Published January 2007 by Penguin Group
Source: I bought this one
Publisher's Summary:
After a messy divorce and other personal missteps, Elizabeth Gilbert confronts the "twin goons" of depression and loneliness by traveling to three countries that she intuited had something she was seeking. First, in Italy, she seeks to master the art of pleasure by indulging her senses. Then, in an Indian ashram, she learns the rigors and liberation of mind-exalting hours of meditation. Her final destination is Bali, where she achieves a precarious, yet precious equilibrium.
My thoughts:
This one took me for a ride. I loved the descriptions of the food and towns in Italy, I "got" Gilbert's sense of humor, and people Gilbert met in Bali were so interesting On the other hand, I finally took to skimming the chapters set in India. It's not that I had a problem with learning about Gilbert's experiences at the Ashram or even learning about Yoga. But, dang, it felt like a tutorial on Yoga and gurus and self-awareness at times and I finally had to just acknowledge that there was no way I was going to get through this without skimming. Perhaps this section suffered in comparison as well because the reader learns almost nothing about India whereas Gilbert did a fine job of teaching me new things about the history and lifestyles of both Italy and Bali.
I always have a problem with books turned into movies. Should I see the movie first so I don't risk being disappointed by the adaptation or read the book first so I don't spend the entire book with the actors in my head instead of forming my own impressions? The other problem with this second option is that I still spend the entire time comparing the book and the movie. I spent all of this book thinking "well, this is different than the movie," or "ah, so they combined these two scenes in the movie," or "this wasn't in the movie at all." Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing; I think they did a fine job of adapting the book and it was a comparison that held up well (except the ending - I liked the ending in the movie much better but then it was probably one of the very reasons that critics didn't love the movie).
Is Eat, Pray, Love self-indulgent at times? Yes. Did I sometimes want to slap Gilbert upside the head and tell her to just get over it? Yes. But I liked this book...a lot It made me think, it made me laugh and that's enough.
I can never make up my mind about this one. I struggled through it on a first read and then read it again for book club. I think I liked it better the second time but knew which places that I could quickly skim over (India). With all that said, though, I would still read it again (or maybe listen to it).
ReplyDeleteAnd I hear you with movies made from books. I try to give them as much space as possible--with my terrible memory I can usually experience the movie as a separate entity if I give it enough time between watching and reading. Otherwise I do the same--compare compare compare.
Lisa, I loved your honest post about this book. I've only read the Italy section and even then I was already getting annoyed with Gilbert (but I love Italy, so I figured I'd read at least the Italy section). I just found her to be too self-indulgent - but then again, isn't that what a memoir can be? Anyhow, loved your post - perhaps I'll just watch the movie instead ;)
ReplyDeleteThe India part is not done well in the movie too! But overall, I did like the movie. Haven't got to the book yet.
ReplyDelete"Did I sometimes want to slap Gilbert upside the head and tell her to just get over it? Yes."
ReplyDeleteLOL, that's exactly how I felt for most of the book.
I think the reason I liked this book so much was I read it right after a break up with an emotionally abusive guy. I was in a very dark, very vulnerable place. Gilbert showed me I was going to get out of it and be okay.
ReplyDeleteI honestly loved this book and really enjoyed the movie. She made me want to live in Italy and just enjoy the food!!! But of course, I also would love to visit India!!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about the India section. That was the one part I just didn't get attached to at all. The rest was pretty interesting though. Thanks for the feedback on the movie too--haven't seen it yet!
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