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In August, I chose the book Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It for book club. As a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best selling memoir, Eat Pray Love, I was curious to hear how her words inspired the millions of readers who read her book. As I got ready to solo travel in Bali, I figured Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It would be a perfect travel companion abroad and I was right.
Book Review: Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It
Let me start at the beginning-the very beginning that is-the introduction of the book. I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s style of writing and her introduction is perhaps my favorite part of the entire book. Gilbert takes a moment to look at the impact of her book, Eat Pray Love, and to understand its importance in people’s lives. She shares two different reader’s stories that always stuck with her-one about a woman who left her abusive relationship, another about a man who made divorce a living hell for his wife.
In both stories there is a magical moment when these two people realize their lives don’t have to look like this anymore. Inspired by Eat Pray Love, both people decide to change their realities. The woman leaves her abusive relationship-never to look back again. The man signs the divorce papers and wishes his wife happiness-choosing to release her from the purgatory he created. I love these two stories—and all the subsequent stories that follow-because they remind us that life is what we make it.
Let me repeat that for good measure: life is what we make it. Too often, we feel resigned to our fates. Unhappy relationships, dead end jobs, shitty apartments, toxic friendships; and rather than change it, we let ourselves simmer with the hand life has dealt us. Years ago, I was engaged to a wonderful man I was no longer in love with. I was working a job that left me miserable. I was living in an apartment I could barely afford; whose expenses had come at the cost of basic necessities like having three meals a day. I was writing on the side but only in stolen moments between meetings and conference calls. I had a choice. I could walk down the aisle, I could show up to work morning after morning, I could keep going down the road I was going; or I could change my reality.
It wasn’t easy—in fact it was very hard—but I changed my world. I left my relationship, called off my wedding, quit my job and moved out of my apartment. Today, my life is different. It finally looks like me. The stories of Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It are the same. People overcoming heartache, loss, sickness. People who are young, old, married, single, with kids and without. Some stories have a dramatic change, others are more subtle. Some people flip their worlds upside down, others shift their thinking. Each story is inspiring in its own way.
My favorite story (page 132) is by Laurie Granieri, a perfectionist who found the courage in Eat Pray Love to cut herself some slack. She didn’t know whether her self journey would have any outcome, any success; but then she remembered Gilbert’s own year abroad had no guarantee either. I love this because all too often we get sidetracked by success and discouraged to start projects unless there is a prize at the end. It’s good to remember that life’s biggest journeys head into the unknown. It takes courage, faith and confidence to lace up your boots—as Laurie writes it—and step forward.
Book Club Questions:
1. Which story in the book resonated with you the most? Why?
2. How did Eat Pray Love inspire you?
Stay tuned THIS WEEK for the September Book Club selection. I’m excited to share it!
