Well, I'm torn. After reading Eat, Pray, Love, I felt that I needed to read more Elizabeth Gilbert in order to decide how I felt about her tone....more Well, I'm torn. After reading Eat, Pray, Love, I felt that I needed to read more Elizabeth Gilbert in order to decide how I felt about her tone. I loved Eat, Pray, Love as a travel narrative / memoir, but when Gilbert starts explaining a historical / cultural reference, I sometimes feel like a third grader in the back of her elementary school class. I feel like she's at the same time talking down to me (assuming I will not have heard this interesting piece of information before) as using me (the reader) as her wall to bounce off disjointed ideas.
I began reading Committed during my engagement in hopes of a good read that addressed the fears and concerns that surround the ceremony of marriage. But all in all, it didn't do it for me. What kept me going was the Gilbert's struggle to marry Felipe (Jose, in real life?). Struggle as in, he's not a U.S. citizen and is deported early in the book. Gilbert must either marry him (something the couple has previously chosen not to do) or risk him never being allowed in the US again. So, essentially what interested me was: Eat, Pray, Love: Part II.
To be fair, there are a handful of beautiful interviews. Gilbert, while awaiting Felipe's deportation status, travels through Eastern Asia. The most powerful scenes are moments when she's interviewing local Asian woman about their thoughts on marriage. Similarly, there are a handful of fascinating facts and historical anecdotes about marriage. But, marriage is a heavy and vastly historical institution. How can someone attempt to reconcile her own thoughts about marriage while also attempting to trace the full historical scope?
All and all, this is the primary issue I take with Committed: it's not relatable. How many women out there are divorced famous writers dating a Brazilian man with Australian citizenship who is being extradited back to wherever. No one. No one but Elizabeth Gilbert, the person who sees fit to write the book Committed. This book in no way speaks to the average woman of any nationality. Gilbert is totally in her own head on this one.
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I was surprised to see how many people gave this book a low rating, but thinking back on it, I can understand certain (or even most) readers's negativ...moreI was surprised to see how many people gave this book a low rating, but thinking back on it, I can understand certain (or even most) readers's negative response to Gilbert's more self-absorbed moments. I can't decide myself if Gilbert is, at times, trying to be just relentlessly honest so as to paint the most accurate description of not-so-pretty moments, or if she really is that self-absorbed. I feel like I'll need to read another book or two by her to decide.
This is also certainly not an experience that I feel like I can relate to. I mean sure, I love travelling, but very few people can decide they are unhappy and just jump on a plane to Italy. This was only possible because Gilbert was already a successful writer and so could make that kind of self-righteous journey. Most people never have a year's worth of time or resources to go "find themselves."
I'm choosing to give this book a high rating because despite my reservations about Gilbert's tone and sometimes irrational immaturity given her age and success (again, should I admire her honesty?), I felt like a part of Gilbert's journey all throughout Italy, India, and Bali. The dialogue she constructs for the characters is a bit long winded and overdone at times, but she does well to reinvent the accents and dialects of her characters. I also found her insights into yogic mediations and Baliese rituals and cultural traditions to be beautifully written and terribly interesting. I also believe that her maturity develops throughout the book. Yes, at the beginning, Gilbert is self-absorbed and pathetic, but isn't that the point? She sets out on this journey to transform herself into a different person, and over the course of the book finds herself in situations to help others, and with each week that passes, she becomes more and mores self-aware and "balanced," and so by the end, she worries less about herself and focuses more being a part of a community.(less)
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