I avoided this book for ages. It is the true tale of Elizabeth Gilbert's self-styled 'search for everything' - in Italy, India and Indonesia - and I worried that it might be a little too trite, or full of God, for my own tastes.
Why relent? In part because a friend recommended Committed, the sequel, and said it was worth reading Eat, Pray, Love for context alone, but mostly because I was nosey and could no longer bear all the hype about the book, and now the film, without being able to add my own two penneth worth.
Deciding what that two penneth worth will be is proving trickier than usual. The internet is full of diatribes berating Gilbert's self-indulgence but that wasn't really what bothered me. When you pick up a personal story you have to accept it will be... personal, and writing about yourself at length is bound to become at least a little bit self-indulgent.
I was also less bothered than I expected to be by God popping up all over the place. I have a fairly antagonistic relationship with organised religion courtesy of an ultra-religious childhood but actually I was fine with most of it. Yes, Gilbert's actual language of prayer bristled, and the moment when God appeared to instantaneously grant the divorce she had prayed for left me sceptical at best, but in the main I found the book refreshingly non-denominational and inclusive, focusing more on the 'divine' than any set idea of 'God'.
The first section was a beautiful travelogue of Italy and its people and the second, India, was my favourite. That is where Gilbert comes closest to offering some real insight into the universal search for enlightenment and there are some great passages of reflection that really made me stop and think (and which I'll post separately).
Where it all came unstuck, for me at least, was Indonesia. Suddenly Gilbert's days lacked the previous structure of the ashram and it seemed like she was on holiday. It seemed like that, essentially, because she was. Whether it was jealously that kicked in at that point, or something more noble, I have no idea but I started to think that, yes, most people could recover from depression and find balance and peace when sent on holiday for a year at the behest of their benevolent publisher... except it's not really balance and it's a very solitary peace because actually real life is not like that. It is not a holiday.
Reading how she incorporated the lessons of the ashram into her daily grind and found that sort of balance would have interested me more. Perhaps that is to come in Committed but I'm not sure I'm ready yet to set aside the time to find out.
Maybe I'll just wait for the inevitable film.
