Eat, Pray, Love
Posted on | September 16, 2009 | No Comments
Image source: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm
No, that is not what I’ve been doing lately, although you might think so from the post title. No, this is actually a novel I recently read but never got around to writing about it. Its author, Elizabeth Gilbert is, as she says so herself, a woman searching for “everything”. What everything is, well, we’ll find out in the book, of course.
After an unhappy marriage ended in an even unhappier divorce, Liz decided to take a year off. Yes, a whole year to do the whole searching for everything I was telling you about. And after that, she wrote about it, obviously. This is not a ‘recipe’ for finding yourself. I strongly believe that you can find “everything” at home, with a nice cup of tea, a good book and your cat curled in your lap. Or in a walk by this beautiful lake of Neuchatel holding the hand of the one you love. Or in whatever else you might imagine. But this is her way, and, to be honest, it is a bit more interesting than tea and cats (God, I do miss mine 
).
She starts her journey in Italy, learning Italian and eating the most exquisite Italian food ever. If I ever go to Naples (I do hope I will) I need to get myself that double Mozzarella pizza that made me drool just by thinking of it. She finds new friends and yummy dishes, she puts on “the happiest weight of her life” and just takes life as it is, one day at a time.
India is next, and to be fair and square, this is my least favourite part of the book. Not that I wouldn’t believe in praying for what it’s worth, but I don’t see myself locked in an ashram waking up at 4 am to sing and meditate. Just not so like me. So like her though, because apparently inner peace comes to you a little bit more easier in this kind of paces. I do like the way Liz wrote this part, as a normal human being, who has issues focusing at first, who does not like reciting 100 and something hymn verses at 6 in the morning and who has trouble staying quiet in such a quiet place.
Last, but not least, is Indonesia. A place where I don’t see myself going to without 3 or 4 bodyguards and a nice big gun, but she had the guts to go there by herself. Of course, there are friends there too, there are people who make her life easier, who make her dream and, most important of all, they make her fall in love (actually, I’d say that’s just one of the people, if you get my point). It is also interesting to find yourself in a new civilization, to see how people act and react in certain situations when they’ve had a whole other way of growing up. Bali is really a dream place – paradise sort of destination so maybe I’ll take over my fear and go for a romantic week or two there. Or heck, a few months maybe. A very noticeable thing Liz did while being there (except falling in love, of course) is the fact that she helped a local ‘healer’, Wayan, to buy herself and her daughter a home. This may be one of the times when people from all over the world gathering together money through internet messages actually worked.
I know this is not necessarily a coherent review of the book, as I find that I don’t really have a strong opinion about it. I did like it, but I can’t really go on and on about it as I am actually a bit out of ideas. However, I do believe that it is a great book for people who feel a little lost, who would like to find their way but are a bit confused, who need to know that no matter how, you will always be able to get through whatever life has in store for you. And maybe that’s the best lesson Liz Gilbert can offer us. Easy to read and funny, it’s probably going to be on anyone’s ‘to read’ list.
Enjoy!
You can get the book from amazon.co.uk. Link in my widget 
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