Committed: Review
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Book Review
Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, lets us take a peak into her personal sphere once again with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (also sometimes called Committed: A Love Story).
If you haven't read Eat Pray Love, what are you waiting for, girl? Get off the couch and run, do not walk, to your local library or bookstore or friend's overstocked home library and check this book out! And, no, the movie will not do - I love Julia Roberts as much as the next person and Javier (need we say more...) - but books are always better than movies, sweet reader - without exception. Eat Pray Love is the story of a woman (coincidentally - the author) who, newly divorced, decides to give up everything to get back to her true self through travel to Italy, India and Bali. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but she encounters food, spiritual enlightenment and love on her journey.
Okay, now that I have set the stage for "Committed", Gilbert as narrator/protagonist, falls in love with a man she refers to as 'Felipe' while in Bali - a Brazilian-born Australian citizen who travels the world buying jewels. As they navigate their relationship, Gilbert's newest novel, a little-known book called Eat Pray Love, will soon become a success but has not yet. She is living predominantly in the US, writing, teaching, living in hotels, traveling and making a life with Felipe. Both emotionally scarred by divorce, they vow to be together forever but neither are interested in marriage.
Things change, however, on a trip back into the US when Felipe is arrested by Homeland Security and deported to Australia. Although he has done everything right, he cannot enter the US again unless he and Gilbert marry and he becomes a US citizen.
Gilbert agrees to marry Felipe and begins a quest to research what marriage means and where she fits into this social construct. With Felipe's livelihood in jeopardy, they head to Asia, where they can live together until they can navigate the legal system, file the necessary paperwork, and return to the States together.
This book is well-written, heartfelt, eye-opening, delightful. and well-researched. She turns over every rock to understand the legal and spiritual constructs of marriage, what marriage means to different cultures around the world and how it has changed throughout history. She talks with people from various cultures about what marriage means to them socially, personally and financially. Is it marriage that constructs you or do you construct marriage? In the end, the love she feels for Felipe changes her mind about marriage and she commits to doing everything she can to ensure they can be together.
Like her previous writings, Committed is a story about love told by an extraordinary narrator. She takes the reader on adventures to far-off lands with public buses loaded with chickens hurtling down mountain-side roads and stories of monks who check email at internet cafes - who could make this stuff up? Gilbert is real, honest, intelligent, hilarious and amazing. I loved this book, in part because of how skilled Gilbert is at describing place, emotion and fact. As a reader, I am committed to Gilbert.
Verdict - highly recommend picking this up this instant - seriously. And pick up Eat Pray Love while you are out.
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Book Review Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, lets us take a peak into her personal sphere once again with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (also sometimes called Committed: A Love Story).
If you haven't read Eat Pray Love, what are you waiting for, girl? Get off the couch and run, do not walk, to your local library or bookstore or friend's overstocked home library and check this book out! And, no, the movie will not do - I love Julia Roberts as much as the next person and Javier (need we say more...) - but books are always better than movies, sweet reader - without exception. Eat Pray Love is the story of a woman (coincidentally - the author) who, newly divorced, decides to give up everything to get back to her true self through travel to Italy, India and Bali. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but she encounters food, spiritual enlightenment and love on her journey.
Okay, now that I have set the stage for "Committed", Gilbert as narrator/protagonist, falls in love with a man she refers to as 'Felipe' while in Bali - a Brazilian-born Australian citizen who travels the world buying jewels. As they navigate their relationship, Gilbert's newest novel, a little-known book called Eat Pray Love, will soon become a success but has not yet. She is living predominantly in the US, writing, teaching, living in hotels, traveling and making a life with Felipe. Both emotionally scarred by divorce, they vow to be together forever but neither are interested in marriage.
Things change, however, on a trip back into the US when Felipe is arrested by Homeland Security and deported to Australia. Although he has done everything right, he cannot enter the US again unless he and Gilbert marry and he becomes a US citizen.
Gilbert agrees to marry Felipe and begins a quest to research what marriage means and where she fits into this social construct. With Felipe's livelihood in jeopardy, they head to Asia, where they can live together until they can navigate the legal system, file the necessary paperwork, and return to the States together.
This book is well-written, heartfelt, eye-opening, delightful. and well-researched. She turns over every rock to understand the legal and spiritual constructs of marriage, what marriage means to different cultures around the world and how it has changed throughout history. She talks with people from various cultures about what marriage means to them socially, personally and financially. Is it marriage that constructs you or do you construct marriage? In the end, the love she feels for Felipe changes her mind about marriage and she commits to doing everything she can to ensure they can be together.
Like her previous writings, Committed is a story about love told by an extraordinary narrator. She takes the reader on adventures to far-off lands with public buses loaded with chickens hurtling down mountain-side roads and stories of monks who check email at internet cafes - who could make this stuff up? Gilbert is real, honest, intelligent, hilarious and amazing. I loved this book, in part because of how skilled Gilbert is at describing place, emotion and fact. As a reader, I am committed to Gilbert.
Verdict - highly recommend picking this up this instant - seriously. And pick up Eat Pray Love while you are out.
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