“Eat, Pray, Love” By Elizabeth Gilbert
A Book Review by Katie Elliott
Eat, Love, Pray is the true – and unusual - story of one woman’s emotional and spiritual journey about great pasta, an Indian Guru who really knows how to push your buttons, a Balinese medicine man, and a handsome Brazilian suitor. All in all, a recipe for a beautiful and very delicious reading experience.
After experiencing hard times, Elizabeth Gilbert knows she has to take action for her own well being, and it has to be now. She decides to take her bruised heart on a year-long quest.
“I had a sudden horrifying image of the woman I might become…The divorcee in the muumuu with the dyed orange hair who doesn’t eat dairy but smokes menthols, who’s always just coming back from her astrology cruise or breaking up with her aroma-therapist boyfriend, who reads the Tarot cards of kindergarteners and says things like ‘Bring Aunty Liz another wine cooler, baby, and I’ll let you wear my mood ring’…”
She packs up and heads to Italy for four months, followed by India for four months, and then tops it all off in Bali for the remaining four. This, however, isn’t just a vacation. Elizabeth is on a mission. She plans to discover everything there is to know about pleasure in Italy. India, she decides, is dedicated to learning about devotion. Bali will be the place where she will tie pleasure and devotion together to learn how to live a balanced life.
This is Liz’s time to explore, heal, think, learn, eat, and even get hit by a bus. Lovable and funny, she’s an everyday-kind-of girl in love with all things Italian…especially the language and the food. But before she gets there, she makes a deal with herself: She will be celibate the entire year. How does she explore all the pleasures of Italy while swearing off Italian men, you ask? I still don’t know, but, cheers to her willpower! What does she do then while in Italy? She eats. She eats a lot. She doesn’t visit a single Museum other than the National Museum of Pasta in Rome. Oh, and she learns a little Italian, too.
Next, it’s time for Liz to get serious. She has a lot to learn about her own spirituality and she wants to practice the art of devotion, so what better place than an Ashram in India? This is where things get really interesting, and Liz’s shit hits the fan.
“When I ask my mind to rest in stillness, it is astonishing how quickly it will turn (1) bored, (2) angry, (3) depressed (4) anxious or (5) all of the above.” (I don’t think there’s anyone who has ever tried to meditate for extended periods of time that can’t relate.) Eventually, with some help, Liz has many beautiful successes. After the battles with her mind, her meditations finally pay off and Liz finds “the void.” Continued on page 2
