Product Details
Author : Elizabeth Gilbert
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780670034710
Number of Pages : 352
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2006-02-09
Publisher : Viking USA
Release Date : 2006-02-21
ASIN : 0670034711
Customers who bought this goods also bought.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.ca
If wisdom could be traded like currency, author Elizabeth Gilbert would be a wealthier woman by far, though it's likely her fabulous memoir, Eat Pray Love, racked up a few bucks during its stay on the New York Times bestseller list. What Gilbert imparts in her story--basically, bracing self-knowledge acquired during a year of travel following a bitter divorce and a shattered rebound romance--is at once astounding yet totally obvious. As Gilbert would attest, albeit more eloquently, the most important stuff in life is pretty much under our noses, but we occasionally have to shake ourselves senseless in order to see it (enlisting a guru and a medicine man are highly recommended).
Take this simple but devastating observation posited while Gilbert was on the final leg of a global tour. "I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and then I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been the victim of my own optimism."
Ten million women are smiling wry smiles and nodding their heads in agreement (men too, probably, but the book has a definite female skew). Such emotional bulls-eyes are hit early and often in Eat Pray Love, each seemingly more poignant than the last. Alternately funny and heartbreaking and always deeply resonant, Eat Pray Love, takes the reader on two epic journeys - one through Italy, India and Indonesia and the other deep inside Gilbert's intense psyche. Charles Montgomery's towering The Last Heathen: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia notwithstanding, travel memoirs just don't get any better than that. --Kim Hughes
Customer Reviews
I think Gilbert's next book and film on Eat Pray Love should be boycotted (2008-08-18)  I am APPALLED by the fact that this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list and, apparently, will be made into a movie with....Julia Roberts (is this true?) What does this tell us about North American culture and values??? Why should such a shallow piece of work written by such a self-absorbed narcissistic writer receive such fame and accolades? I am truly mystified. This book was all about HERSELF. Poor little me who received an ENORMOUS advance to write this book before she even left the States. Who whined and felt sorry for herself while in Italy, can you imagine??? She had no interest in visiting the fabulous museums, art galleries, churches, etc. but rather spend hundreds of Euros buying lingerie and eating amazing meals (by herself) in restaurants. Here is an immensely PRIVILEGED young woman (yes, she is talented, she can write) who provides us with insights on what? Herself and her insecurities. What did we learn about Italy? Niente. Perhaps where to find the best pizza in Naples.I couldn't get through her ramblings and vapid non-stop chatter in India. Nothing on the poverty or living conditions there or the plight of Indian women which I would have been interested in reading about. Indonesia was just more of the same. Did anyone notice that she didn't even touch on the tsunami disaster only to say that - thank god - it didn't reach her island when she was there??? So engrossed in HERSELF she doesn't notice, really, what's going on around her.I wonder if she has read THREE CUPS OF TEA, that marvellous book about building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Is THAT going to be made into a movie???Gilberts is now an immensely wealthy woman because of the sales of this book. This saddens me because it illustrates how skewered values are in American society. All I can hope for is that she's donating a lot of her money to charities and very good causes.
Probably easier to be the author than one of her friends (2008-07-22)  What a self-indulgent, self-important book and author! Children are withdrawn and shy until she speaks to them. She causes the blind to see, the lame to walk. Give me a break. While reading of some people's sincere path toward enlightenment can make for great literature, this book reads more like a slacker's guide to making yourself the centre of the known universe.
Ranting Tale (2008-04-13) Driven to despair by a punishing divorce and an anguished love affair, Gilbert is left in a state of depression. In an attempt to get her life back on tract she goes to Italy to learn the language and revel in their cuisine, to India to meditate in an ashram, and to Bali Indonesia to reconnect with a healer that she had previous contact with. This novelist journalist chronicles her intrepid quest for spiritual healing throughout her year of travels, documenting a memoir of her journey and experiences in order to find balance in her life. Not everyone will relate or agree in her methods. Gilbert's over descriptive narrative can be boring at times as she talks a lot about nothing. This book is shallow and superficial, a ranting tale of a self absorbed person running off and escaping reality in the hope of finding oneself in other cultures. This may appeal to dreamers and rich immature adults wanting a reason to escape; very few have the luxury to travel the world for a year. Is this fiction or fact? I find it hard to believe it received so many positive reviews.
Narcissism at it's Best (2008-03-28) After all the reviews and hype I was anxious to read this book. I liked the title and thought it would be interesting to go along with the author's journey of self discovery, but as the voyage progressed I found myself drowning in her expression of self love, self importance or in physchoanalysis terms 'regression into adolescent sexual behavior'(webster's dictionary) If the story had been edited into half or two thirds of the length it might have worked. While some passages were quite poetic and lovely, they were few and far between. Geneally I found it too narcissistic, self absorbed and egocentric.
Authentic personal journey (2008-03-24)  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it refreshing that the author skipped the intimate details of the decay of her relationships and focussed on her own journey of self-discovery. Rather than finding her annoying or whiney, I thought she was honest and just laid it all on the table - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I also enjoyed it for the same reasons I enjoy travel - the simple act of stepping outside of your comfortable familiar surroundings and opening yourself out to new experience - often as a portal to improved self-knowledge. The characters she met along the way were fascinating, and some of their insights into the human condition enlightening. I feel she truly experienced the essence of each country and stayed true to her mission of finding her true character and discovery of her place in the world along the way. Finally, I found this book impossible to put down - a great read for anyone who considers herself a searcher or finds inspiration from spiritual journey and exploration.
Look for similar items by category
Related Link
Powered by Amazon Web Services + Amazon Associates.
|
![]](http://resource.hanamoku.com/img/hanamoku_ca/00bar_top_right.gif){kind=small}
![]](http://resource.hanamoku.com/img/hanamoku_ca/00bar_bottom_right.gif){kind=small}
Goods, Product Information
