Review: Liz Gilbert, socialite, author, journalist, realizes her life is spiraling out of control. As her marriage falls apart, she begins to question her direction. Rock bottom starts to appear when she finds herself searching for answers on the floor of her bathroom. She claws through the rest of her divorce and tries to hold herself together. Solace comes in the form a new lover, but even this turns into a tumultuous relationship. She orbits this man in an erratic spiral, and, just before she enters the atmosphere in a fiery ball destined to burn up and fall to the earth a charred and useless rock, she comes to a decision.

Liz returns to her fundamental love: travel. She chooses to lose herself in far off countries in order to rediscover her soul, to find a way to live life less like an emotional roller coasters, and to find her bliss. There are three stops on her trip. Coincidentally (or not) they all begin with the letter “I”. Italy is the first. India is the second. The third is Indonesia, in particular Bali. Each country offers itself to her in different ways, hence she eats, prays, and loves.

Recommendation: It would be easy to label this book as a read geared more for women than men. In fact, I was hesitant to read it for that exact reason. But I told myself that it is important to expand my horizons. Besides, there were plenty of good ‘chick-flicks’ that I had enjoyed watching. I am an admitted fan of “You’ve Got Mail” (f-o-x), “As Good As It Gets” (sell crazy someplace else, we’re all stocked up here), and even “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. I’m just kidding about that last one. I haven’t seen it or read the book… yet.

So I picked up Eat, Pray, Love, read the prologue and set off on this true story about a woman in search of rekindling her soul. Somewhat surprisingly, I found her writing to be entertaining and funny. Her journey is populated by many interesting, generous, and puzzling characters. Of all her problems, comedic wit and self-defacing introspection is not one of them. Her relationship issues do not fall outside the lines of unfamiliar, and I think that she and I share some of the same philosophies about world travel. Having been to Rome, I enjoyed reading about her eating exploits. Dazzling. Despite my valiant attempts, I had a hard time not giving into the temptations of Italian cuisine: pizza anywhere and anyhow you like it, more pasta than water , and sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet gelato. If I’d had my druthers, I probably would have tried to eat Italy right off the map. Liz Gilbert gave it a good shot.

The book slowed down a little once she got to India, and I started becoming more and more reluctant to continue reading. While this is the story of her travels, I often thought her artistic license took over the true events. It is impossible to recount details accurately from memory, but I think she filled them in a little too nicely. Her finely turned phrases during the course of conversation brought up memories of Steven Spielberg’s giant T-Rex foot in the Lost World (watch the scene where it steps on that guy and lifts him off the ground… is the footprint really that big?).

All in all, once she got to Bali I was ready for her story to be over. Even her hilarious Balinese guru whose wisdom is nicely countered by his attempts at English and his constant reminder that he “is very empty in [his] bank” could not quite keep me engaged. I imagine her own trip was fantastic, but I don’t think I enjoyed the ride quite as much as she did.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia. Penguin Books, New York, 2006.

Currently reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

On Deck: When the Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin