Not a reflection on the quality of Committed, but just something I thought of when I started reading it: I feel like the premise of the book could be tweaked a bit to make it into an obnoxious little romantic comedy starring one of those actresses that do “quirky” roles. Elizabeth Gilbert, successful journalist and bestselling author, never wants to get married again! Until a US immigration officer gives her a deadline: Get married in the next year or be an exile forever! If this were a movie, she would spend the year meeting wildly unsuitable guys and ignoring her bland but adorable next-door-neighbor/coworker/classmate, before finally realizing that her heart’s desire was in her own backyard.
That’s not really the plot though. Gilbert is in a serious long-term relationship with Felipe from Eat Pray Love, and neither of them wants marriage. Felipe gets told by immigration he can’t keep coming back into the country for ninety days and then leaving, ninety days and then leaving, and if he wants to stay, he should just marry Liz Gilbert. And then she spends the year reading all about marriage.
I find this endearing because I expect that’s exactly what I would do. In fact that’s what I do do. When I feel suspicious of something, I go a-hunting for things to read about it. In a-hunting down the facts in the case of De Profundis, I discovered Oscar Wilde was a screaming over-dramatizer. In a-hunting down the facts about the oral polio vaccine, I discovered the only correlation between it and AIDS was geographical (like, the places that had medical facilities giving out the oral polio vaccine were the same places where AIDS was getting diagnosed more frequently). In a-hunting down the facts about free speech as it applies to corporations – I am still looking into that actually. It is very complicated and makes me feel stupid but I will persist because if Justice Stevens (my favorite Justice, y’all, because he is old and extremely brilliant and he wears a bow-tie) feels it is worth a ninety-page dissent, then I suspect it is worth a ninety-page dissent.
(Yes, I have a favorite Supreme Court Justice. DEAL WITH IT.)
(That last thing, DEAL WITH IT, that was a Better Off Ted reference. Any of y’all watch Better Off Ted? Will anyone besides me miss it when it inevitably gets cancelled?)
Gilbert writes about speaking to wives in other countries, as well as to the wives in her own family, about their experiences of marriage. She writes about the strain on her relationship with Felipe as a result of their being in limbo. (She wants to travel to Cambodia, and he wants to settle somewhere and have a coffeepot. I am totally with him.) Although this book is not as full of action as Eat Pray Love, Gilbert’s wry wit is still in evidence. She’s a little bit crazy, but she knows that she is crazy, and in what ways, which is nearly as good as not being crazy in the first place. Plus? She doesn’t talk trash about her family. Hurrah!
If I had one complaint, it would be that there is not enough of Gilbert talking to people. She is good at capturing voices, just like John Berendt, and she should do it more frequently. Indeed all the time. If I were in charge of the world, that’s what would happen.
Read for the Women Unbound Challenge.
Other reviews:
Confessions of a Book Hoarder
Book Addiction
Let me know if I missed yours!