Yep, it’s that time of the week again. Herewith be the latest in an increasingly improbable line of Digested Reads, aka the Book du Jour in 300 words. This week: EAT, PRAY, LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert. To wit:No one understood, y’see. I was married, I had a nice home, I was a successful New York-based writer. Ladies - how could I not be unhappy?
I believe it all began with a conversation with ninth generation medicine man in Bali. “I’m very much afraid, Elizabeth,” he said, “that even primitive tribes know that the sun shines out of the East in the morning, as opposed to the fundament of any one puddle-shallow New Yorker who should spend some of her new book advance on a ladder and just get over herself.”
Men, eh? But such ancient wisdom. How could I not divorce my beloved husband (oh, the sacrifice!) I’d been screwing around on and blow a book advance on a trip around the world in 80 prays?
I could:
(a) make an Alp-sized dent in the EU food mountain in Italy;A Brazilian man, ladies, not a wax (oh, the humanity!).
(b) unfavourably compare my new muffin-belly with the skinny beggars and cripples of caste-ridden India;
(c) maybe score myself a Brazilian in Bali.
So off I go to Rome to find myself, but lo! there’s no mirrors in Rome, so I have to be content with my reflection in the eyes of luscious Italian language tutor, Giovanni.
“I don’t know how to be here,” I wailed whilst stuffing myself with deep-fried Marza Barz.
“Erm, that-a doesn’t make-a sense-a in any language-a,” he flirted outrageously.
Men, eh?
They’re only after one thing.
Pity I don’t have it.
Still, upwards and onwards to an ashram in India for some spirituality that’s not even slightly a quick-fix superficial status symbol. I mean, I scrubbed actual floors (oh, The Oneness of All Things!).
Okay. One floor. But a big-ish one.
And so to Bali. Sun, sea and (lawks!) Brazilian factory owners.
Okay. One Brazilian factory owner. But a big-ish one (fnarr).
Men, eh?
Where would a smart, educated, independent, successful, spiritually enlightened woman be without one?
The End.
The Digested Read, In One Line: What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape?
This feature first appeared in the Evening Herald
11 comments:
Cracking. Bet the film's a beut.
How much did the Evening Herald pay you to read this epic classic salute to today's self absorbed clueless society?
It was not enough.
Dec
Marza bars - classic.
Drink, Puke, Fight I think is the Belfast/Glasgow version.
Hilarious, Dec. Loved it.
well done
I love it. Just the title makes me cringe. This is most likely better than the novel.
No reviewer has distilled this particular bit of navel gazing better than this, nor have they noticed that it was a brazilian that saved her ;-)
My wife dragged me to the movie, which might easily have been titled, EAT, PRAY, GET OUT OF INDIA.
This book has been on the New York Times best-seller's list for 191 weeks, so some people are reading it--and buying it.
Kathy - a lot of people eat McBurgers every day too. Which isn't, in itself, a recommendation for the quality of food available at McBurgers.
A lot of people have loved this book and movie. I didn't.
Cheers, Dec
Yes, it's always a matter of taste--and people's reading tastes are vastly different.
I enjoyed it and laughed, took it a humorous, light travelogue, not as serious writing.
A lot of women like it, as it's a survivor's story.
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