Product Description

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Gilbert (The Last American Man) grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting in this sprawling yet methodical travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. First, pleasure: savoring Italy's buffet of delights--the world's best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners--Gilbert consumes la dolce vita as spiritual succor. "I came to Italy pinched and thin," she writes, but soon fills out in waist and soul. Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India, Gilbert emulates the ways of yogis in grueling hours of meditation, struggling to still her churning mind. Finally, a balancing act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise "betwixt and between" realms, studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair. Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year's cultural and emotional tapestry--conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candor--as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'"
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

From The Washington Post
The only thing wrong with this readable, funny memoir of a magazine writer's yearlong travels across the world in search of pleasure and balance is that it seems so much like a Jennifer Aniston movie. Like Jen, Liz is a plucky blond American woman in her thirties with no children and no major money worries. As the book opens, she is going through a really bad divorce and subsequent stormy rebound love affair. Awash in tears in the middle of the night on the floor of the bathroom, she begins to pray for guidance, "you know -- like, to God." God answers. He tells her to go back to bed. I started seeing the Star headlines: "Jen's New Faith!" "What Really Happened at the Ashram!" "Jen's Brazilian Sugar Daddy -- Exclusive Photos!" Please understand that Gilbert, whose earlier nonfiction book, The Last American Man, portrayed a contemporary frontiersman, is serious about her quest. But because she never leaves her self-deprecating humor at home, her journey out of depression and toward belief lacks a certain gravitas. The book is composed of 108 short chapters (based on the beads in a traditional Indian japa mala prayer necklace) that often come across as scenes in a movie. And however sad she feels or however deeply she experiences something, she can't seem to avoid dressing up her feelings in prose that can get too cute and too trite. On the other hand, she convinced me that she acquired more wisdom than most young American seekers -- and did it without peyote buttons or other classic hippie medicines. When Gilbert determines that she requires a year of healing, her first stop is Italy, because she feels she needs to immerse herself in a language and culture that worships pleasure and beauty. This sets the stage for a "Jen's Romp in Rome," where she studies Italian and, with newfound friends, searches for the best pizza in the world. It's a considerable achievement because she is still stalked by Depression and Loneliness, which she casts as "Pinkerton Detectives" -- Depression, the wise guy, and Loneliness, "the more sensitive cop." They frisk her, "empty my pockets of any joy I had been carrying" and relentlessly interrogate her about why she thinks she deserves a vacation, considering what a mess she's made of her life. After literally eating herself out of depression, she returns to the United States for Christmas holidays. Next stop: the ashram. It seems Gilbert has been a student of yoga and meditation for years. Her rural Indian experience features Gilbert grappling mightily with some of the meditative practices. She finds quirky co-practitioners such as Richard from Texas, a former truck driver, alcoholic and Birkenstock dealer. Richard nicknames her "Groceries" because of her appetite at meals and offers wise advice. Picture Willie Nelson in a non-singing cameo role. Gilbert acknowledges that Americans have had difficulty accepting the idea of meditation and gurus, and she does a mostly fine job in making her ashram education accessible. She deftly sketches the physical stress of sitting in one position for hours, as well as the metaphysical stress of staying on message. Still, Gilbert sounds like a giddy teenager as she describes her relationship with Swamiji, the yogi who founded the ashram where she is studying: "I'm finding that all I want is Swamiji. All I feel is Swamiji.... It's the Swamiji channel, round the clock." The concluding 36 beads find Gilbert in Bali, palling around with an ageless medicine man who looks like Yoda, a Balinese mother and nurse, Wayan, who is a refugee from domestic violence, and other colorful characters. Gilbert is healed enough by now to render a really good deed: She raises $18,000 via e-mail from American friends for Wayan to buy a house. ("Jen: Bigger Do-Gooder Than Brad?") And after 18 months of self-imposed celibacy, she finds mature, truer love thanks to a charming older Brazilian businessman. Eat, Pray, Love as a whole actually is better than its 108 beads. By the time she and her lover sailed into a Bali sunset, Gilbert had won me over. She's a gutsy gal, this Liz, flaunting her psychic wounds and her search for faith in a pop-culture world, and her openness ultimately rises above its glib moments. Memo to Jen -- option this book. -- Grace Lichtenstein is a travel writer and author of six books who lives in New York and Santa Fe, N.M.

Reviewed by Grace Lichtenstein
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Engaging memoir about a woman's search for self and happiness
Although this book gained huge popularity almost immediately after its release--which was a full two years ago now--initially, I had some reluctance to read it. This is surprising given that 1) I'm about the same age as the author, 2) I generally really enjoy memoirs, and 3) I've studied Italian and am into yoga, which are two of the three major themes of this book. However, my sense from others who had read EAT, PRAY, LOVE before me was that for all those who loved the book, just as many hated it, finding it to be self-indulgent.

So, is this book self-indulgent? Well, of COURSE it is--but what memoir isn't? You could dismiss the entire book by saying that author Elizabeth Gilbert is, like so many other women before her, simply trying to "find herself" after an ugly divorce. While this is arguably true, the universal nature of Gilbert's general situation doesn't make the particular details of her story any less interesting. The fact is, Gilbert is an engaging writer, and although the pages of her book might should "ME, ME, ME!", she certainly provides her readers with a clear portrayal of her year of transformative travel. Readers are with Gilbert each step of the way as she learns to experience pleasure again in Italy (through the joy of wonderful food), to connect with a higher being in India (by practicing yoga and meditation at her Guru's ashram), and to find peace and love in Bali.

There were a few things I didn't like about Gilbert's writing style. For example, she seemed to be unnecessarily coy at times, like when she made the specific point of saying within the first few pages of the book that she wasn't going to let readers know anything about what went wrong with her ex-husband. She also refused to reveal the name of her Guru, something that of course can easily be obtained on the internet (and in fact now appears in Gilbert's own blog). But overall, I found this book to be enjoyable: I enjoyed taking part in Gilbert's journey and truly rooted for her happiness in the end.

She did it again!
This author sounds like very immature for her age. At age 35, she is still dreaming to be loved like a princess. She is very needy, needs a full attention from everyone, particularly from her lover. Her inner voice tells her that she doesn't want to have children. I think her inner voice is right about it. How can she take of children when she needs a full attention herself. From the book I feel that she is someone who always gets what she wants in a selfish way. That book doesn't say exactly what happened to her marriage and when a marriage is over, it can't be just one person's fault but because of her personality, I almost think that her husband is mad because she is so selfish and always do everything in her way, and gets everything she wants at the end.

I really wanted to like this book because I am on a journey to find inner peace myself. I was hoping to learn some good tips from this book. For me it was OK in Italy and India but I closed the book at the line in Indonesia "I go straight back to Felipe"s house and I don't leave his bedroom for approximately another month."
That was it for me. She did it again. It was such a disappointment to read the line and know that she didn't learn a thing. I felt like I wasted my time reading this book this far. I hope she can prove me wrong to spend her rest of her life happily with Felipe. It sounds like a good match for her to have a much older guy.

Truly Wonderful!!
I know everyone has thier opinion and story about this book, some loved it and some thought is was over sold - well, I think that depends on where you are and how open you are to experiencing growth. My story is that this book moved me in ways unimaginable. I absolutely loved the journey and the truths discovered along the way. If you are still trying to figure it all out and would love some great insight, read this book. It has become almost like a reference for me - I plan to read it many times throughout me life. I am grateful to people like Elizabeth Gilbert who have the courage and foresight to put themselves out there and share thier stories with us - she has given all of us a gift.