Eat Pray Love

What I'm Reading ATM.

It's only taken me about two months to read Indigenous Australian Alexis Wright's Carpentaria.

When it comes to reading anything, my philosophy is; 'never give up'.

Set in a fictitious location in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the introduction to the characters  of Desperance is colourful and captivating.

The reader meets with an Aboriginal 'fish taxidermist' extraordinaire  who becomes estranged not only from his wife but also his son.

After the introductions, I think the book falters a little but perseverance pays off and I'm taken on a fantastical journey which I can only liken to a mixture of myth, fiction, fact and legend that only an Indigenious Australian deeply entrenched in The Dreaming can impart.

I liken Wrights' work to an Indigenious Australian's Patrick White style of writing.

This is a poetic work that raises numerous cultural, social, ethical, environmental, ecological and political issues caused not only by white man's presence in a unique environment but including the impact of mining on the Aboriginal's way of life.

Having spent time in northern Australia last year (I lived in a tent from June to August travelling from Broome to Karumba) I had hoped  to travel to Weipa but never arrived there. 

Altogether we spent five months on the road and although this was long enough to see the vast variances in Indigenous Australians' life styles, it definitely was not long enough to even begin to understand the extent of the loss of the continuity of culture and land has had on today's Aboriginals.

The characters' names are ingenious in themselves and I believe make a statement on their own.

Normal Phantom, Angel Day, Will Phantom, Truthful, Mozzie Fishman, Joseph Midnight are just a few of the oddly named characters in this work.

If you can stick it out, this is a thought provoking novel still very relevant to today's Australia. 

A more light-hearted read is Eat Pray Love an autobiographical work by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I'm presently reading about the 'pray' bit and Gilbert's life in an Indian Ashram.

Reading about how she spends hours scrubbing the Ashram's temple floor as meditation inspired me to scrub my entire en-suite bathroom today.

I reckoned that if I could offer it up as meditation I perhaps could tackle a job that has been begging to be completed for some weeks now.  I even washed the curtains and cleaned the curtain rail!

If nothing else, I have that to thank Gilbert for. (Oh, and to realise I'm not the only one who has trouble meditating because my mind wanders off to places it shouldn't.)

The 'eat' bit does raise some ethical questions about the right for women to be able to make any choice they seem fit to make and not have to follow a predetermined path just because of their gender.

I have yet to read the 'love' bit.

Although I haven't seen the movie, I'm sure the book would make a great 'chick flick'.

Finished reading Eat Pray Love before actually publishing this post...the final section on LOVE gives a great insight to the culture and a brief history of the Balinese.

Meditation spoken of in layman's terms is a big part of this part of the book. 

I'm looking forward to reading the follow up Committed.

An easy read and much more insightful than I expected.