I cannot move on to read another book unless I write my thoughts on this one. So here goes:
I don’t know what to expect really when I started flipping through the pages of Committed, the sequel to Elizabeth Gilbert’s phenomenal memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. I guess I was hoping that this one would still be personal, chatty and (downright) honest with freedom and independence floating in the air as obvious themes – the very same ingredients that made up the success of EPL.
Committed was like that too but unlike EPL (which got me in that “finding yourself” kind of vibe), I had to stop – several times in the agonizing two weeks of finishing this novel – reading to remind myself where am I in this confusing maze of understanding the institution called marriage.
In Committed, you see Miss Gilbert forced by a circumstance called Department of Homeland Security to marry her Brazilian boyfriend, Felipe, who EPL readers know was the guy she met in the island of Bali in Indonesia. The two have been in a comfortable arrangement living in Philadelphia then Felipe leaves for a few weeks every after three months to comply with visa restriction…and then, enters the US again. But what they thought as an almost perfect arrangement was demolished when one day after arriving at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, an officer from the Department of Homeland Security detained Felipe (put into jail subsequently) because the living-in-the-US-for-three-months-then-leave-for-a-few-weeks-then-back-to-the-US-then-repeat cycle indeed violates his visa restrictions. He will only be allowed to enter the US again if he becomes the husband of Miss Gilbert.
And this is where the book takes shape. Miss Gilbert brings the readers in a historical dig of facts and accounts about marriage quoting the Greek playwright Aristophanes, studies about marriage and divorce (one of which is the Rutgers Report) and testimonials (and conversations she had) with her grandmother and mother sprinkled with anecdotes of people she met in their Southeast Asia travels (where the two lovebirds were forced to spend time while waiting for a decision about Felipe’s immigration case).
Publishing Committed required one hell of an extensive research. Too much if I may say. But I guess for someone like Miss Gilbert who underwent a messy divorce, one does need to scrutinize marriage more closely and not just plunge into it with a blindfold on. But I just have to say that this was not one of my finest reads. I was just on page 45 and my brain was screaming: “Are we in the last chapter yet?” I wanted to finish it so bad but I ended up reading and re-reading pages for two weeks because some parts were just confusing and heavily loaded with facts. Not an easy read, in short. I wanted to set the book aside because in between reading Miss Gilbert’s research and personal accounts, I got lost. There was just so much to take in and for one, impatient reader like me, I couldn’t wait. I just want to know if they did get married in the end.
This is not a book I recommend to everyone. But for those who want to give marriage a closer look, this is a handbook for you. It won’t hurt if you give it a try.
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