Book description
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 survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But
providence intervened one day in the form of the U. S. government, who -
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 completely into this topic, trying with all her might to
discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal
reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.
The result is Committed
- a witty and intelligent contemplation
of marriage that debunks myths, unthreads fears and suggests that
sometimes even the most romantic of souls must trade in her amorous
fantasies for the humbling responsibility of adulthood. Gilbert's
memoir - destined to become a cherished handbook for any thinking
person hovering on the verge of marriage - is ultimately a clear-eyed
celebration of love, with all the complexity and consequence that real
love, in the real world, actually entails. â  Insightful ... She
speaks for many who question the bliss in conjugal bonds, or, at least,
those who want to understand how the tradition still perpetuates. For
better or worse'
Elizabeth Gilbert is an
award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her short
story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the
PEN/Hemingway award, and her novel Stern Men was a New
York Times notable book. In 2002, she published The Last
American Man,
which was a finalist for both the
National Book Award and the National
Book Critics Circle
Award. She is best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray,
Love,
which was published in over thirty languages and
sold more than seven
million copies worldwide. The film,
released in 2010, stars Julia
Roberts and Javier Bardem.
Elizabeth Gilbert lives in New Jersey, USA.
