by Anne Parker

Created on: March 28, 2009   Last Updated: March 31, 2009

In the true story of Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert goes on a search for who she is after she digs herself out of a massive, dramatic divorce. She decided to go on a year-long trip to reclaim her life one night when she broke down on the bathroom floor realizing that she didn't want to be married anymore, she didn't want a child, and she didn't love her husband anymore.

So eventually, following her divorce, a depression, and an off-and-on relationship with a guy named David, Liz decides to travel to Italy to experience the pleasure of laziness, endless bowls of pasta and pizza, and her love of the Italian language.

Next, she travels to learn about and become closer to God in an Ashram in rural India. Finally she goes to Bali, Indonesia to spend some time learning how to incorporate God along with pleasure into a balanced lifestyle that she can maintain easily at her home in NYC. The thing is that she actually does complete her "mission" successfully. This kind of surprises me since she was so disheveled just a year before.

Elizabeth Gilbert's experiences shed new light on all of her three "explorations" (pleasure, devotion, balance) for me- especially the devotional leg of her trip. I had no idea how much just three months of meditation and concentration could strengthen a person's relationship with God.

Eat Pray Love was almost like a diary of Liz's trips that gripped the reader's attention and let go only often enough to manage a breath in between each page. I personally connected with much of the India leg of the trip because there were many references to Hinduism and the language of Sanskrit of which Hindi originated. I also connected with Liz whenever she mentioned her love of the Italian language since I take a liking to a certain language also.

This book is somewhat of an auto-biography, except that it only covers one year of Liz Gilbert's life. I absolutely love her style of writing and thinking when it comes to the issues brought up in this book. I chose to read this book because my mom's book club was reading it that particular month, and also since I had seen it in Barnes and Nobles as well as other bookstores.

This book is an amazing read for many different reasons. It is great for readers who would like to find themselves in a fashion similar to that of Elizabeth Gilbert- through self indulgence, to spiritual growth, and finally learning to maintain a balanced life.

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