This memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert chronicles the pain of her divorce and how she literally journeys to heal herself. It begins with the image of her prostrate on her bathroom floor, riddled with guilt because she wants to end her marriage. When she reaches the bottom of her pit, she decides that she is going to go to Italy, India and Indonesia in order to focus on elements of her life. She is going to go to each country for a four month period of time. This novel chronicles these journeys.

In Italy she focuses on her love of the Italian language and her love of really good food. Warning: do not read this novel when you are hungry, or eating mediocre food! Her journey in Italy is about pleasure for the sake of pleasure; about indulging herself in beauty and pleasure, about making decisions for herself. And no, the pleasure is not sexual. Gilbert has also taken a vow of celibacy during her one year journey, thinking that to indulge in sexual relations will take away from her journey back to herself.

In India she lives in an Ashram that her spirtual guide runs or owns. She practices mediation and yoga; this part of her journey is about a spirtual search. When I read the descriptions of her mediation sessions, I realized that my Yoga class has definately been "Americanized;" I attend a much abridged, shortened Yoga experience for us Americans. Gilbert keeps this religious journey about spirituality in general; she doesn't favor one organized religion over another. She doesn't even really focus on organized religions; this is more about a pureness of spirit. It is an incredibly interesting journey into mediation and quieting the mind.

In Indonesia the journey of pleasure and spirituality merge together to form a balanced life. Gilbert actually goes to spend four months with a medicine man that she had previously met. I cannot discuss much more about Indonesia without giving away some of the ending.

All in all, I like Gilbert's tone and her writing voice. This isn't a memoir written by someone who just happened to do something very intersting; it is written by an author, and that is very evident. Gilbert is a talented author, see the excerpt on DJR. She is witty, humble and frankly honest.

Or is she?

This is where my problem lies with her journey. Gilbert admits that her publisher offered to publish this novel before she set out on her journey. Doesn't that mean that this journey is made with a book in mind? At least to some extent? And how honest can the journey really be, if it was a journey that was always meant to be published? I couldn't help doubting some of her writings because I knew that she was experiencing these events as an author. We all know that memoirs cannot be totally objective; how can you seperate the author from the book when the main character is the author? Even though I have some serious doubts about the objectiveness and the authenticity of some of Gilbert's experiences, I enjoyed this novel.

Happy Reading!