Last modified: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 1:08 AM EDT THE READING ROOM: Little fulfillment in 'Eat, Pray, Love' BY KATHY HICKMAN/FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE For months now, Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" has been prominently displayed in bookstores throughout the country. The book jacket describes it as "a meditation on love in its many forms." Writer Ann Lamott calls it "brilliant and personal, rich in spiritual insight." It's a bestseller that has garnered recommendations from the lips of unexpected readers and respected friends. And yet whenever I contemplated picking it up, I felt a tight knot of resistance. More than once I added the book to my Amazon cart, only to delete it at the last moment. Was it the unfortunate plethora of sham memoirs that explained my mistrust? My admittedly snobbish bias about "bestsellers" in a mass market? (Hmmm. I didn't feel that way about "Three Cups of Tea") When I caught five minutes of the dazzling blond author before an adoring audience on "Oprah," was it jealousy that made me wince, or annoyance at sensing the marketing of yet another new motivational guru? I decided I had to find out for myself. Backstory: It is 2003, and Gilbert, an award-winning writer in her early 30s, is divorced, depressed and unhealthily addicted to a new lover. In the depths of despair, she begins a search for God and, ultimately, herself. She plans a yearlong restorative trip that converges around a trio of desires: Seeking "the art of pleasure" in Italy ("Eat"), "the art of devotion" in India ("Pray"), and in Indonesia, "the art of balancing the two." ("Love"). She tells us, "I wanted to thoroughly explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country," and adds, "In advance, my publisher has purchased the book I shall write about my travels." Much as I try to suspend judgment, this set-up already sounds contrived. Book 1: Italy I'm relieved to find Gilbert a zesty, engaging writer and wonderfully descriptive traveling companion. Like a high-octane Erma Bombeck, Gilbert spices her neurotic broodings with self-deprecating humor. But far too often, the "pleasures" of Italy are overwhelmed by Gilbert's endless litany of self-absorbed relationship woes. My problem here, I realize, is that with all the hype, I am expecting something deeper. Soon, as the author herself laments, "I'm exhausted by the cumulative consequences of (her) lifetime of hasty choices and chaotic passions." Book II: India This section undergoes a subtle tone change. Gilbert has reached her guru's ashram in India. Here she seeks a resolution of her "anger, sadness and shame," and a deeper relationship with God. As she immerses herself in a rigorous regimen of work and prayer, her scorching honesty about the difficulties of sitting in meditation is reassuring for those of us who struggle with it. I begin to feel a tentative connection. In my 30s and 40s, I, too, took roads less traveled to numerous spiritual workshops, retreats and conferences in search of truth and inner peace. And like Gilbert, I experienced an unforgettable moment of infinite oneness with the universe at a Zen monastery much closer to home. Thus while reading "India," I sense in Gilbert a potential spiritual companion. Book III: Indonesia So I am on a mild high as I leave the Ashram and fly, with Elizabeth, into blissful Bali. These four months mark a free and "radically peaceful episode" in Gilbert's life. The intensity of the ashram is forgotten as she explores Balinese culture and customs and shares her life with the island's healers, hotel workers and expatriates. I know from her appearance on "Oprah" that in Bali she will meet an exceptional man who will change the direction of her life. I am eager to meet him, too, as I anticipate Book III to be the culmination of her journey and the distillation of her hard won wisdom and spiritual enlightenment. Eventually, a Brazilian expatriate named Felipe suggests that she "take a lover" while in Bali, as there are many who "would be happy to see to it that she'd have a wonderful summer." To my utter disbelief, Felipe himself, despite Gilbert's avowed desire to maintain celibacy during her year of travel, proceeds to seduce her. And she happily succumbs. I am deflated. For me, Gilbert's odyssey ends not in "spiritual depth" but in the thrall of yet another new love affair. Facing me as I turn the final page is an ad for "more from Elizabeth Gilbert" - more travel and "a memoir about her unexpected journey into second marriage." Is her life driving these books, or are the books powering her life? "The Balinese quite literally live off their image of being the world's most peaceful and devotional and artistically expressive people," Gilbert muses, " but how much of that is intrinsic and how much of that is economically calculated?" Sadly, I can't help but wonder the same about "Eat, Pray, Love." KATHY HICKMAN can be contacted via e-mail at news@thesunchronicle.com.