What readers think of Eat, Pray, Love, plus links to write your own review.

A boring, repetitious travelogue filled with flashback events, which do not clarify narrator's present experiences, but add to the confusion of a self-absorbed individual's whining about her own personal self-inflicted mental wounds that reflect her separation from biblical principles.

While I respect Elizabeth Gilbert's desire to find God and herself after what was clearly a life-shattering event in life - who wouldn't want crave clarity and meaning after a divorce? - but her method seems a bit extreme, to say the least. As another reader said, this is a cathartic work, but didn't leave me a reader with more than awareness and understanding than I had before reading her book. Many times throughout the book I wanted to scream at her to just get a grip, pull herself up by the bootstraps and move on. However it did leave me pondering about the lengths some will go to find meaning and spirituality in their lives as if there is an absolute and definitive answer while clearly dismissing simple acceptance. Does knowing God and have a spiritual awareness only come if you can meditate yourself into another dimension? I think by accepting this notion, one misses on the everyday simplicity of spirituality that exists within us as well as that which surrounds us.

I found it hard to relate to a woman and her struggles when she is so fortunate to be able to travel and live freely for a year with the money she got from her book deal!! if we can all be so lucky...Her love of Italy was super annoying too..I thought I would have enjoyed this better if it was written by someone who was more real...and even more spiritual...but then this is coming from a very spiritual person of very modest means..

Ok as a travelogue. Not realistic for most of us. How many may drop everything to spend a year traveling, much less do it financially? I am glad that EG had the opportunity to do her much needed soul searching. Choices that we make lead us down different roads and we need to become comfortable with those choices. I wish that she had spoken a little more about the food part. that aspect fell apart after leaving Italy and was hardly mentioned in Bali. I guess she was just living on love by then.

One woman's journey. And, maybe she should have had a travel guide!

This woman was remarkably mature and successful professionally, and amazingly adolescent emotionally. She couldn't reconcile success with a family commitment, but took forever to admit it. Then, after wobbling through a divorce, she had a typical rebound romance before deciding to start all over and take on life from a completely different angle.

Good writing, settings and dialogue save the book, but the main character is spoiled and self-serving to the end. It's easier to like to book than the protagonist. Not exactly sorry to have read it but not sure why I feel that way. Loved the cowboy!

I must say that although all in all the book is not bad I found the part about Italy quite offensive.
Through the lines Italy comes across as a country of mad people who spend their time yelling in the streets and thinking of how to stuff dull Americans with delicious food...not to mention all the bits about Italian people being useless at languages, taxes, organisation, hard work, etc...
I guess the author should have known better before writing such rubbish. I am sure it wasn't Liz's intention to offend Italians but maybe before claiming that "anywhere in Italy this, anywhere in Italy that" she should have traveled to many more places than just Rome and Naples.

Gilbert is an excellent writer and seems to have an engaging personality. At first, I was caught up in the drama of her life, but her almost-fiction-like adventures began to strain my credulity. Wherever she goes, she immediately and conveniently becomes best friends with a group of exciting, fascinating, extraordinary people who all seem to become almost more interested in her quests than in their own. I have no doubt that the crux of her adventures is based on things that really occurred, but I can't help but wonder how much exaggeration, florid expansion of truth, and hyperbole were added on to achieve the goal of best-sellerdom. I lost interest halfway on because I just could maintain belief in the authenticity of this story.

I too have for four years tried to recover from a broken 27 year marriage with two kids that ended in divorce. I was married to a very immature man that didn't have the back bone to be a grown man. I put him through college always had to figure out a way to get his latest whim with the credit card paid . . . I too realized I was exhausted and was not getting want I needed in life. I gave my husband the divorce he wanted only to be repeatedly dragged to court by him wanting more. Our American legal system loves the heart-break of divorce. The court repeatedly encourages the couples to fight thus providing the bread and butter to the lawyers and the rest of the system to cash in on the hurt. I continue to try to pay the bills the x has created with the court's blessing. I do have a college education and struggle to provide for my children and myself. My pain has played out in the daily battle of life in today's economy. . . No Italy or other exotic trips for me. I checked out the book from the library and I am glad I didn't give the author money for yet another lavish vacation prompted by a publisher. I too find comfort in yoga and meditation but no fancy planned trip - just daily life of trying to cover bills. I wish I could afford such luxury as she did to recover and believe me family, friends, and co-workers certainly wish I could have gone on a luxury trip to recover instead of the tearful journey most of us have to live called the reality of life . . . Congrats on making a buck off of walking out of a marriage. I hope your x gets some of the proceeds. Too bad you haven't had to really experience life. The reality of living on the edge of poverty following a divorce. Way to give the world a fake view of the true American Dream.