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Book Review of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
reviewed Interesting and self absorbed travel writing on + 127 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3


I felt both immense pleasure and painfully anguish while reading this book. Upon first glance, I thought to myself.."wow, this woman is actually a good writer" Her prose witty, her descriptions exciting... and then about 30 pages in I though "Wow, this woman is really self-absorbed".
Another reviewer put it best "...the overall effect was rather like sitting at a party listening to someone tell a long involved story all about themselves, and you're alternately annoyed and fascinated and you want to get up and leave but she's just so entertaining that you keep telling yourself you'll leave in the next minute--and so you end up sticking through the whole thing".
In the end, I enjoyed the description, felt the author was self-absorbed and also had difficulties with her personal views on love - which can be summed up as leave the husband you are married to (even though he has done nothing wrong but give you stability), fall in love immediately with the next guy who comes along and talk about it incessantly like you are 14 rather than 34, travel the world and instead of waking up and experiencing everything around you -continue to obsess on the your ex-boyfriend who was your rebound from your ex-husband then decide you are so spiritually enlightened that you can move on because you have found an older Brazilian man take care of you (and eventually marry ) who appreciates how narcissistic you are...
Ok- perhaps that is a bit too mean. If you can read the descriptions of the wonderful places she has been and discover some of the spiritual depth beneath her self-absorbed rants about her love life then you have successfully read this book.