Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I was skeptical but after having this book on my shel for a year I finally read it. I read it in a matter of a week and must say enjoyed it indeed. I found myself yearning to live in Italy and eat pasta, to ease my psyche into quietude. Then the book was over and I found myself thinking how I could benefit from an Brazilian lover. An ok read in my books.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
What to say......I thought I was going to LOVE this book. I usually feverishly devour every book that describes foreign travel with loving speech and painstaking detail. And much of this book did exactly that and hit every satisfying mark of exploratory, vicarious travel writing. At first I also really enjoyed the delicious flourish of super descriptive writing, but that soon morphed into hard eye-rolling over every. single. sentence. just absolutely dripping with metaphor and simile. Beyond the writing style, the personal aspects of this journey were also just so exasperating.
The tailspin starts with Gilberts deciding that he marriage is over. This catapults her into another man's bed that she soon realizes is equally toxic to her well being. Though she takes some time to extricate herself from the never ending up/down in/out of this relationship. Through this man, she starts to discover spirituality through an ashram in NY that follows a guru in India. She also meets a medicine man that says (basically) 'You are very interesting and you should come to stay with me in Bali.' And then this woman...because she wants to learn Italian, wants to visit a guru in India and was asked by a medicine man to come and visit...quits her job and takes off for parts unknown. We follow her through a a myriad of relationships (platonic) with strangers, foods and culture where she painstakingly pulls herself out of depression and begins to feel balanced again.
(As a total aside, she really goes IN on anti-depressants and how bad they are and how she rejects them and blah blah blah. This REALLY pissed me off. Not only did anti-depressants very clearly save her actual life, they are sound medicine for people that actually need it. I thought this diatribe was shockingly absent of self-reflection and borderline irresponsible.)
With much compassion and as little judgment as I can manage, Gilbert seems like a person always searching. One of those people that is just half empty until they have another person to fill them up. People like this tend to fall into one of two basic categories: 1. People who are comfortable with their sexuality and who go looking for partners. 2. Repressed people who go looking for the divine. Gilbert actually does both. When she decides men are toxic for her (only at present) she goes looking for God instead. I think Buddhists refer to these people as 'hungry ghosts'. These creatures that have humungous stomachs, but tiny mouths and so they travel the world seeking for a desire so deep rooted in suffering that it cannot be satisfied.
This (in my opinion) was the majority of the book. And we traveled the world with her for a full year for it to turn out that all she really ever did need was....in fact....a man. The end.
Still a halfway entertaining read, but not the self-realization story and cultural phenom that everyone made it out to be when it was released.
The tailspin starts with Gilberts deciding that he marriage is over. This catapults her into another man's bed that she soon realizes is equally toxic to her well being. Though she takes some time to extricate herself from the never ending up/down in/out of this relationship. Through this man, she starts to discover spirituality through an ashram in NY that follows a guru in India. She also meets a medicine man that says (basically) 'You are very interesting and you should come to stay with me in Bali.' And then this woman...because she wants to learn Italian, wants to visit a guru in India and was asked by a medicine man to come and visit...quits her job and takes off for parts unknown. We follow her through a a myriad of relationships (platonic) with strangers, foods and culture where she painstakingly pulls herself out of depression and begins to feel balanced again.
(As a total aside, she really goes IN on anti-depressants and how bad they are and how she rejects them and blah blah blah. This REALLY pissed me off. Not only did anti-depressants very clearly save her actual life, they are sound medicine for people that actually need it. I thought this diatribe was shockingly absent of self-reflection and borderline irresponsible.)
With much compassion and as little judgment as I can manage, Gilbert seems like a person always searching. One of those people that is just half empty until they have another person to fill them up. People like this tend to fall into one of two basic categories: 1. People who are comfortable with their sexuality and who go looking for partners. 2. Repressed people who go looking for the divine. Gilbert actually does both. When she decides men are toxic for her (only at present) she goes looking for God instead. I think Buddhists refer to these people as 'hungry ghosts'. These creatures that have humungous stomachs, but tiny mouths and so they travel the world seeking for a desire so deep rooted in suffering that it cannot be satisfied.
This (in my opinion) was the majority of the book. And we traveled the world with her for a full year for it to turn out that all she really ever did need was....in fact....a man. The end.
Still a halfway entertaining read, but not the self-realization story and cultural phenom that everyone made it out to be when it was released.
Absolutely loved the journey this book took me. It was heartbreak and pure joy all in one.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Maybe it's just because I read this book at the right time in my life but I thought it was absolutely wonderful. Deeply real, interesting and made me think about my own spiritual journey that I'd like to take someday. Also, who wouldn't want to end up with a sexy Brazilian lover on the beaches of Bali??
Good, easy read; engaging. Interesting to hear a New Yorker discuss her spirituality; lots of cute anecdotes. But I also kind of hate her because she complains about her life but manages to get a book advance to do whatever the fuck she wants for a year. Yeah, tough life. Also, lots of Orientalism. Because other people are so exotic and in touch with the universe.