Eat Pray Love

Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Eat, Pray, Love is a beautifully written memoir and hugely popular book describing the author’s life-changing journey through Italy, India, and Bali.  Reeling after a painful divorce and a debilitating depression, Gilbert decided to leave everything behind to explore the world, specifically choosing three countries she hoped would help her recover and heal.  She spent the first four months in Rome, surrendering to a culture that understands the importance of the mouthwatering pleasure of great food, cappuccinos, and wine.  Her next stop, a sacred ashram in Mumbai, allows her for the first time in her life to focus on spiritual enlightenment.  Here she spends long hours under the tutelage of a wise guru, practicing yoga.  She then moves on to Bali, where she hoped for balance and ended up finding love.  While the story is a bit predictable, Eat, Pray, Love still stands out as a worthy example of modern travel writing.
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ABOUT ELIZABETH GILBERT

Elizabeth Gilbert is a talented American novelist and non-fiction writer.  She attended New York University, writing a collection of short stories at night that evolved into her first book.  Gilbert worked as a contributor for GQ, Spin and the New York Times Magazine and was nominated three times for The National Magazine Award.  While she is best known for Eat Pray Love, she has published a novel about territorial fishing wars in Maine, a non-fiction book on Eustace Conway, and more recently a best-selling novel called The Signature of All Things (2013), a story about 19th century botanical exploration. 

GREAT QUOTES FROM EAT PRAY LOVE

"Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life.  I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice.  I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves.  I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby–I just don’t care what it puts me through.  Because I adore it.  Because it’s mine.”

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • Eat, Pray, Love​ was made into a motion picture in 2010, starring Julia Roberts.  

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The Best American Travel Writing 2013

Elizabeth Gilbert was the guest editor for the 2013 edition of The Best American Travel Writing.  Her selections revolve around those stories that demonstrate the writer's ability to infuse wonder and awe, even sometimes in the most normal of trips.  Highlights include Kevin Chroust's experience running with the bulls at Pamplona, Colleen Kinder's superb story on navigating the streets of Cairo as a woman, Peter Jon Lindberg's annual family trip to Maine, and David Sedaris' "Dentists Without Borders".  It is a good collection, and as she promises in her introduction, you will not be bored.  Click here to learn more about The Best American Travel Writing series.

Elizabeth Gilbert's Ted Talk