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Book Information
Title: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin Group
Publication Date: 2006
Edition: 1st
Pages: 334
ISBN: 978-0-14-303841-2
My Rating: 10/10
Next in Series: Committed
Review
The first thing I am going to say is that I loved this book. It has made me really consider selling everything I have and leaving to travel. The genre of this book is gear to travel and travel writings. It is also a biography of sorts because the author is the one that had all these experiences. Elizabeth M. Gilbert (born July 18, 1969) is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist, and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which as of December 2010 had spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.
The main characters of this book are:
1. Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert- 30's divorced
She has two partners at the beginning of this book. Her (ex)husband, and then her boyfriend before she leaves for Italy.
2. Sofie- late 20's/early 30's
Liz's friend in Italy from her Italian Language class
3. Giovanni- 20's
Tandem Language Exchange Partner
4. Luca- 30's
5. Richard- 50's
6. Tulsi- 17 year old Indian girl
7. Ketut- 65-105
Bali Medicine Man
8. Yudhi- 27
friend in Bali
9. Wayan and Tutti- 30 and 8
Wayan is a healer and Tutti is her daughter
10. Felipe- 52 Brazilian
So what is it about?
This book is about the journey one woman takes after a very devastating divorce. After her divorce in 2001 Liz doesn't know what she wants anymore. She has a new boyfriend, and she isn't all that happy. She leaves New York in September of 2003 and becomes a resident of Rome, Italy. She starts classes at Leonardo da Vinci Academy of Language Arts as a way to learn the Italian language. She finally breaks up with her boyfriend in November of 2003. She also drops out of her language classes because she feels she is not learning anything and would rather learn by practice. During this time her and Sofie travel around Italy for days or weeks at a time. At the end of November she helps her friends Giovanni, Sofie and Luca have a traditional American Thanksgiving. She spends a total of 4 months in Italy, goes home for a week (for Christmas) and then flies to India. Liz had decided to spend 6 weeks at a ashram in India. There she meets Richard from Texas, who gives her the nickname groceries. Everyone at the ashram is given a job Liz's job is scrubbing the temple floors which Richard thinks is funny. By the end of the first month she decides that she is going to spend 4 full months at the ashram. While on floor scrubbing duty she meets Tulsi, who works with Liz. Her parents are forcing her to get married but she wants to be like Liz and travel. Richard leaves the ashram 2 months into Liz's stay, the day he leaves she decides to start 2 months of silence. That plan is changed when she is offered a new job position as Key Hostess for a group of people from all over the world. The night before she leaves for Indonesia she has an all night meditation at the center. When she arrives in Indonesia her passport is stamped for only 30 days, which is obviously less time then she wanted. She goes to the town of Ubud to find Ketut, the medicine man she met 2 years prior. Ketut has never been off the island of Bali in his life. She also meets a young man by the name of Yudhi, he rents Liz's house to her in Bali. After a while in Bali Liz ends up being "hit" by a bus, it knocked her off her bike and into a cement irrigation ditch. Her leg becomes infected and she meets Wayan and her daughter Tutti. Wayan is a healer and helps her with the leg. Liz is invited to a party and there she meets Felipe. He drives her home that night and for the next while she has dinner with him every night. After 2 months in Bali she finally visits the beach. She plans a special surprise for Wayan and Tutti in regards to Liz's birthday, which is really sweet. After leaving Bali Liz returns a few months later to celebrate Christmas and New Years with Felipe and the rest of her loved ones there.
Obviously this is a very condensed version of this story and in order to really get the best of it, you need to read the book.
My favorite character's in this book are; Liz- because she fights for what she wants in her life, Ketut- because he is very amusing to me as well as being very insightful, and Richard- because he is able to really get into Liz's head and help her in a way that she needed.
All in all this book is absolutely amazing and I would read it again and again. I probably will because I bought myself a copy ;)
if you have read this book and you liked it I suggest trying Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It: Life Journeys Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir
Hope you enjoyed today's post.
See you next time :)