COMMITTED by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, 2010)
As a fan of Gilbert’s mega-jumbo-hit memoir EAT, PRAY, LOVE (by all accounts a tough act to follow) I was ready to adore her latest non-fiction piece about marriage. As casualties of ugly failed first marriages, Gilbert and her (new) lover swear that they will never marry again, until they are forced to marry in order to accommodate Felipe’s entry visa to the United States. The book is a drawn out justification of how Gilbert overcomes this major philosophical hurdle where, page after sometimes tedious page, she overthinks and overcooks marriage to its very skeletal core. While Gilbert is a gifted and witty writer, she tries to create drama and intrigue where there is none. Instead, the reader is left to mull over the obvious, reading pedantic passages on the history and anthropology of marriage. In the end, the book feels forced and lacks the instinct and genuine exuberance that characterized EAT, PRAY, LOVE. Alas, you can’t win them all (6/10).
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