A Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Whenever our family goes on vacation, we always brings a ton of books with us. In addition, we also browse through book stores and even buy a few more, especially if they are on sale. This summer, when ten of us came together on the shores of “The Great Lake" up north, the pattern repeated itself.

One day, while some of us were reading, the fancifully creative cover of the paperback edition of Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, caught my attention.  I asked my daughter, Denise, if she wouldn’t mind writing a review for this blog. Turns out she already had one posted on goodread.com. Her critique follows below:

I had a preconceived notion that this book might involve whining but I was happily wrong. The author sets off on an extended trip to Italy, India and Indonesia after a nasty divorce, looking to find peace of mind.

She first visits Italy to pamper herself; that's the "eat" part. Then it's off to India to "pray," and find an experience of the divine in an ashram. In Bali, her last stop, she looks for "love" in the form of striking a balance in her life.

You can see where one might get impatient with her for being a little self-absorbed, just by considering this synopsis. But Elizabeth Gilbert turns out to be someone you could easily be friends with.

She is actually self-effacing in her own way, has a great sense of humor, and keeps her troubles in perspective. She is amazing in the way she makes friends from all walks of life. I found her thoughts on religion and spirituality thought-provoking. I'll be interested to see the movie. 

The movie version of the book, starring Julia Roberts, is being released today. According to the Sony web site, it will be playing at the Clearview’s Bernardsville Cinema 3, Clearview’s Chester Cinema 6, Clearview’s Madison Cinema 4, and the Manville 12 Plex.

Note:  In my photo, the printed letter 'E' of 'eat' has been creatively overlayed by Priscille with tiny shells collected by our granddaughter Monique from 'The Great Lake'