Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (365 Books, Day 269)

[rushthatspeaks]

I read this for three reasons:

-- I was in an airport bookstore
-- I occasionally have an inexplicable sudden urge to read best-sellers
-- Ursula Vernon, who is a sensible person, rather liked it.

... I also rather liked it.

I think a lot of the hate about this book has been based on the concept that it is, in some way, travel writing. If it were a travel book, it would be really inexcusable, because yeah, the author is going off to Italy and India and Indonesia and does not know that much about the cultures involved and the issues and the histories; yeah, she has a lot of money and privilege and the ability to go off for a year and travel and write about it and sell the book in advance, even. If this were a travel book, it would be aggravating spiritual tourism.

It's not. It's an introspective memoir about the aftermath of a really terrible set of life crises and the way the author pulled herself out of a nasty bout of clinical depression. One way she does it is meditation, and she freely admits that she knows nothing about the history of meditation as a spiritual practice. I do under most circumstances find myself annoyed at people who go off and do yoga for a week and then something ayurvedic for another week and then go off to Bali to study traditional Balinese medicine, because it seems kind of dilettantish.

Except that we are talking here about someone who was trying to save her own life, literally, who was at the 'call my friends and get them to take away my sharp implements' phase. I do not blame people for a buffet-style approach to spirituality if that is what they need to do to keep on breathing-- and she does seem to have tackled her depression with anything and everything she could think of. Meds? Yes. Exercise? Yes. Positive self-talk? Yes. Therapy? Yes. And what worked for her was taking a year and going off and doing exactly what she wanted to do, which, since a lot of her problem was that she'd been defining herself by the men in her life for decades, was a major and difficult thing.

Most people do not have the resources to go do this in continents they don't live in. But the overall arc of this book actually is a woman learning that she can make it on her own, and she can devote herself to things that matter to her even if they seem fruitcake-y to other people (and yes, going to an ashram is A Bit Much in my personal opinion, but at least she decided for herself to do it, and worked hard at it). And I have this suspicion that that arc is one reason this book gets looked down on so much, because I think that arc scares people. Notice how much one hears about her Meeting A Guy at the end, for example, and how little one hears about how adamant she was to maintain a life of her own, how careful she was to try to preserve the autonomy she'd gained while keeping the freedom to go into a relationship. And one hears almost nothing about one of the principal reasons behind her first marriage breaking up being that she desperately, violently did not want children.

So yeah. I could wish this were more complex and nuanced about class and race and religion, I could wish it were an actual look at the places she goes to, I could wish it weren't privileged as fuck. But it's intelligently written, it's sincerely intended, and she never claims she knows anything at all about those places and issues; in fact she repeatedly states the exact opposite. As a book about the inside of its author's head, this totally does not suck.

Comments

[sonia]

I appreciate this review a lot. I read the book and loved it, for the arc you mention, and then looked back on it from the perspective of spiritual tourism and felt embarrassed for liking it. Thanks for reminding me why I liked it in the first place.

[boundbooks]

Hm. That's a very interesting take on the book, and one I hadn't heard before. I'm intrigued enough to read it!

"And one hears almost nothing about one of the principal reasons behind her first marriage breaking up being that she desperately, violently did not want children."

That's definitely something I hadn't heard before. I think I'm going to get a copy of this book from my library.

[jinian]

(Star-of-Bethlehem flower in your icon! Yay!)

[starlady]

The author went to my college, and I've long considered the book a good example of certain symptoms of some aspects of my college's outlook and self-image that are less than positive. But your review makes me think I should give Gilbert herself her own chance.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I loved this book for being the book you describe it as. I love well written memoirs about women in mid-life finding autonomy and power and insight.

An acquaintance had a totally different view, as I described here. http://hobbitbabe.livejournal.com/790143.html

[nipernaadiagain.livejournal.com]

I think the impression I got from the book was very similar to yours.

And I guess this explains why I did not get my usual anger to privileges of others I am jealous of (much good her privilege would have done to her as a corpse) and also I have no urge to read anything else by her.

But I did rather like the book, at least parts of it.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I was put off by the buzz about the book, and hated the first few minutes of the movie (to be fair, I was in the wrong theater and expecting the first few minutes of Scott Pilgrim). Your review makes the book sound much more interesting, taken on its own merits. Thank you. :)

[selidor]

The movie was at film group; it made me want that hour+ of my life back. (The upside was that it was followed by Easy A). This sounds...more tractable.