Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia

Gilbert (The Last American Man) grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting
in this sprawling yet methodical travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after
a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring
her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. First, pleasure: savoring Italy's buffet of
delights--the world's best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners--Gilbert consumes la dolce
vita as spiritual succor. "I came to Italy pinched and thin," she writes, but soon fills out in waist and soul.
Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India, Gilbert emulates
the ways of yogis in grueling hours of meditation, struggling to still her churning mind. Finally, a balancing
act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise "betwixt and between" realms, studies with a merry medicine man and
plunges into a charged love affair. Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the
year's cultural and emotional tapestry--conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching
candor--as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.

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