Eat, Pray, Love, Rant.

Yes, I know, it’s rich to start posting about the next book on the bookclub list when you haven’t even read it yet! Our September-October pick is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Now, for various reasons, I come into this book with a lot of bias. Why? I’m not exactly sure, but I have a bias towards this book. My friend who recommended this book loves it and it is a book that she feels strongly about and that helped her through a very difficult time in her life. I want to keep an open mind so I can come to the book with no expectations and just let the experience of the book wash over me as I read.

I think my real problem comes from the description on the back of the book. The summary says that the author “…had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want – husband, country home, successful career….” Now, I am not American, but let us, for the purposes of this post, presume that the term is intended to mean North Americans as opposed to merely Americans from the United States of America. At any rate, who decided that this is what I am supposed to want? That this is what is supposed to make me happy? Sure, some women would be happy with those things; others may define success and happiness differently.

What really gets me on edge is this creation of an “ideal” by, well, by whom? Who decided to tell me what I am supposed to want? Who died and made this imaginary person boss? How arrogant to lump all women together into one category and to imply that all they need to be happy are a husband, successful career, and home. Happiness is not defined by what you have but by what you are. And I don’t need the summary on a back of a book to tell me that, or to define what I am supposed to want.

That is where my problem lies – the fact that Elizabeth Gilbert is rebelling against an artificial construct. So you feel trapped – because what you have what you’re “supposed” to want. Well, by lumping all women together into this artificial definition, and defining yourself by an imaginary standard, of course you’re going to feel trapped! If anything, Elizabeth Gilbert defines this by “running away” from her supposed “picture-perfect” life to find what she really wants. If she’d only realized before that the standard of what she’s supposed to want is to be set by her, and not by some magical and unseen “them”, she probably wouldn’t have needed to write the book.

So it's not really the book that I'm biased against, it's the marketing of the book that is giving me problems. At any rate, once I finally get to the book, I will try to leave my bias at the inanity of some artificial construct telling me what I’m supposed to want, and just enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert’s quest for her own personal happiness. I want to give the book a fair chance and I will try really hard to leave my own bias behind while I’m reading it.