I am usually stubborn when it comes to best selling books. I won’t read them. It’s this odd character quirk of mine: if everyone else is doing it, then I don’t want to. Great example: the Harry Potter books. I refuse to read them still. I know I will like them, they’re probably my type of fiction, but though my friends have pestered me to no end about them, I simply will not. When it came to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert I didn’t think much of it. It was one of the best sellers that sat facing the front doors of Barnes & Noble and I directed many customers to its shelf. I didn’t really know what it was all about, but everyone was reading it and everyone loved it. In one of my more open-minded moments I decided to read a few pages on my break in the back room. Once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. I connected with her on many planes. I’m not married, but I have felt my life fall out of my own control. I did not lie on the bathroom floor crying, but I did lie on the floor of my room alone numb with self-medicated alcohol. Elizabeth (my great-grandmother’s name (God rest her soul), and the name of most main characters in my writing) had a journey that was much harder than mine, but through her strength I see hope. I’ve read her book many times. Each time something new jumps out at me. Each time I want to follow her practices to find internal peace. Around the time I read this I was looking into the Sacred Feminine and the idea that we each are internally divine – her book spoke to me on both of those levels. Both of my close girl friends have read it now as well and they also love it.
I found an article on NPR that shows that men too can have a love of this book: Man Enough to Love 'Eat, Pray, Love'. I really enjoyed his take on it.
Thoughts from the movie: While I've never been a big fan of Julia Roberts I had to give her a chance in this movie because of her performance in Mona Lisa Smile, one of my favorites. While the movie had great cinematography - beautiful landscapes, vivid colors, fitting music - the story line couldn't live up to the book. Much of the book comes from an internal perspective that is difficult to portray on the silver screen - the premise for the entire self-discovery voyage was downplayed in the movie and it resulted in the character coming across as selfish and capricious. In reality - or so told in her book - it was a long drawn out internal battle. It was that internal battle that hooked me, that I related to, but that the movie couldn't replicate. So, while it was pretty to watch, I will stick with the book.
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