This book has been in the back of my mind for a very long time. A while ago I was interested in reading it, but then looked at reviews online and the many negative ones made me think this one wouldn’t be for me. I’m actually glad I finally read it, though. It’s a memoir. This woman had a painful, messy divorce and then jumped into a new relationship too fast, which eventually floundered but she couldn’t end it cleanly. Decided (on a whim it sounds like) to take a break from life as it were, and sort out her internal priorities. She spent a year travelling- four months each in Italy, India and Bali (island in Indonesia). Her basic goals were to indulge in pleasure in Italy (via food), immerse herself in the spiritual in India, and find some balance in Bali. I was impressed that she worked to learn the language before and during her stay in Italy. That she spent most of her time in India in an ashram, following the teachings of a guru, doing meditation, periods of silence, and service (this varied from scrubbing floors to being a guide and hostess to new arrivals who were attending a retreat at the ashram. The whole time she is searching for a spiritual experience, but it doesn’t come in the way she expects. Finally, she journeys to Bali where she spends her time between visiting a medicine man and hanging out with a traditional healer who becomes her friend, but then it gets a bit messy in the end when she asks people back home for donations online to help this woman buy a house . . . Through it all, she’s really doing a ton of navel-gazing, trying to understand her past actions and straighten herself out for the future. Soul searching, I guess. I thought this would put me off- the details about culture and scenery in these far away places she visited might be a lot more interesting than internal monologues or conversations with herself via writing in a journal.
But not at all. I found her struggles so very relatable, even though she’s a very different type of person than me. The honesty and humor won me over, I liked the writing style, I found all the people she met and friends she made interesting too. Even the parts about meditation and religious experiences in India were thoughtful to read about, while I don’t consider myself a religious person anymore. This book had similarlites in my mind to both Richard Bach (somebody is probably cringing at that) and Tracks– because it’s about a single woman travelling? Not sure. Maybe the voice. So while I don’t agree with or understand all the author’s opinions and means in this book, it was a good read regardless. Sometimes seeing opposite ways that other people view the world is just so interesting. And I didn’t mention yet- in the final part of the book, she falls in love with a Brazilian man. One of a group of ex-pats. I expected I was going to find that part boring, but the storytelling was still good. I am interested in seeing the movie now, just don’t know when.
It didn’t come across as terribly whiny to me, though I can see why other readers felt so. I did get annoyed at how she kept referring to herself as an “old woman” in her thirties! Please! I’m in my forties and don’t feel old yet.
