Eat Pray Love - a review

This book took me about a month to read.
Usually books take me two days to read.
To be fair, I didn't read it during vacation.
But then again, it was only because I didn't want to.

The story is told by the author and is literally about eating (in Italy), praying (in an Indian Ashram), and finding love (in Indonesia). It's about a woman who finds that she is too independent and cannot stay married, thus divorces her husband, finds a lover of whom she cannot let go because of her need to be loved.

Contradictory? Yes. BS? No.

Although I cringed a lot at her words - I felt like she tried too hard to make it an elegant style of writing - I felt she was immensely honest and I could actually relate to her.

Even on the subject of prayer - she takes a boat to an island near Bali. For 10 days, she lives by herself in isolation and for 10 days, she slowly but honestly reveals her wounds, anger, shame, and bitterness that is in her heart.
To whom?
To herself.
I was in awe. Sure, we all feel hurt or pain when something is happening to us. But for myself, I know I don't acknowledge it. I am a master of denial.

On the subject of love, she says how in the past, daughters were property for marriage. This has changed in the modern world and we, women, have learned to "find love" for ourselves. She points out, however, that in this discovery of autonomy, we have forgotten why it is that our fathers had so much control over who we married. It's because they wanted to make sure that we were going to a family where we would be provided for, and have a secure family. We forget to give that to ourselves and our autonomy results in us giving our hearts away easily.

If you know me, you know that I am one who has given my heart away many times.
Is that a good thing? or a bad thing?

Although a little dragged on, this book definitely gave me tons to reflect on.