Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia

I'm writing my first review because I'm appalled that I nearly didn't order this because of some weak reviews on this site, but my friend's persistent recommendation won me over--fortunately!

Gilbert's book is an intimate look at one person's struggle not to answer life's questions but to put herself on her own journey towards answering them. This true story also bears great universal truths. She wrestles with problems that eventually plague most of us, turning for help to the profound but colorful people she meets along her way, from a teenager in India to a Bali guru (aged somewhere between 77 and 102) to Luca Spaghetti, whose name is no less amusing than his comments.

Gilbert manages to weave in striking metaphors that light up her text. Her description of being visited one night by the personifications of loneliness and sadness, harrassing her like film noir police detectives, is alone worth the price of the book.

The spiritual philosophies Gilbert learns are sprinkled throughout her story without weighing it down but adding a profound dimension that will have you mulling them over long after, and perhaps even incorporating into your own world view.

I'm buying 3 copies for friends and recommending it to everyone else. One friend even sent it to someone she knows in England who's undergoing cancer treatment because I've been so enthusiastic about it.

My big problem is that here in Jerusalem we're waiting for it to be translated--when's that going to happen?

I LOVED this book! I listened to the entire book in 1.5 days. It was much "lighter" that I had expected. While spiritual, this book addressed faith and spirituality as deeply personal issues, yet from a perspective that was never oppressive or overdone. Gilbert's descriptions were detailed and revealing and she gave a perfectly balanced degree of depth.

Her light style (both in her writing and her reading) presents some very serious topics in such a way that they are addressed with care and respect. Although it is not possible for me to set out on such an adventure of self-discovery and self-appreciation, I got enough vicarious pleasure from this book to make up for it, at least for a while.

You don't have to be on any personal quest for clarity or self-actualization in order to appreicate this book, but if you read/listen to it, you may find yourself on such a journey. If nothing else, you'll get plenty of laughs!

I wasn't sure I would like this book when I stared listening to it, but I stuck with it and was handsomely rewarded. The author has an amazing ability to take you with her on a year long journey to Italy, India, and Indonesia. She has an amazing ability to tell the story of the people, places, and wisdom learned along the way. If more people could see the world as she has, our planet would be a much better place for everyone.

I didn't know exactly what to expect but, I was pleasantly surprised. It is actually narrated BY the author herself, and the narration is one of the best I have ever heard. She is really good! She doesn't sound like she is reading at all, but having a conversation with you, or telling a story from memory. She is a smart and witty writer/storyteller. I have heard the complaints about the "me me me" attitude of the book...but come on, it IS a memoir after all. That said, I enjoyed the book, and I don't generally read memoirs. I would recommend this book to a friend.

I am seduced by this book. The revealing first chapters portraying the depths of the authors despair slip beguilingly into the ecstasy obtained from Ms Gilbert's quest for a life lived well. Her search for inner "peace with passion" shows in her scandalous conversations within herself to a God she is only just getting to know. A God with simple direct answers to her burning questions. "I am here, I will always be here .....Go to bed Liz" I listen to many books and repeat few of them. This is one work however that I will have to listen to again in the hope that once again, like a voyeur, I can be drawn into the intimacy of a human heart searching for and finding it's maker.

I'd already read this book in hardback before buying the audiobook (I loved it that much), and discovered that Elizabeth Gilbert's reading of her own memoir revealed new depth, humor, and poignancy.

(Please permit this technical note: If I could have, I would've deducted half a star from my rating on the grounds that Gilbert's voice is low and husky. I listened to this book mostly in my car, and at times her husky voice dropped so low that the reading becomes muffled or inaudible -- or maybe that's just how loud my car is! It is occasionally distracting, but not overly so.)

This "travel" book is actually a tale of Gilbert's stripping away of the obstacles and existential plaque that had suffocated her carefully, but not thoughtfully, constructed life as a wife in the 'burbs. She treats the subject of her awakening and healing with great honesty, self-effacing humor, and a tremendous degree of likability. (I found myself wishing that she lived around the block, just because it would be so much fun to share an evening and a bottle of wine with her.)

Gilbert's description of living (and eating) in Italy for 4 months, then spending 4 months in a Yoga ashram in India, then topping it off with 4 months in Indonesia do capture her environments, and the surrounding cultures. But this is not, strictly speaking, a "travel" book. You aren't going to hear as much about how Italians work as you are about how Liz Gilbert works (but it's hardly a loss). Be prepared to follow the thread of her self-discovery through a combination of woolgathering and self-reflection; be prepared to learn about the spiritual path of her Guru, which Gilbert follows and explains at length in the book's middle section. And get ready to laugh out loud!

In summary, this book will long remain on my list of "Five books I would take with me if I had to live on a deserted island." I hope that others find it as enlightening and inspiring as I did.

Having read all of the other reviews I will say that this book is not for everyone. It is not really a book about travel, rather a book about journey. I think hearing the autobiographical story in the author's own voice really adds to the experience.

Yes, the book deals with divorce and depression, but it also deals with spiritual, philosophical and practical matters as well. She handles them with respect and wit at the same time.

I enjoyed this book so much that I bought it for everyone close to me. They all greatly enjoyed it as well. Thanks to Liz we're all now learning Itlaian together.

This book was one I invented a whole roadtrip for just so I could enjoy it all in one go. There is so much to chew on in here: places, foods, loves, tragedies, furnishings, musings, religions... It is not only the pasta that is toothsome. Along with the writer and the narrator, I experienced the emotions of the book almost as if they were my own. I looked forward to my next reading session as one might hunger for another good meal.

This is a fabulous audibook - you won't want it to end! I commend the author for sharing her struggle with depression, and how she reclaimed her life through meditation and the interesting people she met during her travels. This book has history, humor, and hope. It's a wonderful journey that is not to be missed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. I see some of these critical reviews and I can't understand what these readers difficulties are. I found this book to be a complete delight and Elizabeth Gilbert to be an introspective, inspirational woman and whose prose I admire tremendously. She made me laugh out loud over and over again and I so enjoyed her sharing her insights with such honesty and clarity that I am in awe. She makes a great case for being exactly who we are, making peace with ourselves, seeing the divine in ourselves. She inspires me to do the same.