Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment. Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. But as Luca Spaghetti pointed out, we seem to like it. Alarming statistics back this observation up, showing that many Americans feel more happy and fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure). Americans don't really know how to do nothing. This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype-the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.

I once asked Luca Spaghetti if Italians on vacation have that same problem. He laughed so hard he almost drove his motorbike into a fountain.

-Eat, Pray, Love

It took me a long time to get to Eat, Pray, Love, and I picked it up with some misgivings. I was concerned that it seemed a bit New Agey, perhaps a little treacly, like some other bestsellers that I've found underwhelming in the past few years. I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago, however, and found it pretty enjoyable, so I thought I'd give the book a fair shot.

I think most people are familiar with the premise of the book by this point: an American woman travels around the world in order to learn how to live a balanced life. It's a lot more entertaining than that little summary suggests, though (which I guess explains why it's been so popular, yeah?). Writer Elizabeth Gilbert starts her story at home in New York, where her marriage is falling apart and she's coping—well, not at all, really. She quickly finds herself in another relationship, but that, too, turns sour before long. She falls into a depression, finding comfort only in reading words from an Italian dictionary.

The comfort of these words becomes part of her inspiration to travel around the world. She begins in Italy, to discover the art of pleasure. This was my favorite part of the book, simply because I cannot get enough of all things Italian. (I really want to read this, by the way.) There are a lot of descriptions of amazing food, as well as many tales of how Italians live. After Italy, Liz moves onto India to learn how to live a spiritual life. There are some entertaining anecdotes in this section (I love anything with Richard from Texas) as well as some thought-provoking ideas. Sometimes she lost me entirely, particularly in describing her most successful meditation sessions—but she herself acknowledges how difficult it is to relay such an experience and how she had trouble reading accounts until she'd experienced it herself. It was interesting, regardless.

Liz finishes her journey in Bali, where she tries to achieve balance between a life of pleasure and one of devotion. She listens to a wise (and often entertaining) medicine man named Ketut and makes local friends. (As she does everywhere she goes, by the way. Quite a talent.) One of these is a divorced Brazilian man named Felipe; despite her best intentions, the book ends with Liz once again in a relationship. It's not a bad ending—it also marked the beginning for her more recent book Committed—but for whatever reason I found the Balinese section of the book to be the least engrossing of the three.

Overall, though, I really liked the book. Liz has a great voice and the ability to make you feel like you're a pal along for the trip. I even laughed out loud a few times, which is always lovely (unless you're in public, so fair warning, I suppose). Although Committed received somewhat lukewarm reviews, I think I'd be interested in reading it as well simply because I enjoyed her writing style that much.

Up next: Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain. Love me some Tony! Speaking of Italy, I recently saw his No Reservations episode from Rome and it was awesome. Made cacio e pepe with la mia mamma the next night!