Sign in with FacebookGinny Messina's Reviews > Eat, Pray, Love
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert is a really good writer but I still had to absolutely slog through to the end of her annoying book. I did so with the faint hope that maybe there would be some last minute clue about all the hype —or that maybe Gilbert would finally wake up one morning and say “Hey, maybe it’s not all about me!”
No such luck. Her perspective is shallow, completely self-absorbed and lacking in empathy. The spiritual part of her quest never translates to any feelings of compassion or altruism. Gilbert spends close to a year living among the poorest people in the world and still manages to think about nothing but herself and her own needs.
Ugh—this book is offensive.
No such luck. Her perspective is shallow, completely self-absorbed and lacking in empathy. The spiritual part of her quest never translates to any feelings of compassion or altruism. Gilbert spends close to a year living among the poorest people in the world and still manages to think about nothing but herself and her own needs.
Ugh—this book is offensive.
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Lisa
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19. Dezember, 11:55 Uhr
Ginny, Wow! I'd taken it off my to-read list a long time ago because of other negative reviews but this is the best argument for not wasting my time reading it that I've read. Succinct and to the point.
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I guess the hype for this one passed me by... I'm vaguely aware of it, but have never felt the slightest interest in picking it up. After your review Ginny, I doubt I ever will.
Abigail, this book was a huge best seller and was embraced by Oprah (no surprise there!) and it's going to be a movie. I have heard so many people talk about how wonderful it is. Gilbert is certainly a perky writer and her self-deprecating comments can be kind of charming, but it's just a lot of "New Age spiritual journey for the self-absorbed."Lisa, I had noticed in your comments on someone else's review that you had taken this off your To Read list. I should have listened to you!
Hmm... perhaps I should have been more aware of it, being in the book business. Or perhaps, I should just count this as one of the blessings of working at a used store, rather than a standard chain (which tend to focus on best-sellers more). Ah well, I have been warned! :)
Ginny, Well, your review has been the most compelling argument for not reading it, so even though I've read several other reviews and commented, and even though we often (although don't always-the Harry Potter series comes to mind ;-) !) agree about books, and given all the positive reviews, etc. etc. it makes sense to me that you tried it. Thanks for the review. I'm now 100% positive I will never read this book, and I won't feel as though I've missed anything. At least she's a good writer and had some charm. I hate most New Age stuff, by the way, so even if she was less offensive I might not have been wowed anyway.
Thanks. I just put Dairy Queen on my to-read list. A very different type of book that looks good to me.
I had heard of this book but didn't know it was written by her sister. Yes, it looks pretty different!
It's a YA coming of age book but the heroine is very inarticulate (although capable of deep feeling) as opposed to the narrator of EPL who simply can't stop emoting and is annoyingly self-obsessed.However, the two books have nothing in common except written by sisters. I was just making a frivolous comparison.
It's taken me a long time to understand I just don't have the same taste in books as Oprah. I have read quite a few from her list and I think I only really liked one of them--"White Oleander". My latest disapointment was "Edgar Sawtel" (hated the ending) and I found "Eat, Pray, Love" really annoying for the same reasons stated in Ginny's review. With all that's going on in the world I just can't indentify with someone who can take a year off to find herself--way too 60s for me.
Good review. Gilbert is just amazingly self-absorbed, and the writing isn't good enough to make up for it. You sum it up well.
But it IS all about her. Everything is about her. Even people's poverty is about her!This book for me was a shit sandwich.
I really like her writing style but I really, really don't like her.
In the same way, I liked some of her experiences but few of her egocentric conclusions.
Her conclusions of course, were so self absorbed that I felt ashamed for her at least every other page.
There was one page early on in the book where she'd written "I" so many times it looked like a Dr Suess book.
I wouldn't have made it past page 2 except that it was for a book club.
Yuk.
I'm so glad someone else felt this way. She was so self-absorbed, whiny and desperate for attention! If I met her, I'd run the other way.
Exactly my thoughts! she expected sympathy for her childish and immature behavior? and yet she goes as self centered as ever! I found it very offensive to all the women who have to put up with far much crap :)
