Oh boy. I find almost every other book to be overrated. I nitpick too much. I think too much. In this case, therefore, I'll write down the name of the last overrated book I read.
Eat, Pray, Love. Enthused by my love for Julia Roberts and because several of my colleagues recommended this book highly, I bought it. I read most of it sitting in the women's waiting room of the Lucknow railway station and the resultant reaction was a resounding meh. It was such a typically American view of the world around and I have been so thoroughly exposed to the American worldview through popular culture, that the book had absolutely nothing new to offer. Of course, there were other problems, but the book doesn't even rile me enough for them to be written down. Meh.
2 comments:
Are you an American? Have you lived in the US? What the hell is a typical American viewpoint?
It's a different matter altogether that Liz Gilbert is self-absorbed and a bad writer but I just don't understand over-generalizing statement like this.
No, I'm not an american. And no, I haven't lived in the U.S. When I said an American point of view, I meant that the author behaved exactly in the way I expected an average American to behave (based on my knowledge of America as I know from TV). E.g., oooh India, the land of yoga. Or, oooh Italy, the land of hot men. I think every community has an average point of view. For example, the average Indian point of view would be 'ooooh graduate from an IIT!' or 'oooooh! shahrukh khan!' Not every Indian will have this outlook, but a substantial majority will. Having said that, let me also add that an average person's point of view isn't necessarily wrong or derogatory. It's just been done to death.
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