book club

I've nearly finished reading Eat, Pray, Love and here's the thing: I really like it. Here's the other thing, I feel guilty that I really like it. This is a book that everyone has read, is reading, or refuses to read because everyone has read it or is reading it. When I was in the library last week, there it was, staring at me from the shelf, saying: "you know that one day you're just gonna end up buying me, why not borrow me so that you don't feel like just another reader in the crowd, buying into the trendy book of the moment?" So I went for and it was a "rapid read," which means that yes, everyone wants to read this book so you better hurry up and get done with it so the next impressionable young woman can get on with it. So I started reading. The book is divided into 3 sections and the 1st section is devoted to the author's 4 months spent in Rome, where she fought depression and struggled to find happiness. Um, hi. Did i mention this that this all took place in the fall of 2003? I was in Rome in the fall of 2003. I was in Rome, feeling like crap, in search of emotional relief. You see where I'm going. This section of the book is earmarked like crazy and I have read sections aloud to M. because I feel like she articulately and accessibly breaks down what it means to be depressed. Her explanations of how she feels and how she intends to recover are very non-threatening to someone who hasn't ever experienced these dark feelings. Do I think i'm the only one who relates to her? That it's just me and the author, Liz Gilbert, sitting on a bench, eating pizza and discussing life? No. I think a lot of people can relate to her words and that's why the book is so popular but yeah, i guess it's true that I think I get it a little bit more (and likely, all her readers feel this way, which is why she is such a success).
Anyways, if the book had only been that small section on life in Italy, I would have still deemed the book worthy of a reader's time but it goes on. The next section focuses on her time in India, living at an Ashram and learning to art of meditation. I found myself less taken with this section and distracted. I was never going to spend 4 months in meditation, scrubbing temple floors and chanting in sanskirt - this lady was a whackadoodle. But here's the thing, when I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about how I could learn to meditate, how I could learn to find peace and contentment through meditation, how sitting in silence and emptying my mind would be just what I needed. You see? she got me, she did her work and here I am, eating it up. Even if while turning the pages I didn't think she was connecting with me, she obviously was. And i hate to see this all as an infomercial - that she is advertising enlightenment and I'm on the other side of the TV, in the dark of my living room, ready to buy what she's selling. But I am - for better or for worse, I have gone mainstream and I am impressionable. There is no denying that. I want to be happy and calm and peaceful and I want to remove all the chaos that only i create for myself and isn't she offering me insight into how she reached all that goodness? Isn't that what everyone wants?
Anyways, I like the book. I admit it. I'm finishing up the 3rd section now and i'll let you know my final thoughts soon.