Liz is unhappy. She realizes this fact when she finds herself crumpled in a ball on her bathroom floor in the middle of the night bawling her eyes out...again. After a messy divorce and then a messy break up she decides it's time for her own personal journey to find herself. This is how she ends up taking the next year to travel through the three I's: first Italy to explore pleasure (and eat), then India to stay in an Ashram and practice yoga and learn devotion (and pray), and finally to Indonesia, Bali to be exact, where she finds the ultimate balance, learns to have a happy life and finally finds love.
Verdict:
Reading this book is like hanging out with a best friend who tells you all the juicy details of their life you've always wondered about and encourages you to follow her example and find yourself. I drank up every last sweet drop of this book and then tipped it upside down at the end hoping to find more pour out. I could relate with Liz on several different levels and I found myself agreeing with her that learning Italian just because it's pretty is a good enough reason. I understood her personification of depression and loneliness and on a completely different level of literary appreciation, I loved that she personified depression and loneliness.
They come upon me all silent and menacing like Pinkerton Detectives and they flank me- Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don't need to show me their badges. I know these guys very well. We've been playing a cat-and-mouse game for years now. Though I admit that I am surprised to meet them in this elegant Italian garden at dusk. This is no place they belong. I say to them, "How did you find me here? Who told you I had come to Rome?" Depression, always the wise guy, says, "What-- you're not happy to see us?" "Go away," I tell him. Loneliness, the more sensitive cop, says, "I'm sorry, ma'am. But I might have to tail you the whole time you're traveling. It's my assignment." -Eat, Pray, Love pg. 47
In India, it was a little slow moving, as I'm sure meditation can be, but I was inspired to learn to meditate and take time to listen to my brain and my body and what it's telling me. Bali just reminded me how happy I am with my incredible love and then reinforced my desire to visit all these places and more all over the world.
I can tell a book is good when one of three things happen, I can't put it down, It inspires me to do something, and I don't want it to end. This book had all three. It made want to travel and learn Italian and meditate and do yoga but more than all those things, it made me want to write. Liz's writing style is much like what I would like my style to evolve into. Reading what she has written only makes me want to write more.
I highly recommend this book, but be prepared to not want to put it down and to immediately want to pack your bags, board a plane and fly anywhere at its conclusion.
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