Reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love after Haruki Murakami is a breather.
At first, Liz Gilbert’s voice in the novel could be really annoying as she is so full of herself (yeah, even if it’s her life, it’s too much!). She talks about her struggle in Divorce Land and whines all the time about her inability to shut her thoughts up.
I have seen the film before the book so maybe it’s a good thing to imagine Julia Roberts speaking. It’s also relaxing to travel with the author to Italy, India and Indonesia (Bali). She did mean this story to be full of “I”– see the initials of the places?
I read this short novel when I was about to come home to the Philippines, in a time when Singapore is kicking me out because my 60-day tourist visa has expired. It was timely, too, because it’s been a long time since I actually prayed, like, to God. And the novel gave me new perspectives on prayer and meditation, not in a dogmatic or painfully religious kind of way. Just the right sort for agnostic me.
This is a feel-good book which can also double as a travel/cultural guide to Italy, India and Bali. An honest, insider map of these places, with Liz Gilbert as a chatty companion (who learnt how to shut up eventually, don’t worry).
Eat Pray Love is the fitting book for persons like me who love to eat (especially PASTA! and PIZZA!), to pray (or meditate) and to love (and be loved ten thousand times in return). YumMwahAmen.