Eat, Pray, Love

Last updated

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert, 2007.jpg
Author Elizabeth Gilbert
LanguageEnglish
Subject
Genre Memoir
Publisher Penguin
Publication date
February 16, 2006
Media typePrint (hardcover ·paperback)
Pages352 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-670-03471-0
910.4 B 22
LC Class G154.5.G55 A3 2006

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. The memoir chronicles the author's trip around the world after her divorce and what she discovered during her travels. She wrote and named the book while living at The Oliver Hotel on the downtown square in Knoxville, TN. The book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 187 weeks. [1] The film version, which stars Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, was released in theaters on August 13, 2010. [2]

Contents

Gilbert followed up this book with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage , released through Viking in January 2010. It covered her life after Eat, Pray, Love, plus an exploration of the concept of marriage. [3]

Story

At 34 years old, Elizabeth Gilbert was educated, had a home, a husband, and a successful career as a writer. She was, however, unhappy in her marriage and initiated a divorce. She then embarked on a rebound relationship that did not work out, leaving her devastated and alone. After finalizing her difficult divorce, Gilbert made the decision to spend the next year traveling the world. [4] To gain funding she approached her publisher about writing a memoir about her travels, [5] something that she described as "a staggering personal miracle". [6] :36

She spent four months in Italy, eating and enjoying life ("Eat"). She spent three months in India, finding her spirituality ("Pray"). [7] She ended the year in Bali, Indonesia, looking for "balance" of the two and fell in love with a Brazilian businessman ("Love"), whom she later married and divorced. [8]

Film adaptation

Columbia Pictures purchased film rights for the memoir and has produced a film version under the same title. It was released on August 13, 2010. American actress Julia Roberts starred in the film; Ryan Murphy directed it. The film also stars Javier Bardem, James Franco, Richard Jenkins, [9] and Billy Crudup. [10] Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner of Plan B, Pitt's production company, produced the film. [11]

Reviews

Jennifer Egan of The New York Times described Gilbert's prose as "fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible" but said that the book "drags" in the middle. She was more interested in "the awkward, unresolved stuff she must have chosen to leave out," noting that Gilbert omits the "confusion and unfinished business of real life" and that "we know how the story ends pretty much from the beginning." [4]

Oprah Winfrey enjoyed the book, and devoted two episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show to it. [12]

Katie Roiphe of Slate agreed with Egan about the strength of Gilbert's writing. However, she described the journey as too fake: "too willed, too self-conscious." She stated that given the apparent artificiality of the journey, her "affection for Eat, Pray, Love is ... furtive" but that "it is a transcendently great beach book." [13] The Washington Post 's Grace Lichtenstein stated that "the only thing wrong with this readable, funny memoir of a magazine writer's yearlong travels across the world in search of pleasure and balance is that it seems so much like a Jennifer Aniston movie." [8]

Lev Grossman of Time , however, praised the spiritual aspect of the book, stating that "to read about her struggles with a 182-verse Sanskrit chant, or her (successful) attempt to meditate while being feasted on by mosquitoes, is to come about as close as you can to enlightenment-by-proxy." He did, however, agree with Roiphe that her writing occasionally seems to be "trying too hard to be liked; one feels the belabored mechanism of her jokes." [14]

Lori Leibovich of Salon agreed with several other reviewers about the strength of Gilbert's storytelling. She agreed with Egan as well that Gilbert seems to have an unlimited amount of luck, saying, "Her good fortune seems limitless" and asking "Is it possible for one person to be this lucky?" [15]

Entertainment Weekly 's Jessica Shaw said that "despite a few cringe-worthy turns ... Gilbert's journey is well worth taking." [16] Don Lattin of the San Francisco Chronicle agreed with Egan that the story was weakest while she was in India and questioned the complete veracity of the book. [17] Barbara Fisher of The Boston Globe also praised Gilbert's writing, stating that "she describes with intense visual, palpable detail. She is the epic poet of ecstasy." [18]

In early 2010, the feminist magazine Bitch published a critical review and social commentary called "Eat, Pray, Spend". Authors Joshunda Sanders and Diana Barnes-Brown wrote that "Eat, Pray, Love is not the first book of its kind, but it is a perfect example of the genre of priv-lit: literature or media whose expressed goal is one of spiritual, existential, or philosophical enlightenment contingent upon women's hard work, commitment, and patience, but whose actual barriers to entry are primarily financial." The genre, they argued, positions women as inherently and deeply flawed and offers "no real solutions for the astronomically high tariffs—both financial and social—that exclude all but the most fortunate among us from participating." [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Roberts</span> American actress (born 1967)

Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. The films in which she has starred have collectively grossed over $3.9 billion globally, making her one of Hollywood's most bankable stars. After an early breakthrough with appearances in Mystic Pizza (1988) and Steel Magnolias (1989), Roberts established herself as a leading actress when she headlined the top-grossing romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penélope Cruz</span> Spanish actress

Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Prolific in Spanish and English-language films and, to a lesser extent, Italian-language films, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Goya Awards, a European Film Award, and a David di Donatello Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. She is the only Spanish actress to have won an Academy Award and to have received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Collins</span> English actress and writer (born 1933)

Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Mulgrew</span> American actress (born 1955)

Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager and Red in Orange Is the New Black. She first came to attention in the role of Mary Ryan in the daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Steenburgen</span> American actress (born 1953)

Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in the 1978 Western comedy film Goin' South. Steenburgen went on to earn critical acclaim for her role in 1979 Time After Time and Jonathan Demme's 1980 comedy-drama film Melvin and Howard, for which she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariel Hemingway</span> American actress (born 1961)

Mariel Hemingway is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in Lipstick (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Roiphe</span> Writer

Katie Roiphe is an American author and journalist. She is best known as the author of the non-fiction book The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus (1993). She is also the author of Last Night in Paradise: Sex and Morals at the Century's End (1997), and the 2007 study of writers and marriage, Uncommon Arrangements. Her 2001 novel Still She Haunts Me is an imagining of the relationship between Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell, the real-life model for Dodgson's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She is also known for allegedly planning to name the creator of the Shitty Media Men list in an article for Harper's Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabrielle Union</span> American actress (born 1972)

Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade is an American actress. Her career began in the 1990s, when she made dozens of appearances on television sitcoms, prior to landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You. She rose to greater prominence the following year, after she landed her breakthrough role in the teen film Bring It On.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Salt</span> American actress

Jennifer Salt is an American producer, screenwriter, and former actress known for playing Eunice Tate on Soap (1977–1981).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Gilbert</span> American journalist and author (born 1969)

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American journalist and author. She is best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, which has sold over 12 million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages. The book was also made into a film of the same name in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilar Bardem</span> Spanish actress (1939–2021)

María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz was a Spanish film and television actress. In 1996, she won the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Nobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead. She was the mother of Carlos, Mónica, and Javier Bardem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Roiphe</span> American novelist

Anne Roiphe is an American writer and journalist. She is best known as a first-generation feminist and author of the novel Up the Sandbox (1970), filmed as a starring vehicle for Barbra Streisand in 1972. In 1996, Salon called the book "a feminist classic."

Linda Carroll is an American author, marriage counselor, and family therapist. Carroll received national attention in 1993 when one of her patients, the fugitive Katherine Ann Power, turned herself in to authorities after spending twenty-three years eluding police. Carroll is best known professionally as a couples therapist and as an author of three books, the latest being Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love, in 2014.

<i>Youll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again</i> Autobiography by Julia Phillips

You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again is a memoir by Julia Phillips, detailing her career as a film producer and disclosing the power games and debauchery of New Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s. It was first published in 1991 and became an immediate cause célèbre and bestseller. The book was reissued in 2002 after the author's death.

<i>Eat Pray Love</i> 2010 American film directed by Ryan Murphy

Eat Pray Love is a 2010 American biographical romantic drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's 2006 memoir of the same name. Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the film, which was released in the United States on August 13, 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $204.6 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.

<i>How to Eat a Small Country</i>

How to Eat a Small Country: A Family's Pursuit of Happiness, One Meal at a Time is a memoir by Amy Finley, the Season 3 winner of The Next Food Network Star and former host of The Gourmet Next Door on Food Network. The memoir, released by Clarkson Potter/Random House in April 2011, chronicles her abrupt departure from television in 2008 to save her marriage, moving her family to a rural farm in Burgundy, France and roadtripping around the country in search of some of the disappearing regional dishes written about by Waverly Root in his 1958 book, The Food of France.

Jack Carter Richardson was an American writer born in Manhattan, and his birthplace erroneously has been reported as Bristol, Virginia. He was known for his existentialist dramas of the early 1960s.

<i>Wild</i> (memoir) Book by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is the 2012 memoir by the American writer, author, and podcaster Cheryl Strayed. The memoir describes Strayed's 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 as a journey of self-discovery. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0.

<i>Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage</i> 2010 book by Elizabeth Gilbert

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage is a 2010 book written by Elizabeth Gilbert as a follow-up book to her book Eat, Pray, Love. It was published on January 5, 2010, by Viking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoga tourism</span> Travel with the purpose of experiencing yoga

Yoga tourism is travel with the specific purpose of experiencing some form of yoga, whether spiritual or postural. The former is a type of spiritual tourism; the latter is related both to spiritual and to wellness tourism. Yoga tourists often visit ashrams in India to study yoga or to be trained and certified as yoga teachers. Major centres for yoga tourism include Rishikesh and Mysore.

References

  1. "Paperback Nonfiction". The New York Times. August 28, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  2. "Overview – Eat, Pray, Love (2008)". The New York Times . Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  3. Callahan, Maureen (January 3, 2010). "Committed: A skeptic makes peace with marriage". New York Post.
  4. 1 2 Egan, Jennifer (February 26, 2006). "Eat, Pray, Love". The New York Times . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  5. Holmes, Linda (August 16, 2010). "The 'Eat Pray Love' Problem: How Movie Liz Ruined The Story Of Book Liz". NPR. Retrieved July 31, 2022.
  6. Gilbert, Elizabeth (March 5, 2007). Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything. A&C Black. ISBN   978-0-7475-8566-4.
  7. "Eat, Pray, Love (review)". Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  8. 1 2 Lichtenstein, Grace (February 12, 2006). "Heart and Soul". The Washington Post . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  9. "Five Questions for Richard Jenkins" Archived May 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine . TheFasterTimes.com. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  10. Rozen, Leah (April 29, 2010). "Mother and Mega-Star, Happily Balanced". The New York Times.
  11. Fleming, Michael (October 10, 2006). "Par setting table for adaptation". Variety . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  12. Callahan, Maureen (December 23, 2007). "Eat, Pray, Loathe: Latest Self-Help Best Seller Proves Faith Is Blind". New York Post . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  13. Roiphe, Katie (July 3, 2007). "Summer Reading: Should you read the best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love?". Slate . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  14. Grossman, Lev (February 19, 2006). "The Year of Living Happily". Time . Archived from the original on May 19, 2006. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  15. Leibovich, Lori. "Lost and found". Salon . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  16. Shaw, Jessica (February 17, 2006). "Eat, Pray, Love". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  17. Lattin, Don (February 19, 2006). "Pilgrim wants it all in Italy, India, Indonesia". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  18. Fisher, Barbara (February 19, 2006). "Eat, Pray, Love". The Boston Globe . Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  19. Sanders, Joshunda. "Eat, Pray, Spend". Bitch Magazine. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2010.