It's a movie now.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I remember when the book came out. Every woman you saw had a copy of that book glued to her hand for a while there. They all tried to get me to read it. "It's so inspiring," they would say. "It's so brave, and honest. You absolutely have to read it. It's, it's... it's life-changing!!"
Needless to say, I was skeptical.
I went to a bookstore, flipped through a few pages, and was unimpressed. Seemed like a bunch a self-indulgent, new-age nonsense. I put the book back on the shelf and forgot about it.
Last year when I went to Peru, I befriended a lovely mother and daughter from Washington, DC while traveling in the Amazon jungle. We became quite close, and when we parted ways in Cusco the night before I was heading to Machu Picchu, the mother pressed a book into my hand. "Here," she said, "Take this. I'm finished with it and I would like you to have it." It was a copy of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I smiled, put it in my bag, and forgot about it.
A couple of days later, I broke my knee, you probably know the story, and I was in the hospital and in serious pain with nothing to do. All the books and magazines were in Spanish, and I'm much too lazy to learn Spanish, regardless of how much I enjoy traveling in Spanish-speaking countries. Same with the flat-screen TV I had in the room, all Spanish. I don't watch TV anyway. So I decided to pull out my copy of Eat, Pray, Love and see what Miss Elizabeth Gilbert had to say.
I read the entire book during my two-night stay, and in retrospect it was probably the perfect book to read under such circumstances because halfway through the first chapter I completely forgot about how much pain I was in because I wanted to smack the fuck out of Elizabeth Gilbert.
For those who have been under a rock and are unfamiliar with the book, let me sum it up:
It's a book about this stupid, whiny, petulant bitch crying and moaning about being thrown into an emotional tailspin and crippling depression all because she had to make the hugely selfish decision to leave her husband for no good reason other than he wanted to have kids and she didn't, preferring to pursue her own career and her own happiness, living a life of pure self-indulgence. So she leaves her husband, who has been a perfect husband and hasn't fucked her over at all, and the emotional ramifications of this selfish decision were so great that Miss Gilbert, after fucking some hot, young actor for a while, is forced to take a year off to spend four months in Italy eating, four months in India praying, and four months in Indonesia "loving," whatever the fuck that means, because Miss Gilbert makes a huge declaration in the beginning of this adventure that SHE'S NOT GOING TO HAVE SEX AT ALL FOR THE WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR, so of course, she has sex with some guy she meets in Indonesia. She also shrewdly convinces some publishing company to fund this little sabbatical for her, so she can write a book for them about it later.
Incidentally, Miss Gilbert also makes a huge declaration at the end of the book that SHE'S NEVER GETTING MARRIED AGAIN EVER. She now has another book out about how, surprise surprise, she's married. Hmm. I'm sensing a pattern here. Next will be her huge declaration that SHE'S NEVER, NEVER HAVING KIDS, EVER.
It was one of the worst books I'd read in a long time. I considered writing my own version, entitled Eat, Drink, Fuck, but it looks like someone beat me to it. Fucker.
So now they've made it into a movie, and women across the country will be leaving their husbands for no good reason and trying to go find themselves in foreign countries. And people will again say how brave she was to make that painful decision, and how amazing and strong she is for getting past that debilitating depression and I will want to smack the fuck out of them.
I would love to see what would happen to Miss Gilbert if life tossed some real problems her way. Because there are far worse things that could happen to a person besides leaving your husband for a young, hot actor who's awesome in bed. Trust me on this one.
