Has anyone read EAT, LOVE, PRAY?

No…but I’ll put it on my list!

It keeps calling me in the bookstore, but I have too many others to read right now. I’ll circle back when I do.

I’m a man and I’ve read it. I found it very compelling—loved it. As someone juggling new life directions in the aftermath of divorce, it spoke volumes to me. And I think that’s saying a lot, as historically I would have found the overall setting and approach incredibly irritating: the author basically got paid (in the form of an advance to write the book) to sort her life out over a year. Everyone should be so lucky to get a year paid leave after a live-changing event like divorce!

@Mangus: perceptive comments, but look how she used her paid-leave and look at what happened to her. Imagine meeing a guru in Indonesia who likes you well enough to swap guru things for English lessons, and says, from his toothless mouth, “Later, gator.”

All wonderful writers who get published usually get paid in advance. I went thru several hellish years after a divorce and some other stuff; I would have been able to write nothing no matter how large the advance offered.

I hope that your life is taking a turn for the better.

Read her book about Eustace Conway “THE LAST AMERCAN MAN, for a very different take on life – hers and others. I’d love to hear what you think of that one.

Eat Love and Pray is a great book.

It can apply to anyone who went through heartaches/hardships in the past or current.

I heard they will make a movie about the book with Julia Roberts next year.

gosh, i don’t know i found this book really irritating. i actually couldn’t even finish it.

@christybird: I’m curious. Would you expand on that? As I mentioned, I found parts of it irritating too. What bugged you?

@Mangus: The author seems really, really narcissistic to me. Let’s be honest – it sucks that she realizes she doesn’t want to be with her husband and have children. I’m sorry that the love affair that she jumps right into after her breakup with her husband turns out badly. I’m sure her struggle with depression is difficult.

But come on.

She is a professional writer who makes a living at doing what she loves. She has lots of wonderful, supportive family and friends. She is relatively young and healthy. She got some publisher to finance a year of travel in three amazing places. Every time she starts to wallow in self-pity and invites us to feel sorry for her, it really turns my stomach. Like the part at the end of the Italy section when she compares her own situation to the Sicilian people who have been under the grip of the mafia for generations. The fact that she cheerfullly acknowledges “I know I can’t really compare myself to them,” doesn’t stop her from making the comparison in the first place.

It reminds me a bit of the skinny girls in 8th grade gym class, who would stare at themselves in the locker room mirrors and wail, “I’m so fat!” You would comfort them, “No you’re not, you’re thin,” but then look at yourself in the mirror and think, “Geez, if she thinks she’s fat, then I must be a cow.” Reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book made me feel a bit like that, even though her writing style is witty and I liked certain aspects (her love affair with the Italian language is pretty fun). Still, I couldn’t handle any more and had to stop reading.