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Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex

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arodriguez.romero
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I read this book at the request of my book club, but I am really the odd duck in the club.

I liked it far more than I thought I would.

But g-damn she is whiny and annoying.
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AuntPenny
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I found this book to be a very good emetic. By page 84, I'd lost ten pounds!
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Hana Maru
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
OMG. Elizabeth Gilbert is my sister?!
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bananaprincess
01/13/09

@HanaMaru:
no I think she was mine!
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elephantshoes
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I'm really surprised at all the hate Liz and her writing is getting here. It's coming across as jealously due to her happy ending. I read the book and as a 20-something with lots of existential questions, the book was a great read. I don't think she'd waste a second judging any of us like people are judging her -- and not because she thinks she's better than us, but because she knows better than to judge.
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Red-headed bookworm
01/12/09

@elephantshoes: I'm not jealous of her. I don't want to have to do all of that to be happy. I just couldn't finish the book. It just didn't hold my attention. I think I was expecting something more like the book "Heat" or like Ruth Reichl's books, but it wasn't like that.
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Sukie in the Graveyard
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
God Forbid we find a way to make ourselves happy...
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rocknrollunicorn
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I really don't get the bashing. Read it or don't read it. Why do you care if 1/2 the ladies on the train are reading it? Jealousy is really unattractive.
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Geminijinx07
01/12/09

@rocknrollunicorn: I think this is one book that people either love or hate in extremes. I hated it and hate it passionately. My mother loves it equally passionately. It's one of the few books we've agreed to never discuss.

I don't see it as jealousy necessarily - I just thought the writing and the tone was self-indulgent, as if we were supposed to feel sorry for her.
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rocknrollunicorn
01/12/09

@Geminijinx07: That's a fine critique. I'm ok with people saying, "well it's not that well written" or that it's self-indulgent, but a lot of these comments are revealing very, very thinly veiled jealousy that this woman got published and people read her work.

Obviously people react to the type of yarn she's spun. Maybe we should ask why that is, rather than just bashing her.
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jigglyball
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
Her modest Connecticut background didn't give her enough material??? So there was this lifelong New England dweller named Emily Dickinson, and despite her lack of travel and obvious "story inducing experiences," she had a brain that was wider than, well, Connecticut at least.
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PhillyLass
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
The 'Drink, Cry, Hate' tag makes me irrationally happy.
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Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini
01/12/09

@PhillyLass: meeeee too. It made me LOL.
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mfnher
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I've heard good things about this book. Can anyone tell me if it's religious in nature? That makes a big difference to me. My stepmother-in-law keeps trying to get me to read The Shack , but I just know it's going to be too religious to handle
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Sukie in the Graveyard
01/12/09

@mfnher: It's not terribly religious. She isn't out to convert anyone. The Pray section is about meditation and finding calm.

I'm atheist and I got through it just fine.
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mfnher
01/12/09

@Sukie in the Graveyard: Thanks. I'm an atheist as well. I'm up for religionin books, I just don't want to be preached religion in books. I wish the humanist website had some kind of book filter.
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YourScreenplaySucks
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
She wrote Stern Men & The Last American Man, right? Which I liked. But judging from the barrage of hate here, I'm going to ignore EPL, whose title already rubs me the wrong way. I can't be bothered to find myself, so I'm pretty sure I'm not interested in this lady's "journey".
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Sukie in the Graveyard
01/12/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: don't hate it based on the comments here!

Hate it because you read it and formed your own personal opinion afterwards.

Please. At least give it that chance.

(and please don't judge books by title alone. please!)

Also, know that it's a memoir. She's writing about no one else but herself (she also spends a great deal of time alone, so...)
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YourScreenplaySucks
01/12/09

@Sukie in the Graveyard: Oh I don't hate it (or her). I just tend to use other people's reviews as a guide of what to avoid- unfortunately, my lifetime will not be long enough to read all the great stuff out there that I want to read and I have to whittle down the list in some way.

That it's a memoir (my least favorite genre) and that the reviews I've read make it sound like something I'd dislike is enough for me. I liked her previous books, but not enough to read anything she puts out.
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Sukie in the Graveyard
01/12/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: true, stick to genres you like.

I understand totally.
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Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
yeah, i'm about to punch confessional literature and all it's gagtasticness in the fucking throat.
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ArtfulSlinger
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I understood where she was coming from and that feeling of lost, but I thought the book wasn't as all encompassing as I expected after all the hoopla.

But personally, I am not sure why you interview someone if your plan is just to attack all the answers that are given. And just because people have nice homes and great jobs doesn't mean that they have found themselves or enjoy life.
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ItchykooParker
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
It was a memoir, which, by definition, includes quite a bit of "navel gazing". I loved the book, and I didn't find her annoying whatsoever.

I do agree that there are a lot of sour grapes being tasted, however.
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clevernamehere
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
I really hated Eat, Pray, Love and I hate when people write off dislike of the book to some kind of girl on girl envy. I found her self-involved and incredibly selfish. It wasn't wasn't really travel writing since most of it was about her mental state, but there are much better books out there about depression. Just because soemthing is popular doesn't make it good.

I feel like a geek posting this, but if you want to read aboyt self-discovery while travelling, these are my suggestions: [www.amazon.com]
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southernbitch
01/12/09

In reply to Eat, Pray, Love Author Talks To Guardian, Engages Gag Reflex
oh, ps. another thing. after spending several years traveling through developing countries trying to discover some deeper truths about humanity or whatever my motivation was, i'm also pretty cynical about upper and middle class white people traveling to places like india and bali to discover magical secrets of how to live well. it's borderline offensive. and the whole section about her deciding to buy a woman a house in bali was beyond fucking gross, i'm sorry, it was. next time, ms. gilbert, come down to my neighborhood and spend some time frolicking around with poor folk in the united states. i'm sure you'd approach it just as selfishly and offensively.
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andonthatnote, JOC
01/12/09

@southernbitch: You just described everyone at my college. They're all "omg yay study abroad/do token service abroad" but their reasons always seem a little self-serving.
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southernbitch
01/12/09

@andonthatnote: definitely. i enjoyed my experiences greatly, and since i did most of it between the ages of 20 - 25, and have gone on to do development work in my own community, i feel a lot better about it. but you always have to look at travel, especially travel in radically different political, ethnic, and socioeconomic cultures, as something pretty much inherently self-serving. you are going somewhere to do or see something that will most likely specifically benefit you and produce meaning to you. and you will also never fully understand the context in which you find yourself. you can spend years in a place and not wholly comprehend the realities of the community you are within. and you will take these experiences with you and come home and construct a narrative that you present to others with the express purpose of highlighting what you thought about where you were and what you did. i'm not really down with memoirs too much. i'm not really down with travelogues, either. i'm not trying to condemn anyone or say that people shouldn't travel or see the world or try to be charitable within that sort of context, but i am definitely saying that it's a hard thing to do with grace, and i ultimately think she didnt pull it off.
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