One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia
By Elizabeth Gilbert
@2006, 12 hours, 49 minutes,
Audible version read by Elizabeth Gilbert

Back in 2008 a coworker said, “You really gotta read this book!” She described it to me fairly accurately, and I didn’t think it would be for me. I didn’t want to read about some blond lady’s spiritual journey. I didn’t want to read about her travels across Italy, India, and Indonesia. I was stuck in the office. Eating? — I was on a diet!

So it’s fair to say it took me a while to get around to this book, but it kept showing up here and there. People kept trying to give it to me. And I don’t really know what my problem was. It seemed, well, so “girly.” Not that being girly is a bad thing. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

Cut ahead several years, the first book by Elizabeth Gilbert I experienced was her Audible version of Big Magic, and I probably wouldn’t have listened to that if it hadn’t been for her 2009 TED Talk on Creativity (which was amazing, 100% recommend it!) and yet another coworker sending me her podcast on Magic Lessons (which was also amazing).

OK already, I’ll read your damn book!

And you know, I liked it. I liked Liz’s openness to well—everything. She is engaging and interesting and sweet and supportive. You get the feeling that she’s the kind of person people seek out—all the time. Like she never has a free Saturday night.

Liz begins her book talking about how she’s going to offend a ton of people by discussing her own search for spirituality and healing—and I get that. This is tricky territory.

I can easily think of people in my own life who would be terribly offended by this book. Liz looks for God on her own terms. And, she isn’t too sure about marriage or having children. She wants to claim space for her creativity, her own writing. She puts the breaks on her life and focuses completely on herself.

My mother-in-law would have hated this book. In fact, she hates all books except for the Bible. So, if you can relate to my mother-in-law on the topic of books, Eat, Pray, Love most definitely will not be for you—and—you should definitely read it.

I’m not so easily offended. People can believe things radically different from what I believe, and it doesn’t upset me at all. I just think, hmm, that’s interesting. Wonder how they came up with that?

That said, Liz has a great reading voice. I think this book was probably better listened to than read.

So, yes. This was an interesting book. Liz’s problems are not my problems, though, so I wasn’t saying, oh yes, I really get you. Rather I marvel at this woman’s life. I marvel at her success and her freedom. I marvel at her ability to travel and her ability to pursue her dream because my dream has always seemed so hard to pursue. The small issue of money has always presented a barrier to me. I am only just conquering it, and even as I say this I’m not terribly sure that’s true. I mean “future me” probably is going to hate “past” and “present” me.

Eat, Pray, Love taps into women’s issues and gives a picture of the female condition that is very accurate for a large number of people. I think it’s historically and culturally significant.

And as Liz discusses, there are all kinds of ways to meditate and these have been explored by ancient cultures like India for more than five thousand years. We Americans don’t know everything—in other words.

In her Ted Talk, Liz laments: was Eat, Pray, Love her greatest work? Is her best work behind her?

I tend to think this couldn’t be true. “Best work” isn’t the same as “most recognized work.” But I get that after such an overwhelming success, one could overthink, things and figure that must be it. For me though, I loved Big Magic, and I think as long as Liz remains her beautiful, authentic self, I’m excited to continue to learn about her takes on life, living, and love.