Elizabeth Gilbert is enjoying a successful magazine writing career as she turns 30 and has to face up to her youthful determination to begin a family at that age. She cannot get excited about children, knows it is unfair to have them otherwise, and loves/hates the man she marries too young and uncritically. Having been brought up in a rarely-practicing Protestant family, Liz has no spiritual support as she goes into crisis, leaving her never-named husband, who demonizes her and thwarts her efforts to part amiably. After a near suicide, she begins therapy and antidepressants. She also falls into the arms of an actor/writer who first introduces her to yoga. Liz feels instantly drawn to the photograph of David's Indian Guru and resolves to study at her ashram.
All of these elements combine to produce this richly entertaining and thought-provoking book. Liz knows how to craft scenes and story lines. She finds that she believes in God, but in no denominational way. She apologizes to fundamentalists of all stripes but strives to show the rich tapestry of religious experience and how it coincides nicely with psychology. Liz accepts that some people cannot "cherry-pick" religion, but believes that is right for her and many others. Liz loves to eat, to travel, and to make new friends. She talks a lot about the art of traveling, which could help some readers. She learns to accept her past, not worry about the future, and to live in the moment. She appreciates how the Christian West has participated in the universal quest for transcendence and only chides a bit about the Inquisition. She clearly wants to break down religious walls so the Hopi Indian vision of all the threads of religion coming together into the rope that pulls humankind to the next reality can be fulfilled.
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