I'M SERVING: FEIJOADA (BRAZILIAN BLACK BEAN STEW)
An old friend of mine (Macy O'Neal, holla!) recommended this to me, so I included it in my choice list when I hosted Bs&Cs last month. It won, so there you have it. Briefly, Elizabeth Gilbert goes through an horrific divorce, then spends a year finding out who she really is through the pursuit of pleasure in Italy, spirituality at an Indian ashram, and balance in Bali, Indonesia.
Interesting conversation on this one. Most of us agreed that the notion of taking a year off from life to explore oneself is basically that: a notion. Nothing any of us could conceive of actually doing, and not because we haven't wanted at some point to run away from life and start over. It seemed self-indulgent of Gilbert, who's in her 30s, to do what most twentysomethings are known for, but that could be sour grapes talking. Or just reality.
It was very interesting to have my mom in the room for this one, since she was divorced from my dad in her 30s. Since she had three children to look after, taking off for Rome definitely wasn't possible, but she said she really identified with Gilbert's need to establish a personal identity separate from being a wife/mother/daughter, etc. I found that fascinating in itself, since so many of my books deal with the heroine's search for her true identity. Hmm. Maybe divorce affected me in the same way, even though I was a teenager at the time.
Gilbert's personal odyssey introduces us to some interesting characters, most notably--for me, anyway--Richard from Texas, speaker of the most hilarious line in the book, a wonderful metaphor about mosquitoes that only a true Southerner could appreciate. The way they're presented, you'd want to meet these people yourself. Maybe Gilbert, too, although some of us considered her a bit too selfish for our taste--a nasty side effect of all that self-examination. Her style's fun, though, accessible and light. I hear there's a sequel coming out, so I might have to take another trip with her to find out what she's discovered now that she's found herself a second husband.
As a special bonus, our lovely hostesses packed little bags full of beads for us to string our own japa malas--Indian prayer beads that are symbolic of Gilbert's spiritual journey and the 108 vignette structure she borrowed for the book. (Interestingly enough, the same number of stitches in a baseball, as Annie Savoy reminds us in her "Church of Baseball" speech in the sports movie classic Bull Durham.) I spied a lovely set of lapis-colored beads as the basket was being passed around, and they were waiting for me when I finally got the basket at the end of the line.
Amazing how God works in little moments.
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