Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Published by Penguin Books
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Reviewed by Carrie Padgett
(Available in hardcover and paperback)
Elizabeth Gilbert's prose evokes images and emotions that bring her readers along for the journey. Eat Pray Love is Gilbert's memoir of the year she spent traveling and living in Italy, India, and Indonesia following a divorce and crippling depression.
A desire to learn Italian prompted the four-month move to Italy and language school. The depression lifted as Gilbert made friends and ate pasta and pizza. Her language skills grew as she learned to enjoy life and food and pleasure again. The next four months, at an Ashram in India, were spent in prayer and meditation. Gilbert struggled against the disciplines of the Ashram before embracing them and discovering the freedom such strictures bring. The last third of the year spent in Bali, was devoted to balance. Gilbert studied with traditional Balinese healers, discovered her own strength, and found love.
Gilbert peels back layers of her heart, soul, and mind to reveal the fear, hunger, and need that reside in all of us. She is brutally honest, yet careful to assure the reader that although she is chronicling the human journey, it is most certainly her own. She protects the privacy of others whose paths have intersected with hers.
Gilbert's writing is lovely and powerful and reminiscent of Anne Lamott, who coincidentally provides a cover endorsement. At the conclusion of Eat Pray Love, Gilbert can speak Italian with ease, has "sat upon God's palm," in India, and found connection in Bali.
Armchair Interviews says: One woman's fascinating journey out of depression and back into life again.
Author's Web site: http://www.ElizabethGilbert.com