Lets just say...it left a weird aftertaste. 
 This memoir can be described as a three-part travel diary, spanning a year's time with approximately 4 months each dedicated to covering the author's experiences in Italy, India, and Indonesia. On an emotional level, it's also following the recovery period of a successful, well-educated woman in her mid-thirties--who is in the process of re-examining herself while recovering from a messy divorce and subsequent rebound breakup. 
 As the book is divided into 3 parts, I thought it more fair to rate those parts separately: 
 Eat (Italy) - 4 Stars 
 Pray (India) - 2.5 Stars 
 Love (Indonesia) - 1.5 Stars 
 I personally found it a little off-putting that the author was paid upfront to travel to these locations with the expressed intent that she write this book. Most people have a memoir-worthy experience, and THEN it occurs to them they may have lived out a story that needs to be told. There seems a certain lack of authenticity for a person to be handed money and told to go out and have an intriguing adventure with the intention of profiting further from book sales. But maybe I'm just being cynical. 
 Another issue that bothered me came early on: when the author says her reasons for not wanting to be married anymore are "too personal and sad to share here." Really? In your own memoir? 
 I've heard the argument that all memoirs are narcissistic by default, but this is the first one I've read that truly felt that way. A skilled storyteller can focus on the story itself, even if it is about them. They don't -have- to get hung up on that particular detail. But Gilbert seems to be better suited as a travel guide queen. (Hence, the first 1/3rd of the book is particularly enjoyable, as it plays to her strengths.) She has a captivating and delightful way with words when it comes to food. I'll readily admit--by the end of the first leg of her journey, she made me want to lick the entire country of Italy. 
 But then the focus became less tangible and more religious. Gilbert begins as a self-defined 'cultural christian', acknowledging a refusal to "swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God." Through the last 2/3rds of the book, there is a decisive shift from her initial (and apparently inherited) state of spiritual constipation, to her becoming more of an emotional experience-chasing sensation addict with a religious patchwork worldview. I vacillated between feeling she was making good points, to feeling she'd missed the point altogether. The tiny sparks of 'enlightenment' never seemed to light a true fire. 
 While I did appreciate the author's clever, spry sense of humor, I found it difficult to like her as a person. (Now, I'm not comfortable with admitting this, as it would be much easier to say I dislike a fictional character rather than a real person.) She comes across as a whiny, entitled ingrate, with a conflicting case of high ego and low self-esteem. She does periodically seem to have a redeeming attack of guilt over her own shallowness, but moments of self-depreciating humor felt more like feigned humility. I spent much of the book wishing I could air-drop her into the middle of a 3rd world country--sans her precious writer's advance and ID. That's not to say there isn't at least some character development in her by the end of the account. But considering she starts out as a weepy, bathroom-dwelling, overly sanguine control-freak personality, there was plenty of room for growth. 
 Gilbert has a light and meandering prose--not at all unpleasant. She sets atmosphere well, and I was somewhat assuaged by her inclusion of quirky historical tidbits. Unfortunately, she has a tendency to repeat herself, especially when it comes to reiterating her own suffering.(Also, she doesn't seem to miss an opportunity to beat the reader over the head with snide political commentary, whilst condescending to the party opposite her preference.) It's not that Gilbert doesn't write well . . . it's more like too much of what she's written isn't really worth writing. To this reader, it seemed the most memorable takeaways came when she opted to quote other people. 
 In summary: I'll readily recommend the 'Eat' part of this book to anyone, but I lost interest shortly after we say goodbye to 'Richard from Texas' in part 2.