Review: Eat Pray Love

Dearest followers,

I'm fresh from the theatre, having just seen Eat Pray Love. Herein lies its review. If you have not seen the book, or seen the movie, and want to, please don't read on. Allow yourself to fall in love with the book, the journey, the food and do it on your own time. Reserve judgement until you've experienced it for yourself.

I'm writing this review with a deep sense of calm, because this is what Elizabeth Gilbert's story has done to me. I found a lot of myself in her, which is why I was able to get into the book so quickly and so deeply. Her story of starting fresh after heartbreak and emptiness resonated with me, and much in the same way as she dove first into pleasure, then into prayer, and finally landing on a balance of these two, I have embarked on this journey.

I didn't realize this until I was already in Rome with Liz, admiring the artichokes and the hum of the language. This I have always loved, but with more time on your hands once you are alone, you tend to find small things to make you happy: the colour of the roasted pepper and the softness of its flesh as you peel away the skin, the aroma of garlic as it prepares the pan for the onions, and so forth. Small things like this, like Liz's love affairs with her food, are sometimes what get you by, what allow you to smile for the fragment of time it takes you to peel yourself off the floor of your mind's desperation. My heart hums with delight when I am bent over a hearty plate of food, enjoying each bite and offering gratitude for the opportunity to recognize this pleasure, gratitude towards myself for being able to cook, and gratitude towards the earth for its bounty and how lucky we are to have a choice in what we feed our bodies.

In India, I am moved and shaken to the core of myself. I have been practicing yoga for 8 months. This is a millisecond compared to the time some yogis have devoted to this practice, this lifestyle of calm and surrender. I was born a Roman Catholic, baptized and confirmed as such. Slowly I have lost my way with respect to this religion, but I have faith. The faith I have is inexplicable. Like Liz, it takes time to find out that the strength you need to change, really change, to grow, to mature, to appreciate, and to let go, is all in yourself. It is buried under layers of muck...worries, pains, thoughts, hurt piled years and years onto that little person lodged deep inside yourself. That person is you...but wiser. Sometimes when I meditate, I visit her. She is me, and she takes me on long walks and we talk. She is calm, smiles "from the liver" as Ketut said, and she advises me. I know she is right. It doesn't make sense to many people to visit yourself, talk to yourself and find the answer. Why then wouldn't you just know? If it's you, then you should be ok and your decisions are your own. But it's like Richard from Texas said in the film: "If you could only just get into your mind, bulldoze all that .. stuff out of the way you'd find a doorway. Opening that doorway lets God in. He floods in but only if the way is clear." The hurt that is piled in my heart is still heavy. I have not fixed this problem yet. But my inner self helps.
This all goes to say that I found the India part of this book, and to a certain extent the film as well, very moving. I sobbed during the scene in the film on the rooftop. Liz forgives. She sees into herself. I need to do the same, and as the book makes clear (much more than the film), this takes considerable time and commitment. I'm getting there.

This brings us to Bali, where Liz searches for herself, a self that is balanced between enjoying herself doing nothing and indulging in little pleasures, and between the deep time-consuming journey inwards to find her wise self. This section of the film left me slightly disappointed, but not for lack of beautiful scenery and poignant plot points, but in the difference between the novel and the book. The book ends with a closing meditative journey upon which Liz essentially shipwrecks herself on a small Balinese island, in total silence. In this time she learns a great deal and comes to terms with herself in her balance. I found this section of the book magical and important. The filmmakers chose to skip this part and instead create a quasi-break up between Felipe and Liz, in true Hollywood fashion, which ended in Liz's out-of-nowhere realization of her balance and subsequent romantic grand gesture towards her lover. I hope that moviegoers will first read the book so they can understand the sobering importance of the balance in Liz's life and the final steps in her journey as she finds this balance.

Eat Pray Love was beautiful, real, sensory and transformative. This book inspired me to continue searching. I hope no matter who you are...a devout yogi, a cook, recently single, in mourning... that you pick up this book and take the time to read it. After all, aren't we all recovering from something?