Committed is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love. Liz tells the true story of her life: a divorced woman with no desire whatsoever to get remarried, who met a man with the exact circumstances and views about marriage. They fell deeply in love, and committed to each other without the need for a ceremony or vows, both knowing how difficult, messy and draining divorce can be on two people. But here's the catch, Liz's lover, Felipe, is Brazilian and a citizen of Austrailia. Felipe was staying in America with Liz for 90 days at a time, and would leave the country and return again, for 90 more days, as to follow the visa laws of the United States. However, on one trip into the country, Felipe was detained, questioned, and then arrested and asked to leave the country. He was forbidden to return until the two of them obtained a Fiance Visa, and then returned to get married.
Needless to say, Liz was not happy with this arrangement at first, but learned to accept it in order to be with Felipe. She spends the most of the book telling the reader about different types of marriages she has researched, and she spoke with people from different cultures to try to understand how marriage is done in different parts of the world.
I took issue with a lot of this book. First off, if you are that much in love with someone as she claims to be with Felipe, getting married should not provide the same effect as a death sentence. I felt that Liz was extremely overdramatic throughout the book. Felipe was made to leave the country, and yes, that does suck, but Liz went with him, and they traveled through Southeast Asia for most of the time that he wasn't allowed in America! Somehow that doesn't seem so bad to me.
Secondly, I felt the book was very self-indulgent. Liz kept trying to figure out how to create her marriage and make it work. Yes, I understand that marriage is a very complicated subject, and many people do it very different ways. I do not believe that Liz needed to spend 279 pages trying to make up the rules for her own marriage. I believe that is something that the readers did not really need to hear about at length.
Third, the book does not read like most stories, even when they are about real life. Liz put so much historical information about marriage and many statistics in the book that at times it felt like work to read. Don't get me wrong, I like learning about history as much as the next person, but when I am expecting to read a memoir-type book, I do not want to have to read a textbook.
There were a few things I liked about this book. Liz's interviews with people from other cultures about marriage were fascinating to me. Also the stories about her family and the marriages that took place through the generations were very interesting. The ideas about marriage and how it has changed through history were good too, but less would have sufficed.
Overall, it seemed like Liz was reaching to come up with enough to fill up a book. I got the impression that she wrote a book because she knew people would buy it because the success of Eat, Pray, Love, and it was lacking in quality. Her relationship with Felipe was not interesting enough to hold my attention for long, and the truly interesting parts of this book were few and far betweeen. I had to push myself to finish this book, which generally isn't a good sign. I don't think I would recommend this book, unless someone was planning on getting married and really wanted to know the history of marriage throughout different parts of the world, and more specifically in America. However, I don't think I know anyone like that.
Needless to say, Liz was not happy with this arrangement at first, but learned to accept it in order to be with Felipe. She spends the most of the book telling the reader about different types of marriages she has researched, and she spoke with people from different cultures to try to understand how marriage is done in different parts of the world.
I took issue with a lot of this book. First off, if you are that much in love with someone as she claims to be with Felipe, getting married should not provide the same effect as a death sentence. I felt that Liz was extremely overdramatic throughout the book. Felipe was made to leave the country, and yes, that does suck, but Liz went with him, and they traveled through Southeast Asia for most of the time that he wasn't allowed in America! Somehow that doesn't seem so bad to me.
Secondly, I felt the book was very self-indulgent. Liz kept trying to figure out how to create her marriage and make it work. Yes, I understand that marriage is a very complicated subject, and many people do it very different ways. I do not believe that Liz needed to spend 279 pages trying to make up the rules for her own marriage. I believe that is something that the readers did not really need to hear about at length.
Third, the book does not read like most stories, even when they are about real life. Liz put so much historical information about marriage and many statistics in the book that at times it felt like work to read. Don't get me wrong, I like learning about history as much as the next person, but when I am expecting to read a memoir-type book, I do not want to have to read a textbook.
There were a few things I liked about this book. Liz's interviews with people from other cultures about marriage were fascinating to me. Also the stories about her family and the marriages that took place through the generations were very interesting. The ideas about marriage and how it has changed through history were good too, but less would have sufficed.
Overall, it seemed like Liz was reaching to come up with enough to fill up a book. I got the impression that she wrote a book because she knew people would buy it because the success of Eat, Pray, Love, and it was lacking in quality. Her relationship with Felipe was not interesting enough to hold my attention for long, and the truly interesting parts of this book were few and far betweeen. I had to push myself to finish this book, which generally isn't a good sign. I don't think I would recommend this book, unless someone was planning on getting married and really wanted to know the history of marriage throughout different parts of the world, and more specifically in America. However, I don't think I know anyone like that.
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