn’t preachy, but instead it feels like Ms. Gilbert was actually talking to you and telling you all these stories over a cup of coffee (or a bowl of pasta ;) ). It’s a comforting read — not something that you’d lose sleep over, but definitely something you’d share (or recommend or even buy instead of medical id as a gift) to everyone you know. :)