Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Eat, Pray, Love

Yesterday I finished reading in one of New York Times bestsellers novel! [Eat, Pray, Love]... Was I blown away by it? No. Is it a good book? Yes.
The novel is an autobiography of a woman who is searching for inner peace after going through an ugly divorce, a broken heart and so on... in her quest she goes to Italy to eat... to India to pray and to Indonesia to find balance [and fall in love]... The novel is based on the novelist [Elizabeth Gilbert] own true story.
There is a sense of humor in Gilbert's style which brings you closer to the characters and the story feels more true. Her depiction of the feelings that go inside her is authentic and you can feel her pain especially at the beginning of the novel [the part in Italy]...
But as we move to India and the stories about spirituality come flying in... her words feels exaggerated and at some points pretentious. I'm not a pure spiritual person yet I do believe in spirituality. Still the experiences she wrote about is hard for me to fathom as real. Also at this point she started to contradict herself I think because she was trying to exaggerate!!! So at some point she would say she had never understood how meditation is and how hard and impossible for her to feel anything but then she would tell you that once before she had an out-of-this-world experience with the Divine while mediating!! For me this was a bit confusing and unbelievable.
In the last part where she moves to Indonesia... she starts with a positive attitude toward the place and all of people and customs but then her American attitude creeps in and you start feeling that she is becoming a wee bit condensing... but this is how I felt and not necessarily true for all.
And of course the part where she falls in love is not very strong or convincing. 

This novel is going to be a movie soon... with Julia Roberts playing Gilbert. I wonder how the movie will be? Since the director will only choose what he thinks will appeal to the masses!

On a final note... today marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan for Muslims. So for those who fast during it... I wish you will eat, pray and love.... and may Peace and Blessings of the Divine sweep through your hearts and bring you more love and serenity.