Never thought I’d say this, but Julia Roberts in the upcoming movie “Eat, Pray, Love” sounds a whole lot better than Gilbert’s book.    Not a fan of angst and padded memoirs, I choked on the book –read for a book club discussion – and cringed at the “ladies’ ” reactions to the character/author looking for love in all the wrong places.   As a travelogue, the book was better – especially as she ate her way through Italy.

And who wouldn’t want to be played on screen by Julia Roberts? In reading the New York Times article about her – “Mother and Mega-Star, Happily Balanced,”

I was wishing Roberts had written the book.   I finally get it when she noted – “ We all kind of have that moment in our lives… sometimes it’s just for a weekend, or a month, or even a year, when you think, ‘there’s no way out.’   You have to learn to find peace within yourself to exorcise that restlessness and judgment.  You have to learn, ‘Why can’t I just be happy with my life?’ “

Much better said than anything in the Gilbert book, but then the book – Eat, Pray, Love – was all about Gilbert– and it came out more selfish than introspective and inspiring.  Maybe the movie will be better.

Ah – eat Italian, pray for better memoirs, and love Julia Roberts.