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Unlike most (perhaps all, so far) of the commentators here, I've actually read the book. Although probably not firmly in the demographic the publisher hoped to reach, I loved it
While acknowledging that any memoir is inherently narcissistic ("Hey Look at Me! My experiences and insights are worth publishing!"), there's clearly room within the genre for good introspection and schmaltzy introspection.
I always felt the vastly over-reated Year in Provence was an example of the latter. Eat, Pray, Love, fortunately, is a prime example of the former.
Of course, it's an unusual situation to have the resources and ability to spend a year finding balance abroad. It's also unusual to be President of the United States or a pro athlete or a world famous painter, but we read books about them all the time without resorting to some, jaded, mopey-teenager, auto-response: "Oh sure. It must be so hard having to make decisions which affect the whole of humanity. Well some of us don't have the opportunity to be president. What about a book about me?!"
If I were pitching this book to a publisher, I'd say it's part Bill Bryson's In a Sun Burnt Country, part Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountain. If you were irreperably turned off by the fact that Bryson got to travel around Australia on someone else's dime and you don't or that Paul Farmer (the subject of Kidder's wonderful book) decided to dedicate his life to helping the world's poor while you have responsibilities at home that prevent you from doing so, then please skip this book.
In an age when too many people in government, culture, religion, shout out that there's is the only answer to whatever big question you pose, Gilbert's thoughtful (while simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny) book about how she went about asking and (provisionally) answering questions of importance to all of us, is refreshing.
It's the readers here, who dismiss a book they haven't read because they think it has nothing to say to their particular life (which may or may not be true, of course) who are the narcissistic ones.
