Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It

‘Eat Pray Love Made me Do it’ - Life Journeys Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir
Book review by Bishop Middleham Book Club
We found the book easy to read but repetitive, it was poorly written, like magazine articles in the style of ‘People’s Friend’. We found it difficult to engage and identify with, having over 50 characters many of which were uninspiring and some of which we felt were only in the book for self-promotion. The language and style was very ‘American’ and difficult for us to engage with. Also the book seemed to be expensive for a small paperback. However it has given us an interest in the original book, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, which some of us would now like to read.

This book is a collection of short narratives from people whose lives have been changed by reading “Eat, Pray, Love”. As I had never read the original book (to be honest I hadn’t actually heard of it) I suspected that these insights were going to mean very little to me, assuming that some background knowledge of the source of the inspiration was likely to be an essential prerequisite. How wrong can you be!! I started reading the book in a fairly belligerent mood, certain that I was going to drown in a lot of mushy, emotional waffle. However, I very soon became transported into a very real world in which a lot of normal people had made dramatic changes to their lives and experienced a freedom which they would never before have thought possible. And it was all as a result of them having read one little book.

Has it made me want to read the original? To be honest, probably not. At least, not yet. If this collection of stories is anything to go by, it is likely that reading “Eat, Pray, Love” will force me to think about my current lifestyle and make some life-changing decisions. These are likely to take me in directions that may well be liberating but may also require me to face up to things which I know will be uncomfortable, will potentially be very scary and which I am just not prepared to face at the moment. I think I will take the coward’s way out for now and hope that I reach a time and a place when I am brave enough to tackle “Eat, Pray, Love”.