Book review: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has created a hype since it was published last 2006. As a fiction reader, memoirs and inspirational books never stirred my curiosity before. As a student, at the time of the publication of Gilbert’s novel, the schedule of my student life has been very chaotic and school readings here and there has already occupied my time that there’s no more room for some luxury reads.

Now that I am being very conscious of my reading, I let myself be swept by the still very hyped-up novel of Gilbert’s, especially now that it already has a movie adaptation showing. First things first, by the time that I bought the novel, the book cover has already changed from its original simple, macaronis that form the word “eat”, and the word “pray” formed by a Buddhist rosary, and the word “love” written in scarves, the new book cover is now changed to the movie illustration. Julia Roberts sitting on a bench that she shares with two nuns and the three of them are eating their ice creams on a cup, with Italian backdrop is now adorning the cover of Gilbert’s novel. Although I love the look of Julia Roberts in the cover, posed as if she is the happiest child on earth with her ice cream spoon inside her mouth, looking around her with her doe-eyes, I still want the original cover, which I always prefer.

Reading the book, the first part of which is Gilbert’s agony in New York and then she flew to Italy to experience “pleasure”, away from her chaotic life in New York, the book has already failed to capture me. For me, the most important part of a book is the beginning, the first few pages of the first chapter. If the beginning does not interest me, it would be a struggle already to continue reading. As really want to know what the hype is all about, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and continue reading. The Italy part is about the pleasure of eating and learning a new language. As I am also a food blogger, I expect myself to like this since it talks mostly about the food that Gilbert explored and discovered while in Italy. But I must admit, the book failed my expectation and did not satisfy my hunger for imaginary food trip. Although I understand that it is not a food blog or review, I thought since she is talking about the pleasure of Italian food, she should have gave it a more delicious approach.

The next stop, which is India, has been a nightmare for me. Not only did Gilbert sang a lullaby to me, she also used this part to yak. While reading the India part, I expect it to be serene, to be divine, to let her fly me to religious pleasure and at one point or another, give me a peace of mind, a calming effect. But no, I felt that she just went on ranting about her life, her disappointments, that the “magical” serenity that I have been looking for was blocked out. I think she just yak and yak her way throughout the chapter that when finally, there was a moment of tranquility and divinity, I can only read without feeling anything as if I’m a corpse, letting be pushed in a coffin.

The third part, Indonesia is supposed to wrap up the whole novel by combining what she has learned and discovered in Italy and in India. This part, I like. I think, this is the only chapter where there really is a story. Where Gilbert finally let go of the objective of the chapter and instead focused on telling how the events really occurred while staying in Bali. This is the only part where I enjoyed the whole chapter without falling asleep or urging to fight away the sleepiness that has been creeping in.

All in all, I suggest that if you really want to discover what Eat Pray Love was all about, just borrow a copy from somebody than buying one for yourself. This is one of the books which the moment I put down, I would have to force myself to pick up again to continue reading. I think I got my expectation way high above that the novel failed to meet it.