The Eatting of Eat, Pray, Love

I recently decided to join a book club. (Yes, the slow reader...in a book club...Blame the Nook.) This club is over at Cloth Diaper Nation, which covers much more than cloth diapers. (We're a diverse bunch, what can I say? *grin*) Our first selection that we voted on was Eat, Pray, Love. This is a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. To get down to basics, this book is broke up into 3 separate books. Gilbert has a pretty neat explanation behind her division of the book, which I won't spoil. The first book, Eat, covers her time in Italy.

(If you'd like no spoilers, stop reading now. I will try to keep them at a minimum regardless.)


This first book does explore the back story of what prompted Gilbert's trek around the world. There is a span of a few years that Gilbert finds herself in a very dark place. They are also experiences that you can relate to with her writing about them. She describes some very painful memories with the clarity of hindsight. During this time period, September 11th happens. The destruction and chaos of New York during that time seems to mirror her real life during the same period. A couple of years past that point, she finds her self clear of the baggage and on a voyage to Italy.

Gilbert has a love affair with Italy and the Italian language. She makes the final choice to go on this world adventure to regain some of herself. After a divorce, heartache, and the word of a medicine man, she takes a leap of faith of sorts. Despite some shakey days, she does find her footing in Italy. Drowning herself in the food and gelato of Rome, Gilbert finds that she can be happy without needing someone else there. She also completes a life long dream of learning to speak Italian.

So far the book as been a fair quick read. Some of the starting chapters are a little tough to get into. We'll see if that continues in Pray and Love. A lot of the writing seems to be very stream of conscious. As if Gilbert and the reader are sitting down over a platter of the finest pizza from Naples while she tells of about the grand adventure. I am curious to see just how the upcoming movie will portray some of these stories. Will it be in a chronological order or done via flashbacks like some of the chapters of Eat do? We'll see.

Now...time to Pray.