Eat Pray Hate

I love reading. I'm one of those people who would rather curl up with a good book than go to a movie, have a night out on the town or watch television. (If it were not for television's vital role in keeping Elijah occupied while I read the newspaper each morning, I'd be perfectly happy if we didn't even own one.)

So it goes without saying that I will read virtually any book that lands in my lap.

The problem is that a lot of crap lands in my lap. And much of it is straight off the best-seller list.

This is no surprise to the literary crowd, most of whom would not be caught dead reading a best-seller (or anything that included cliches like "would not be caught dead.") But I'm not part of the literary crowd, either by training or association. So I just bumble my way through bookstores and libraries, grabbing titles that look interesting or have been filed away in my brain after I read a review.

And so it is that I recently read, back to back, two books whose very juxtaposition in my reading lineup was startling, and insightful.

The books are "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert and "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Both made the New York Times best-seller list, for whatever that's worth. But the similarities end there.

Rather than drag down this posting with paragraph after paragraph of my own observations, I'll just let the back cover blurbs from each book speak for themselves.

From "Infidel":

"One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened that she would be next. She made headlines again when she was stripped of her citizenship and resigned from the Dutch Parliment.

" 'Infidel' shows the coming of age of this distinguished political superstar and champion of free speech as well as the development of her beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to fight injustice. Raised in a strict Muslim family, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries ruled largely by despots. She escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Musilm women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliment. Under constant threat, demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from family and clan, she refuses to be silenced."

It goes on, but you get the idea.

Compare that to the descripton of "Eat Pray Love," which I foolishly grabbed from a bookstore display for no better reason than (I cannot believe I'm admitting this) I saw lots of people reading it in airports:

"In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want -- husband, country home, successful career -- but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence."

It goes on, but you get the idea. Again and again.

It's not that Gilbert isn't a good writer. She is. And if you're going to write in the travel-as-self-discovery genre, the result is, by default, rather self-absorbed. That's kind of the point.

But to read Gilbert's book, then immediately follow it with Hirsi Ali's (I seldom wait more than a day between books), is to be slapped in the face with a literary example of, as everyone said in those weeks after Sept. 11, "why they hate us." Never have I seen the vast gulf between contemporary American life and the horrors of life in many African and Arab cultures (particularly for women) so strikingly presented. And the fact that so many Americans seem to be reading "Eat Pray Love," (in airports, anyway) instead of "Infidel" does not bode well for our understanding of what we are up against in terms of radical Islam versus the West (Yes, I know many commentators rant about what an oversimplification that is, but this is my blog. Get over it.).

So if you're looking for a valuable way to spend your reading time, please consider "Infidel."

On the other hand, if you just want brainless beach-blanket fare (assuming that you've already finished "The Da Vinci Code"), then by all means dive into "Eat Pray Love."

There are plenty of copies at the airport.