Update (6/9/08) For my latest comments on Gilbert’s book, follow this link.
I don’t read memoirs, I absorb them. I begin to read and I don’t quit until I’ve come up out of the last word of the last chapter. I get easily involved with the author’s experiences; I hate to put the book aside for a moment. That was the way I took in Angela’s Ashes and Lucky.
It was the same experience with Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, a story of lost love, heartache, spiritual enlightenment and delicious food.
The book, which I found listed on Amazon.com, yet scooped up at my library, originally caught my attention because Gilbert traveled to one of the most exotic and fascinating places on the planet – Indonesia. I lived in Ujung Pandang, Indonesia for seven months, so I was curious to see how her impressions of the country compared to mine.
When the book begins, we are introduced to a married Gilbert who is pleading with God to rescue her from her domestic life and starting a family. She leaves her husband soon afterward. A new man comes into Gilbert’s life, but the two have a difficult time making it work. Once the divorce is final, Gilbert leaves the on/off again boyfriend behind and sets off on a year-long quest to find pleasure in Italy, spiritual piety in India and balance of the two in Indonesia. Unfortuately, Gilbert packs up her depression, anxiety and loneliness to take with her.
Gilbert studies yoga and meditation with a Hindu guru. As a Christian, this is not my thing, but I can appreciate her desire to pursue the spiritual. And her daily life in the Indian Ashram is interesting. Awake for prayers and meditation at 3:30 am. Yikes! That’s dedication.
She does talk quite a bit about meditation, which reminded me of The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Foster has a chapter in this Christian classic dedicated to meditation. I’ll have to dust it off for a re-read.
As for the Indonesian comparisons, Gilbert lived in Bali and I lived on the island of Sulawesi, so even though we lived in the same country, the cultures are different from each other. Gilbert did have me laughing out loud when she described the “family mini-van.” Husband, wife and children all cramed onto a motorcycle, no helmets, weaving in and out of traffic. That’s a common sight Indonesia and it always amazed me too, especially to see the women calmly perched on the bike in a sarong. Amazing.
I’m always curious to read how others, especially non-believers, view God, prayer, heaven and hell. This book is a excellent view into one woman’s beliefs and while I disagree with what she believes, I learned a lot about how she thinks.
A note to my Christian readers: you may find some of the language and content in Eat, Pray, Love offensive. Consider yourselves warned.
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I found Angela’s Ashes depressing.
I took note of her prayer to God to deliver her from her husband and impending family. That seems to me clueless.
I share your absorption in other people’s memoirs, though. I get right into their head and am loathe to leave.
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i thoroughly enjoyed this book and am fascinated by the varied reactions that different people have to it. and thank you for the laughter you induced by the memory of the ‘family mini-van.’
I saw Melissa Gilbert on Oprah yesterday. (I have not read her book, nor had I even heard of it before yesterday.) I found her to be a likable person and felt like she was leading me to a this table full of good things to eat, yet when I tasted what she offered I did not feel satisfied. Unfortunately others will be satisfied with these leaving, and they may miss out on the true feast that is found in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ.
Oh Lord, may I be a woman of influence and lead others to your table.
The very fact that people kept calling it their bible was enough to make me go hmmm???? I have read a lot of really good books in my life but only one would I ever call my Bible and that is The Bible that teaches about Jesus not how to run away from my life when it gets icky. I don’t think I will be reading this book.
I’m not aware of anyone calling it their Bible. Obviously those people aren’t believers if Eat, Pray, Love is their holy book.
One of the reasons I like to read these types of books, books that reveal how people react to problems, etc., is to understand how non-believers think. Plus, I’ve been to Indonesia, that was a big draw for me too.
As for Gilbert running away, I saw it more as running to a grand adventure, and she did come back. I’d love to live overseas again.
Where did she get all her money?
Gayle and Traci comments are the reason I dislike organized religion. They don’t accept a person’s road to God that doesn’t reflect their own way of travel. They dismiss Ms. Gilbert, yet they don’t read the book. So how can they really comment on something they don’t know. (Reading the book jacket doesn’t count)
Did you ever think that all of Ms. Gilbert’s misery was because she was looking for God, but knew she wouldn’t find him in the marriage that she had? Maybe she wasn’t running away from her problems, but trying correct her life, and had to travel a path that her husband didn’t want to walk.
Sometimes the way people find God is not the way you would do it, nor the way you practice your way to God. The point is not to JUDGE. You can have a personal relationship with our lord and saviour without a bible, a church, etc. All you need is a quiet space, and hour, maybe a mat and your mind. Nothing wrong with chanting good things to get God’s attention.
So many questions! I\’m going to have to re-read the book, I simply don\’t remember how she financed the trip or even exactly why she went on the journey in the first place.
Tina, I\’m not big into judging folks either, so I\’m going to let Gayle and Traci have their say. Of course, you know I\’d much prefer they read the book too, for the sake of this discussion, but that\’s okay. I once wrote a newspaper column regarding movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar – and I hadn\’t seen one of them. Wow, you wouldn\’t believe the letters to the editor! Ha. That was fun.
As for having a relationship with Christ without a Bible… you\’d be hard pressed to make the commitment real, deep and lasting. But that\’s just my opinion and not a judgment on you at all.
The autho believes that many gods, or religions can become part of ones life, and these will channel into one god , the “right God” –> absolutely shocking.
Oprah is playing a dangerous game.. promoting the secret, and promoting yet another New age book, eat pray love.
Think of Hitler, a man that was responsible for the death of millions of people, thes people may have died believeing the true creator, these people may have died saved.
Hitler could take that away from them.. we all know where he is though.
But what about a woman like the author of The Scret who is leading millions of souls astray?
Playing with their soul, their eternal life.
What will happen to her, and what will happen to Oprah?
Genevieve,
Thank you for your comment. I’m going to address your concerns in a separate post.
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I just finished this for a book club and loved it. Just wanted to recommend another memoir we read for our last book – Waiting for Snow in Havana – really, really excellent.
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I guess the non-believers may not believe in God, heaven, and hell, but they have the same fear and expectations towards the unknown…
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Monica, I’m not sure what you are, but you are definitely NOT a christian, what the heck do you Think that means anyways?!!!
Twitter: cherihamiltongmail.com
This book is right on schedule. Jesus warned that just before His return deception would abound. This really old message from the Satanic Snake in the Garden of Eden who lied that you could become like god. This is the New Age Message and it keeps popping up, again and again in various forms and people eat it up like candy!Jesus taught that “I Am the Way the Truth and the Light” and that no man could come to the Father except thru Him, Jesus. Good works are filthy rags to God apart from Jesus and His will. Who on this earth has lived and walked in “love” more than Jesus?
Cheri is right. It’s amazing how this book is a best seller in our “Chistian” nation when it openly advocates drunkenness, adultery, idol worship, and witchcraft. Her pursuit of religious experience to number her pain is blatantly self-centered and entirely subjective. It appeals to Americans because it promotes that truth is what ever you want it to be and all religions are the same. Sad. And yes I read the book.