Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert
A celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want — a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.
To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world — all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way — unexpectedly.
An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.
這本觸動人心、文字優雅的自傳,受到讀者和書評家公認的喜愛,目前開始佔據紐約時報非文學排行榜,短期內看來還不會輕易的離開!
作者伊莉莎白,在書中描述,在一個令人神傷的離職之後,她做出這重大的決定,暫時放下在美國成功的所有一切--出走,包括事業、房子,通通放下,她有更重大的任務想要完成,那就是找出她人生真正想要的,到底是什麼;又心靈渴望的意義對她而言,又會是什麼。
她決定走出家園,花一年的時間,到三個不同的國度,去探索三種不同的文化。她到了義大利,接受悠閒生活和美食的文化洗禮,她自我解嘲地說:「我剛來的時候,心情緊崩,身體又太瘦。」結果不一會兒,義大利的一切,讓他不僅在心理獲得解脫,連對腰圍都有所貢獻。
接著,她到了印度,尋求更深入地心靈充實,去接受奉獻、犧牲的精神,藉由冥想、瑜珈術等來平靜她內心深處的雜念。
最後,選擇到峇里島落腳,到這個人間天堂學習「平衡」,及如何沉澱,做為這趟身心靈的復甦覺醒之旅的終點。
透過伊莉莎白豐富又幽默的筆觸,陪著她一起走過三個歷史文化之旅,跟著她一起體驗心情的轉折,與她一起享受上帝造物的精巧。
這本書已經翻譯成二十多國語言,被紐約時報選為2006年最值得注目的書籍之一,同時被娛樂雜誌選為2006年最佳非文學書籍前十名。各界佳評如潮水湧來,本書官方網站:http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm