By Elizabeth Gilbert
So, I finished reading this and thought, hell yeah! I want to be paid to write a book about traveling. Especially if I get to stuff myself with Italian food.
Gilbert conceives of her year-long journey (four months each in Italy, India, and Indonesia) after her divorce and an on-again, off-again relationship that’s taking an emotional and mental toll. She knows she needs to leave and gain some perspective.
I suspect this book is so popular because a lot of people would love to travel, and Gilbert is forthcoming: you feel like you’re chatting with a good friend. She confesses to not doing scads of research, but rather letting aspects of the country she’s in capture her attention.
By her own account, she’s a successful traveler because she’s friendly. I would be so doomed. I seem to have a perpetual disdainful look on my face, whatever my mood, and I find people petrifying, so I freeze up and they assume I’m judging them. I tend to be solitary anyhow – not one of Gilbert’s complaints. She’s taking this trip to learn how to be by herself. She’s always had a guy (or two) in her life: for that reason, she decides to forgo sex for a a year.
One reason I appreciated this book was because she debated the merits of having children. I am childfree by choice, and enjoyed seeing someone else discuss what it is like.
I suspect this book was so popular because Gilbert is so refreshingly direct.
