The Book Addict Reviews: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Genre: Travel, Memoir
Order Online: Amazon.com
Author Info: Website | Goodreads
Rating: 2 stars
Bought this book after a friend told me about it.

In A Nutshell:
A good friend of mine raved about this book, so I finally sat down and read it.  Maybe my expectations were high because of all that my friend had told me, but overall I was rather underwhelmed with the book. 

Review:
I am currently in the middle of a divorce. I only share this fact because I believe my review of this book will be affected by where I am in my life right now. And as I have talked to a few of my friends who have read this book, our reveiws seemed to be tied to what is going on in our lives. If we are in transition (like me) than we found parts that really hit us. But my friends who are content with where they are in their lives right now found the book impossible.

There were quite a few stories/ideas/beads that really resonated with me. In particular, as she talks about her relationship with her ex-husband and David and really getting over those two relationships. I found a lot of food for thought in those beads.

But I only gave this book a 2 because there were other aspects of this book that really annoyed me. First, there was a lot of rambling, and so there was a few times I almost gave up because I kept thinking why am I reading this? Why do I care? It kind of reminded me of listening to that annoying person who insists on telling you his/her life story after you asked "how are you doing today?"

Second, I felt a little bit of contradiction. On one hand she wants to protect the people in her story by not telling the readers who her guru is or how to find the locations. But on the other hand she seems to be trying to help the reader start his/her own journey to enlightenment. How? Where can we start? Can we do it without taking off for a year? I was hoping the end would have some guidance, but no.

Recommendations:
While I was not overly impressed with Eat, Pray, Love, I started looking at Elizabeth Gilbert's website and found out about some of the other books/stories she had written.  I found out that she wrote an article for GQ that became the inspiration for Coyote Ugly.  I want to find that article.