I finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love today. I have conflicted feelings about it, though. I did like it, but I guess I can't say that I loved it. I suppose it was just different than what I expected it to be. It isn't a traditional travel essay, and it isn't really a memoir. It is sort of a combination of the two with the underlying theme of being a sort of spiritual journey.
Thirty-something Gilbert went through a terrible divorce--it really sounded painful from her descriptions. She was already a successful author (I have read Stern Men by the way, and enjoyed it), and she seemed to have it all--a nice husband (well he seemed nice enough at first), a lovely house, a career. But it wasn't what she wanted--she had this epiphany on her bathroom floor one night, and thought God spoke to her. In the end she left her husband, had a wildly passionate affair with another man, literally lost all she had in her divorce settlement and then decided to go on a journey to Italy (for worldly pleasures), India (to seek out the spiritual) and Indonesia (to find a balance of the two). A small catch is that she had an advance from a publisher to write this book (and effectively pay for this journey). I'm not sure if that makes a difference--rather than the book being a result of all her experiences, it was somewhat planned.
I started out really enjoying Eat, Pray, Love. She writes very well--she has this chatty, very personal style. I felt like if I met her, I would really like her. Quite often I found myself very engaged in the narrative. There is a little bit of the personal, a little bit of travel, a little bit of history, and in parts a lot of soul searching and seeking. This is fine, but I didn't quite expect so much of it (I should have paid more attention to the "Pray" part of the title, eh?!). In my defense the subtitle is "One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia"--not one woman's search for spiritual enlightenment!
For me the middle section dragged a bit too much, and I found myself actually skimming bits (which I never do). She spent a lot of time meditating in India. A Lot Of Time. I have no problem with this, and I can see the benefits of it. But I guess it is one thing to want to do it, and another to want to read a hundred or so pages about it. Hours and hours and hours of meditation. In India she meets a man from Texas. At one point I thought she would be leaving the Ashram, and thought to myself...finally, we're getting somewhere. When lo and behold Richard from Texas talks her out of leaving. Thanks a lot Richard, I guess we don't get to see any other part of India than the Ashram! The last section picked up again however, even though a medicine man figures prominently in this part of the narrative. She does write more anecdotally about her experiences in Bali and about the the Balinese, which I enjoyed. I think the section on Italy remains my favorite part of the book.
If you take a look at the Amazon reviewers, by and large everyone loved it! I did enjoy it too, but some parts simply went very slow for me. I think I always have a problem with nonfiction. If it starts to drag, then the book is going to lose me. I can get easily distracted, and then I get grouchy and begin to wish I was reading fiction instead (I guess this is why I don't read a lot of NF)! I am curious how other readers felt about it? You can read the New York Times review of the book here.