This weekend, I finished reading...

...the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert. It's a NY Times best seller, and kept popping up on my radar, so I got curious and bought it at Hastings one day.

The concept of the memoir is enticing -- a woman in her early 30s, unhappy in her marriage, pursues divorce and then, after a long and bitter split and the depression that accompanied it, sets out to travel the world. Her goal is to rediscover pleasure and devotion, and to grow closer to the God she discovered while sobbing in misery on her bathroom floor.

I will say that, in general, I liked the book. The idea of spending a year overseas, with equal time split between Italy, India, and Indonesia, fascinated me. Her spiritual journey, detailed in its most raw and honest form, appeals to not only myself, but all who have walked a similar path.

Even so, I probably won't read it again. In fact, I plan to sell it back to Hastings as soon as I get a chance. Here's why:

1) Liz Gilbert is ridiculously obsessed with sex.
I understand that sex is good. I even understand that it's part of a natural life. I get it. But the author shows zero remorse, despite her spiritual yearnings, for the affair she had while still married. She commits herself to celibacy (not chastity, mind you...as we discover later in the book) for the year of her journey, but quickly rebukes that upon meeting a handsome and winning Brazilian man in Indonesia. Sure, she refuses the invitation to his bed on the first night, and counts it as some great spiritual conquest, even though she engaged in...um...other activities to handle the passion that pulled her from her sleep. Even so, she tumbled into his arms on the second night of his asking (Really, Liz? You held out one whole night? How very pious of you), and then goes on to detail the complications she experienced as a result of too much sex. Chalk it up to things I didn't need to know.

2) There's no real spiritual direction.
The author describes herself as a "cultural Christian" though she stumbles over the idea that Jesus is the only way to God. I would agree that there are methods of practice that each faith can teach the others, but there is a problem with Gilbert's variety show of faith. If we handpick our faith, do we truly believe in God, or have we created our own god, by filling in the parts we like, as if He were a paint-by-numbers for which we chose the colors? I believe the Bible as the Word of God, a text inspired by Him, something greater than myself, and so I am obligated by that belief to follow it. All of it, and not just the parts that I "like." Selective spirituality sounds great -- I'd love to follow it -- but it's false.

3) I'm tired of hearing about happy housewives who discover that they made the wrong decision.
Before I read this book, I read the novel "Revolutionary Road," which was made into an award-winning movie last year. Don't read it. It's all about a couple who both engage in extramarital affairs, and generally screw up their relationship, with much of the focus being on the wife's unhappiness in living the "traditional" life. I saw the same lines being drawn in Eat, Pray, Love: Liz isn't happy as a wife, and, despite turning 30, isn't ready to have a baby. So she gets a divorce and travels the world. Let me just say this: I hate divorce. I hate the concept of it, I hate the practice of it, I hate even thinking about it. The way I see it, you made a choice on your wedding day to love the other person no matter what. No matter if you decide you don't want to be married anymore or if your partner is spiritually dense while you're discovering God. If he's beating you (physically or emotionally or otherwise) or cheating on you, then you have a God-given right to divorce. In any other case, it's a no-go. I'm 23, and I don't want to be married yet. I have things still to do as a single person, things that are possible, but much harder while married. Still, if I had gotten married already, then I'd be married. It's as simple as that.

I googled criticisms about the book earlier today, and one, in particular, summed up my feeling about it: "Get over yourself." Right on, sister. Right on.





If you actually read all of my impromptu book report above, you get a gold star for the day.