Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth does a fantastic job of welcoming us into her travels, her friendships, her experiences, her meals, and most significantly, her deepest emotions and darkest times. Her candid account of her innermost thoughts makes the reader feel understood. By telling us things that we ourselves would be embarrassed to admit, she allows us to accept ourselves. That it is ok to go through ups and downs, to need guidance, to not have all the answers, to be scared or confused, to want something and feel guilty about it, and finally to let that guilt go.
Elizabeth has an amazing ability to describe things (food, people, feelings). In fact, I spent the whole section on Italy hungry.
I give this book 5 out of 5!
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Eat, Pray, Love
Personal perspectives on religion or spirituality can often be boring at best and unbelievably awkward at worst. Fortunately Elizabeth Gilbert presents her own journey (the physical and metaphysical), in Eat Pray Love, without gravitas and with humor and humility. I happen to be a big fan of the single-woman-on-a-journey-after-heartbreak literature (read: Tales of a Female Nomad), and Liz (can I call her Liz?) has such a great sense of humor (personifying Depression and Lonliness as thugs, getting a prim and proper Italian saleswoman to admit that she, Liz, does indeed look like the pasta and gelato she spent three months eating in Italy and divulging her friend's nickname for her as Groceries) that I felt immediately drawn to her and her friends.
I was torn between her reasons for getting a divorce: "finding yourself" seems a lame reason to give up a shared life, but she readily admitted that, and how brave is it to actually go on a year's journey, by yourself, to three unknown countries, and come out at the other end a better person?
I think the same narrative could have been mangled by a less sophisticated writer. Liz doesn't fall into the trite or privelaged perspective. She really maintains a balance (which was her goal in the year of travel) and when she starts to tip, she laughs, has the reader laugh with her, and pulls herself back up.
Netflix stars? A whopping 5 out of 5!
I was torn between her reasons for getting a divorce: "finding yourself" seems a lame reason to give up a shared life, but she readily admitted that, and how brave is it to actually go on a year's journey, by yourself, to three unknown countries, and come out at the other end a better person?
I think the same narrative could have been mangled by a less sophisticated writer. Liz doesn't fall into the trite or privelaged perspective. She really maintains a balance (which was her goal in the year of travel) and when she starts to tip, she laughs, has the reader laugh with her, and pulls herself back up.
Netflix stars? A whopping 5 out of 5!
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