Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

by Elizabeth Gilbert

One of the most iconic, beloved, and bestselling books of our time.

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

• ISBN10: 0670034711
• ISBN13: 9780670034710
• Publish Date: 16 February 2006 (first published 14 February 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Viking Press Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780670034710

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog: www.thepunktheory.wordpress.com

I have to say, I was extremely surprised by this book. My hopes weren't too high and I was expecting something a bit cheesy. However, what I got was an inspiring novel that provided lots of food for thought.
Liz Gilbert tells the story from a very relatable place. Her heartache, her problems, it's all something you've felt in some way. She also seems like a lovely person so for a large part of the book I just wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything's going to be alright.
But the thing is, Liz teaches us an important lesson: it will be alright in the end but you have to make it work. Nothing will ever change if you don't make it change.
What Liz did may sound like heaven: just packing up and go somewhere new. Well, it's actually a daring adventure and most people wouldn't take this leap of faith. It's something very different to spend two weeks of holidays somewhere or going to a place that's completely foreign to you without knowing anyone there and living there for months. Especially when you are in a bad place and want to heal it's even more daring as you are not only outside of your comfort zone, but you are also out of your support network you have at home.

[Linda]

A beautiful book, very well written, showing the amazing journey Liz decided to take in order to get herself, her feelings and her life back on track. It all made so much sense to me, and even if my own life is mostly in order and on track, I thought that especially her time in India is very appealing. That way of looking for spiritual guidance, without having a specific religion during that important search really touched me on a profound level.
I agree with Liz on how she views religion as well, I think that whatever Divinity we believe in, Love is what is most important, and we must first learn to love and accept ourselves, before starting to love and accept other people, situations, and the greater meaning of life.

[jeannamichel]

Elizabeth Gilbert just got a divorce with her husband. Then she broke up with her boyfriend. Deeply depressed- she longs to find solace with God and maybe get some balance in her life. Liz decides, in order to do this, she must drop her job and life in New York and travel for the year in search of ultimate peace.
First, she travels to Italy and starts her journey by eating the best food in town- she slowly begins to recover from her depression. Then, she goes to India and finds peace with God, living in an Ashram. Then over to Indonesia where she has visited once before.
This novel holds a wonderful structured concept, but by the end seemed a bit too personal to me.
Have you ever had a feeling that you are reading something that was way too "grown up" for you? Well, that was my feeling by the end of this novel. I really want to see this movie- so I vowed that I needed to read the book first. These sort of books should come with warnings: I am nonfiction. Beware of real people and real events. This is NOT a work of fiction.
I only found it was nonfiction about half way through, reading the copyright page. It totally took me by surprise. Besides required reading from school- I barely touch nonfiction. I was actually proud of myself for finishing the entire book.
So, what was the "grown up" part? Well, after I found out how it was nonfiction, then all of this was real. That this work of art (because this novel was an amazing work of art) was actually someone's life. After it got into Elizabeth Gilbert's sex life, I started thinking that that was a bit too personal to be reading about. Besides that, which is only in the end part, I enjoyed every minute of it.
This book makes me want to travel the world and find these people and get their autographs. I loved this book that much! It makes me inspired to do something, anything! I loved it!

[sstaley]

I am having a hard time getting through this book. I loved the Italy part and the India part is not moving for me. I am going to keep trying for a few more days, but this may be one I will have to throw the towel in. There are so many other great books out there that I want to read.

UPDATE: I could not finish this book. As I said before, I loved the Italy part but could not dig my way through the India part. I should have just skipped to the last part. I had this book from the library for about 6 weeks and it seemed more like a burden to read than a pleasure. I will stick to watching the movie.

3 stars to the Italian journey.

2 stars to the rest.

All I can say is that I tried.

[ladygrey]

I didn't love this book. "Eat" I found interesting and lively and fun, even during the difficult parts of her journey. The characters she was surrounded by were colorful and vibrant.
But when she got to "Pray" and "Love" I rather lost interest. Her meditation and spiritual experiences and insights weren't compelling to me and there weren't enough other characters interacting with her and giving dimension to her experience to hold my attention.
I did enjoy the way in which it was written, however, and her sense of humor. Overall, I found it alright but not something I'd read again.

[Eve1972]

Nice fast read, good book!