A celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent
account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual
devotion, and what she really wanted out of life
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went
through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had
everything an educated, ambitious American woman was
supposed to want--a husband, a house, a successful career.
But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed
with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a
divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the
eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed
to be.
To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In
order to give herself the time and space to find out who she
really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her
belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey
around the world--all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the
absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three
places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature
set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally
done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art
of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the
twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the
art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a
surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four
uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she
studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and
divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly
medicine man and also fell in love the best way--unexpectedly.
An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery,
Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim
responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to
live in imitation of society's ideals. It is certain to
touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need
for chang