Review by Lizbrarian
I have become known in a class I am taking as the "girl-who-hates-eat-pray-love. In my opinion, it does not even deserve a full star. I confess, I only read a third of the book, her trip to Italy, and then had to stop or else watch my brain cells melt. This book is the epitome of a novel churned out for mass-consumption precisely because the author thinks it is what people (namely females) want to read.
This book is autobiographical. It's supposed to be an unusual type of travel literature about Elizabeth Gilbert's adventures living in 3 different countries (all beginning with "I") in a year and discovering herself in the process. I thought I was picking up some light reading to take on vacation but found that it was past the point of light reading and was also written to be taken extremely seriously.
The protagonist is both self-important and flippant. Her problems are displayed as these huge, consuming issues that no one has ever experienced before. I'm sorry but you are not the first person to decide not to have kids or to get a divorce. She makes this grandiose decision to travel to 3 specific countries and discover a different side to herself in each (ie. in Italy she wants to focus on pleasure). Luckily, she happens to have enough money to take a year off life and do this.. Also, in Italy, be prepared to get a play-by-play of every single thing she eats.
There are problems with both the story itself and with the writing. Every cliche you can imagine happening on a trip to Italy happens in this book from the Tandem-language-exchange twins to a "profound" moment with an old lady on a bench. Some memorable examples of awful writing:
-At one point she says she hears her ex-husband in her mind scoffing at her for giving up their marriage for good food. She answers him out loud. -I guarantee she did not actually answer him out loud. It seems like Gilbert read this writing cliche somewhere and thought it would sound romantic or something...
-Another time she's in Italy feeling happier and she wakes up laughing - Who wakes up laughing? Honestly... Is that even possible?
Again, did not like the book. However, everyone is talking about it and several people I know did enjoy it. Read it for yourself and decide what you think!