At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous horrific divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which—after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing—gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert's trademark wit, intelligence and compassion, Committed attempts to "turn on all the lights" when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert's memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.
CommittedA Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage
Elizabeth Gilbert
eMusic Review 0
01.08.10
Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed
2010 | Label: Penguin Audio
The author of the megahit Eat, Pray, Love returns to make peace with marriage
Four years after publishing her mega bestseller, Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert returns with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. Here she tells the story of her unexpected marriage to her lover, Felipe, the Brazilian gem-dealer that she meets at the end of Eat, Pray, Love. Both divorced and having sworn off legal marriage for good, the two find themselves forced to marry, lest Felipe never be able to enter the United States again. It's a sort of shotgun wedding, with the Department of Homeland Security acting as the forceful father.
The intricacies of their sentenced marriage scaffold Gilbert's memoir, around which she dives deep into all aspects of the enduring institution. She interviews wives and mothers from all over the globe, conducts historical and academic research, and explores her own family's matrimonial lineage. Gilbert intimately navigates through theories of compatibility, tales of infatuation, studies of cultural mores, myths of family values and statistics of divorce. Though Gilbert maintains her own aversion to marriage, the process of such comprehensive investigation affords her with a newfound respect and awe for the tradition. Narrated by the author herself, with her soothing voice and impeccable pacing, Committed is a book whose virtues — chatty narrative, witty asides, poignant confessions — benefit greatly from being read aloud.