Eat Pray Love

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat Pray Love. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

I admit it. Like the rest of humanity, I became interested in this book once I found out it was going to become a movie. I haven't actually seen the movie and am not sure whether I ever intend to do so, but I did enjoy the book.

This book chronicles Elizabeth's journey as she takes a Sabbath year to rediscover herself. Having finished a rather nasty divorce and unsure what she wants or needs in life, she chooses to spend four months each in three different countries: Italy, India, and Indonesia. She wants to experience how people in these cultures handle pleasure, devotion, and balance, respectively.

I will admit that I enjoyed Gilbert's story. She has a very easy voice to follow and her writing style is both entertaining and thought-provoking, a combination that I admire greatly. I did not approach this book with the same level of eagerness I show to novels or more suspenseful books; this book easily became the one I brought with me to work in hopes of reading a few pages during my lunch break. Nevertheless, it was easy enough to follow the story that way.

To my former students who are reading this post: approach this book with caution. Gilbert never claims to be a believer, and she has some interesting opinions about the big questions in life. I support her right to have her own opinions and even to publish them, but please do not believe everything that you see in print must be true. Read the book, enjoy the lessons she learned, but remember to approach everything through a filter of Scripture.