The one thing I think I liked about this book and now movie was its title and the cover. I watched the movie with much anticipation but Alas!, I was disappointed, not so much in the execution, but the fact that it was long and boring despite a great concept, locales and a lot of strong characters! I tried the book then, thinking books are usually better than movies, but again I was disappointed. EAT PRAY LOVE was supposed to be a celebration of life, and was supposed to uplift me. It turned out to be one big rigmarole by an unduly supposedly depressed woman who ranted on and on and on about what a nervous wreck she had become and how brave she was facing everything alone. Had she left the part of her depression out for atleast half of what is in the book, I would have been much happier reading it! She wondered what went wrong, all throughout the book, so did I..even granted that she wasn’t ‘normal’ and like ‘all other women’ who enjoyed happy and married monotonous lives with their families, I didn’t get right upto the end her reasons for a mental breakdown!
Besides the part of her sad sad life, I didn’t really find the rest of the book very uplifting either and I didn’t get any vicarious thrills out of her wolfing down pizzas and gelatos at Naples or her absolution in India or her finding her ‘balance’ in Bali. What I did glean though is what I might like to see and experience in the places that she has talked about. Like I said before, most of the characters were really good, especially Kekut in Bali, but apart from that I got heartily tired of reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s whining!
I haven't either seen the movie nor read the book, but the review is good; I mean you have reviewed it well. I agree with you about books being better than the movie version, but there are some movies that do justice to the book. One such is Outsiders by S.E.Hinton. Have you seen or read it?
ReplyDelete@zephyr: Thanks for the comment as usual. Was out on a wonderful and a long trip and could not visit your blog or reply to you. I haven't read the book you talk about, but I will certainly look it up.. Btw,pssst.. I m a free ambassador for amazon's kindle..do try it out if you are big in reading books! Do you read/watch Harry Potter? Well, the books are again those I think have been not badly represented in the movies though some movies did drag, but so did the book then!
ReplyDeletei have read this one (not watched the movie yet) and quite liked it.
ReplyDeleteyou gave a whole new perspective on it which i was surprised by initially but i understand & agree when you say ""for people with perfectly peaceful lives, it might get a tad boring.""""""