Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Pages: 384 pagesPublisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Review of the book by Cashmere
As the book cover says, its one woman’s search for everything. After turning 30 Elizabeth was mortified to find out that she did not want to have a baby and settle down into the traditional life that she and her then husband had planned on. That’s when she initiates her divorce proceedings.
After going through the most harrowing time of her life she decides that she needs to spend a year travelling across the world to heal herself. She hopes to find pleasure in Italy, union with God in India and balance in Indonesia. The three “I”’s as she calls them. It is the chronicles of this life altering journey that she records in Eat Pray Love.
In Italy she eats. She goes to every city and hunts not for the art or the sights but for the best place in town to eat. So she goes through pizzas and pasta and gains weight. Part of which she lost during her divorce and then a few additional pounds just like that.
In India she spends her four months in an Ashram trying to perfect her experience of God through yoga. She learns to meditate, and then unleashes the Kundalini Energy in her body. That experience alone would be worth giving up her plan to visit all the cities and temples in India and staying put in the ashram.
In Indonesia she goes hunting for an old medicine man and finds an idyllic paradise. She makes friends with the locals like Wayan and Tutti and with expatriates such as Felipe whom she eventually falls in love with. In fact her next book committed is supposed to continue the saga of their love affair and marriage.
It is a book that every married woman can identify with. Specially if she has ever had that urge to chuck everything and just leave. To travel the world and to find her own place under the sun.
A nice read. Recommended.
