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

by Elizabeth Gilbert

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Showing 1-5 of 286 (next | show all)
I'm not usually into new-agey mystical stuff, so I delayed reading this one (despite the rave review it received from my mother-in-law). Once I started, though, I was hooked. What kept me going was Gilbert's entertaining prose--she is an excellent writer. ( )
iBeth | Jul 9, 2009 |  
I wasn't entirely sure about this book when I started, given that the author's mystical, New Age spirituality was a little too much for me. However, I was soon drawn into the story and found myself thoroughly engrossed. For starters, I found myself relating a lot to the author at various points (although not on her religious views). I particularly liked the part of the book that discussed her travels in Italy, although I was also amused by her tales from Bali and the people that she befriended there. (The parts about India were more about spiritual than cultural matters, so I was less interested there). Also, the author divested so much of her personal life, that I became invested in her story. And for the audiophile, Gilbert's voice was very soothing and melodic. This was so calming that it kept me enthralled in the book even during her lengthy explanations of searching for God in an ashram in India (aka, the parts I was less interested in). If you are in to New Age spiritualism, or if like me you can agree to disagree, this book is a gem. The people are lively (and all the more interesting for being real), the prose is fanciful without being overly wrought (and thereby unreadable), and Gilbert gives almost anthropological descriptions of the places she stays in, giving the reader a glimpse at another country and its culture each time she moves. ( )
sweetiegherkin | Jul 8, 2009 |  
I seemed to get bogged down towards the end and found the author to be whiny ( )
ms.c.earthsci | Jul 7, 2009 | 1 vote
Started of full of a promising adventure of self discovery, lost me by page 101... ( )
LadyBlossom | Jul 4, 2009 |  
Elizabeth Gilbert says that she structured her book as a japa mala, strings of beads to assist devout Hindus and Buddhists in prayerful meditation. The book is divided into three sections--Italy (Eat), India (Pray), and Indonesia (Love)--with 36 tales per country, 108 in all, with an introduction serving as bead 109 on her japa mala.

It's a perfect structure because the book so often parallels meditative practice. Gilbert starts by clearing her life, paring down to the essentials for a year overseas. She begins her journey in Italy with physical restoration and reasserts control over her life and emotions. In India, she works on her soul and learns how to quiet her mind. After struggling so hard for control, she realizes she must let go to experience peace. Finally, in Indonesia, she transcends all the pain of past failures to find contentment and love.

While all of that sounds so serious, the book is surprisingly funny. I often found myself laughing while crying; it's that kind of book. It's also a delightful travelogue of Italy and Bali. Throughout the book, Gilbert's love of people and her desire to experience other cultures on their own terms makes her all the more interesting and likable.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who likes to travel, who's interested in other cultures, who needs restoration after the end of a relationship, who's looking for happiness, or who just wants to laugh. ( )
nikitasamuelle | Jul 4, 2009 | 1 vote
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Epigraph
Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.
----Sheryl Louise Moller
Dedication
For Susan Brown--
who provided refuge
even from 12,000 miles away
First words
When you're traveling in India-especially through holy sites and Ashrams-you see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks.
Quotations
When I get lonely these days, I think: So be lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.
...I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't. If faith were rational, it wouldn't be-by definition-faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark.
Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both.
Culturally, thought not theologically, I'm a Christian.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0143058525, Audio CD)

The celebrated author of The Last American Man creates an irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure and spiritual devotion.

Unabridged CDs - 13 CDs, 15 hours

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400)

(see all 3 descriptions)

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