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A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
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.
"The good news is her voice is clear and winning. The bad news is the structure doesn't work. Part history, part travelogue, Committed often makes for a jumpy read." - Publishers Weekly
"A vaguely depressing account of how intimate relationships are complicated by marriage, divorce and expectations about both." - Kirkus Reviews
"Austere ruminations... make us wonder why, exactly, she's chosen to marry again, and Committed feels, in part, like a she-doth-protest-too-much justification. But Gilbert has given the antiquated institution a thorough once-over, and the clear-eyed primer is a must-read for any modern woman contemplating a trip down the aisle." - Marie Claire
"There are a few memorable vignettes, but it’s mostly a skim-the-surface tour of marriage through the ages. It lacks wisdom. It’s dull. There's nothing to connect the reader to Gilbert." - Head Butler.
"She makes writing a book sound like busywork... the strain is as palpable as the voice is cute, and the drama is virtually nonexistent." - New York Times
"The problem is that this is a first-person account and the subject is love, and her life. She tells readers that she loves Felipe, but nowhere does she show a truly unique, poignant moment. She talks of her anguish about marriage, but it is never proved in the actions between them." - Los Angeles Times
This information about Committed was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of ten books — including Eat Pray Love and Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear — which altogether have sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Elizabeth grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm, then attended New York University, where she studied political science by day and worked on her short stories by night.
After college, she spent several years traveling around the country, working in bars, diners and ranches, collecting experiences to transform into fiction.
These explorations eventually formed the basis of her first book – a short story collection called Pilgrims, which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award, and which moved Annie Proulx to call her "a young writer of incandescent...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Elizabeth Gilbert's Website
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