Follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love due out in January
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (the most popular travel book of 2006), discusses her highly-anticipated upcoming book this week in The New York Times.
Scheduled for publication in January, the book is a follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love, examining and contemplating marriage, specifically the union of Gilbert and her husband (whom she met on the Eat, Pray, Love journey). Gilbert recently told The New York Times, “It is and isn’t a sequel. It’s the same two characters, but it’s a very different setting and emotional backdrop.”
This Fall, Gilbert will be on a speaking tour in the U.S.. Her website also features a video of her inspiring talk at the 2009 TED Conference on “nurturing creativity”.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:39 am
The following is a review on Eat, Pray, Love from Amazon.com
1,006 of 1,212 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, June 19, 2007
By R. Ernst “book addict” (San Diego, CA United States) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Paperback)
I had seen all the good reviews on this book and since I am an avid traveler and reader, I was excited to read a memoir from an excellent writer. I was sorely disappointed.
Foremost, I did not even finish the book which is rare for me. I made it halfway through India before I was so disheartened by Ms. Gilbert’s narrative voice. There is a difference between sounding funny, candid and likable and sounding petty, conceited and fickle.
While I was reading this book I was genuinely surprised by the lack of empathy Ms. Gilbert had for anyone. Every situation, every comment, every sidestory pointed squarely to herself and her personal problems. I was shocked that she had lived in Rome and India for months and had not been affected by the poverty and corruption. I suppose if you are so caught up in your own problems and all your own shopping and eating that it’s difficult to understand that other people around you have far worse problems. Maybe, just maybe looking outside of yourself and giving of yourself you will find self-worth and purpose, self-worth that goes beyond buying new underwear or eating a gorgeous meal or bragging about having a meditation high.
If you want to read a real journey of discovery, love, Italy and food, I would highly recommend Marlena De Blasi’s A Thousand Days in Venice. Her narrative voice is far superior and she reveals larger truths from her personal experiences while getting to really know the local people and appreciating their culture.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:44 am
“Eat, Pray, Love” is a book that was on top of the besteller for travel writing for many months. It was (and is) a favourite as “inspire and transform your life” book and is (at least a good section of it) set in Italy. All topics I love. And a great country (OK, I am Italian). Still I was never able to read more than 10 pages. I tried twice, thousands of people cannot be wrong but still I won’t be able to give a try to the sequel (or not sequel).