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| Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia | 
 enlarge | Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $1.59
You Save: $13.41 (89%)
New (144) Used (673) Collectible (8) from $1.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  1758 reviews
Sales Rank: 116
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0143038419
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4
EAN: 9780143038412
ASIN: 0143038419
Publication Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if applicable). Corners may be bumped. Pages may have fold marks. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels. This item was received as a donation.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Perhaps the best book I have ever read April 10, 2006
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
I highly recommend this book, it's beautifully written and the humor adds levity to very profound experiences.
I blogged a full review at http://adh-oneday.blogspot.com/
makes you stop April 10, 2006
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
So beautifully written that you literally have to stop and close the book for a few minutes savoring what she's written. Her prose is so clear, so direct and yet so humorous that you smile through every paragraph.
Gilbert is a born writer and one of the few I've read lately that make you turn immediately back to the first page to start over when you finish one of her books. Highly recommended.
Very Far from Chick Lit April 6, 2006
26 out of 37 found this review helpful
Absolutely do not be deterred from reading this wonderful book by the references to its being a perfect Jennifer Aniston vehicle (which is either an enormous compliment to Aniston, or a serious misreading of the book) or the reviews that make it sound like one more shallow ego-trip about a messed-up woman re-inventing herself in exotic locations with plenty of money (though it might seem so on the most surface level). Instead, through the medium of one woman's wry and honest self-exploration, we are taken effortlessly on a journey few are privileged to take. It is at the same time an easy read (hard to put down because it's just so much fun) and a book I want to visit again and again for its wonderful observations, its broad literacy and its insights into the human condition. Though I've only spent days in Rome, not months, and can only speak the most basic conversational Italian, I can't recall a book that so captured the magic of the city and the language. And though I've never been to India or spent time in an ashram, I'm enough of a meditation student to be thrilled for her when she achieves... well, that is best left to her own words, which are both original and universal. One of the book's paradoxes is that while I cannot even imagine how the author managed to combine being a self-confessed control freak and workaholic, and still spend months of her life sobbing in a heap, I still felt that I would like her very much, and wished her well, and wanted to spend time with her, if only in the pages of this book. Perhaps that is the very best thing about "Eat, Love, Pray": that the author demonstrates how much we can relate to people utterly unlike ourselves and how much they can teach us, when we have the courage to go beyond ourselves.
AMAZING!!! April 3, 2006
211 out of 302 found this review helpful
This book transends genres to be a memoir, travel guide, self help, and philosophy book. For anyone that ever wanted to find their own path, this book is for you! Elizabeth Gilbert's writing is down to earth, funny, smart, and like the cool best friend you always wanted to be like. Buy the book, Its a great journey!
A gratifying and thought-provoking gem of a book March 27, 2006
23 out of 35 found this review helpful
In this day and age, we Americans live in a society where stress-filled days, long hours, and a mere two-week vacation are the norm in most corporate work environments. We work hard, we play even harder, and often we get burned out in the process. Therefore, it is no surprise that the dream of dropping everything to take time off to travel and "find one's self" is one of the most explored fantasies in the entertainment business. Also, it's no surprise that we number crunchers, penny pinchers, and wheel-grinders flock like lemmings to read, watch and consume whatever products make us feel like we actually have the ability to "escape" or outrun our day-to-day woes, if we put our minds to it.
The idea of going somewhere else to fix what's inside is quite characteristic of the overworked, frenetic culture of the West and certainly intriguing behavior to analyze --- it is ironic that we feel we must travel halfway around the globe away from our problems in order to gain enough perspective to face and potentially solve them. But this putting distance between ourselves and our troubles has been the subject of art for centuries. Where would we be without the constant search for clarity amidst our self-perpetuating chaos and the incessant impulse to interpret and describe what we learn along the way?
From National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Gilbert (THE LAST AMERICAN MAN) comes a travelogue so utterly pleasant and inspiring to read that many fellow soul-searchers undoubtedly will be scouring the Internet for vacation deals or weekend getaways the moment after they finish reading it. In a nutshell, EAT, PRAY, LOVE is Gilbert's contribution to the "distance begets understanding" canon --- a deeply personal chronicle of the year she spent living in three different countries (Italy, India and Indonesia) in order to better understand herself and her ultimate place in the universe.
As the book's flap copy so assiduously suggests and what she thankfully doesn't pretend to ignore, Gilbert led a fairly privileged life before her decision to drop-and-run. By the time she turned 30, she had a successful writing career as a reporter and published author (including a PEN/Hemingway nomination and the Pushcart Prize for her short story collection, PILGRIMS), a husband, a house in the suburbs and an apartment in New York City, a crew of worldly and influential friends, sufficient income to support her lifestyle, and a collection of stories from her own travels that definitely would be the envy of any Tom, Dick or Harry. From the outside, it appeared as though Gilbert had the perfect life.
But, as one might expect, she wasn't happy, and in a moment that can only be described as a bonafide breaking point (locked in the bathroom with her forehead on the floor tiles, sobbing uncontrollably), she realized she wanted out. She needed to find out what was missing from her life and how to get it back. As we all know, these things don't happen overnight. The breakup of her marriage left her emotionally and physically exhausted. The subsequent ill-fated affair she dove into directly after her divorce left her weak and dependent on a man who wasn't capable of giving her what she needed. It was around this time that she started to put the plan in motion that would take her away from these trappings and immerse her in three four-month-long rounds of intense self-discovery that would permanently alter the course of her life and, in turn, restore the missing links to her spiritual well-being.
In three separate sections, Gilbert attempts to tackle three different aspects of her personality while living in the country that best personifies that quality. In Italy (EAT), she explores the Pursuit of Pleasure and spends four glorious months eating, drinking and carousing her way through one of the most romantic, leisure-obsessed, pleasure-seeking cultures in the world. It is here that she remembers how to enjoy the taste of food without feeling guilty; how to revel in the joy that comes with sharing a bottle of wine in the moonlight while conversing in a foreign tongue; and how to float through her days with only the purpose of enjoying the fullness of her life from moment-to-moment.
In India (PRAY), she studies the Pursuit of Devotion and spends four strenuous months living on the ashram of a guru she met in the States. Here, she is taught that humility, patience and perseverance are essential in obtaining the spiritual guidance she so desires and that enlightenment can only be achieved through sincere dedication and focused discipline. In this quiet, almost austere environment, we witness Gilbert at her most humble --- fighting her insecurities and the demons from her past with a fierce intensity that only the most committed possess.
Her last four months in Indonesia (LOVE) are devoted to the Pursuit of Balance. It is in Bali that she finally brings her year-long sojourn to a close and, while doing so, achieves the balance she so lacked in the beginning. While living alone in a house in the hills, she furthers her spiritual study by apprenticing a ninth-generation medicine man, breaks her year-long vow of celibacy, and unexpectedly falls in love with a 52-year-old Brazilian man. In her words, "I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue."
There are far too many invaluable insights in this gem of a book to mention and far too little space to describe the impact that EAT, PRAY, LOVE most certainly will have on the lives of its readers. Suffice to say that Elizabeth Gilbert has a gift for storytelling and a knack for making us feel like we are welcome passengers on her journey. She is wise beyond her years, genuine in her approach, and steadfast in her attention to what really matters in life. Gratifying, thought-provoking --- a book you can take with you throughout your own march towards fulfillment.
--- Reviewed by Alexis Burling
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