Read, Eat, Pray, Love

I mean read Eat Pray Love, the book. I have!

After I read it I was thinking it has been a long time since I read a novel. But this isn't a novel. It is based on a true story. So is it fiction or non-fiction? It feels more like fiction, because most of the non-fiction I read does not have a story. This one has many vivid characters, and a lot of profound truths. Written as a triad, the author eats her way through Italy, majoring in pizza and gelato, then meditates 16 hours per day, which elevates her kundalini in India, then looks up a medicine man in Bali, who refers her to another healer when her wounded leg becomes infected. She has some interesting experiences in Indonesia, and meets the man of her dreams, even though she has just decided to live a monastic life. The story starts with a divorce, then a torrid love affair, and ends with a friendship which slowly turns to passion. Another triad.

I couldn't put this book down when I picked it up. There are three parts: Italy, India, and Indonesia. It does not go into depth with the author's marriage or divorce, except that it was a very painful, long, drawn-out process. In the first third, Italy was magnificent and the descriptions of food could send you running to your favorite Italian restaurant. The middle is about spirituality and did not translate well to the movie version. And in my opinion, the final third was a little unfocused. Her purpose in Bali was unclear. She set out to eat in Italy, and meditate in India, but went back to Bali to meet a man she met once years earlier, while writing an article. At that time he read her palm, and prophesized that she would come back and stay in Bali. He also promised to teach her everything he knew. I'm not sure he taught it all to her, but he was grateful that she made a permanent copy of all the notes that were given to him by his teachers. Bali looked beautiful. I bet this book, and movie, if nothing else, will at least revitalize the tourism to that island.


This is one woman's voyage of self-discovery in countries beginning with "I."

So another author has written the man's answer to Eat, Pray, Love. It is called Drink, Play, F@#k.