Author:  Elizabeth Gilbert

Title:  Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Publisher:  Penguin Group (USA) 

Elizabeth Gilbert follows up on her massively successful bestseller Eat, Pray, Love with Committed, a book about marriage. I should probably start with a disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been married, so I'm not really qualified to judge her subject. On the other hand, to echo a friend from Georgia, "As a Southern woman, I have no qualms whatsoever making statements on a subject about which I know absolutely nothing." So here we go…

I can say with absolute certainty—this being an area about which I DO know something—Gilbert's prose flows along in smooth, easy-to-read fashion. That said, the book is strongest when she is telling a story rather than trying to educate.

Along the way, there are neat little nuggets like, "It doesn't take a great genius to recognize that when you are pushed by circumstance to do the one thing you have always most specifically loathed and feared, this can be, at the very least, an interesting growth opportunity."

What was it Elizabeth "most specifically loathed and feared"? Marriage. She and her beloved, both survivors of nasty divorces, had sworn lifelong fidelity to each other—but also vowed never to marry. An Australian citizen born in Brazil, Felipe (the object of Elizabeth's affection), routinely came to the States to stay with her until his 3-month visa expired. At that point he would leave, they'd be apart for a while, she'd go meet him in some exotic locale, and shortly afterwards they'd return to New England. It was all going so well—until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stepped in.

It seems the Feds found all that coming and going suspicious. So it was, in a back room at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, that Elizabeth and Felipe faced their nemesis. The only way he was ever going to be allowed back in the U.S. was if they got married.

Of course, that wasn't quite as easy as it sounds. (It never is.) Before they could tie the knot, both of them had to be thoroughly investigated. Lawyers got involved. Paperwork piled up. Months passed. Meanwhile, Felipe was shipped out of the country and forbidden to return until all was settled. So Elizabeth joined him in a sort of exile and decided to use her time studying marriage in an attempt to reconcile herself to her fate.

This research took the form of interviews with married women from various countries, reading multiple studies and books, and endless conversations. She even offers an opinion on the biblical view of marriage: "Never, ever, under any circumstances, Saint Paul believed, was it good for a man to touch a woman—not even his own wife." (Really? Guess her research didn't extend to 1 Corinthians 7.) That section aside, Committed was an interesting read with—as you can see from the subtitle—a happy ending.

**This review first published on January 18, 2010.