Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Summary:

Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American journalist and author born in 1969. Eat, Pray, Love, published in 2006 is a memoir of Gilbert’s travels across Italy, India and Indonesia.

Rating:

DNF - Did Not Finish

Review:

On the advice of my book club, I have decided to DNF Eat, Pray, Love at 20%. I very very rarely DNF a book. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've done it. But I just can't spend time reading a book that I'm not enjoying when there are so many other good books out there. Eat, Pray, Love has elicited such a strong reaction in me, and it was only talking about it in my book club that I realised how I was feeling.

Firstly, I was very upset to find out that the author had sold the book before she even went on her year of eating, praying and loving. So straight away, none of it's real, it's all performative as it's pre-destined to be published. 

Secondly, there's a whole chapter on why Gilbert is against anti-depressants but allowed herself to go on anti-depressants because she suffered enough to justify it. And unless people put themselves through the same suffering and attempts at self-help that she did, then they shouldn't be allowed to go on anti-depressants. The concept that you need to suffer to be allowed happiness is so harmful.

Finally, Gilbert is so self-obsessed it's nauseating. I desperately wanted to love this book and have the life changing experience that so many people have had with it but I cannot drag myself through any more 'is it God speaking to me? Or my Guru? Or my Highest Self? Or a construct of my subconscious invented in order to protect me from my own torment?'. Seriously. 

I am not including this in my books read this year because I didn't finish it.