| Committed |
| Written by Jayne Kearney |
| Tuesday, 02 March 2010 12:54 |
RRP $32.99
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Format: Paperback I enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert’s last book, Eat, Pray, Love. It was an interesting – even inspirational – story told in an engaging voice. It spoke specifically to women about the search for self many of us undergo in our thirties. But I wouldn’t say it rocked my world the way it rocked the world of millions of others – possibly because I’m not a passionate traveller. I ‘like’ travelling but I don’t quite have Gilbert’s wanderlust. But her second installment, Committed, is about marriage. Ah, now there’s a subject I’m almost pathologically interested in. The story goes like this. At the end of Eat, Pray, Love Gilbert, as the title suggests, falls in love. Felipe, the object of her desires, is a Brazilian born, Australian citizen living in Bali. Both scarred by previous divorces, Elizabeth and Felipe vow never to remarry. Kindred spirits in this regard they set about co-habiting in a way which suits both their lifestyles. As a gemstone importer Felipe travels for his work. Elizabeth, her wanderlust sated for the moment, is ready to settle back in the US. Getting around a loophole in the visa system Felipe leaves the US every three months for work and re-enters to resume living with Gilbert. This works well until the immigration department steps in. The upshot of it all is that Felipe and Elizabeth are faced with the fact that if she wants to stay in the US and he wants to stay with her, they must do the one thing they said they never would – get married. Raging against an almost immutable – and in her eyes, nightmarish – destiny Gilbert embarks on a vision quest of sorts. She wants to get to the bottom of this thing called marriage and hopes that by so doing she will able to reconcile herself with what she must do. Interwoven with the personal narrative about her mission to make her peace with marriage – coupled as it is with the seemingly interminable wait for the red tape tangle to abate – are the discoveries Gilbert makes during her research. I loved this aspect of the book. Each chapter contains mini lessons from diverse areas such as philosophy, history, feminism, anthropology and, overarching them all, questions about love and commitment. Gilbert’s voice in this book is, once again, conversational and engaging. It is also very female and this is, I think, where her readers find a connection with her. I was especially moved by the chapter where she writes so eloquently about women who are without children – what she calls the Auntie Brigade - whether by choice or by circumstance. Gilbert chose not to become a mother herself so there is a depth and honesty to her words: “Often able to accrue education and resources precisely because they were childless, these women had enough spare income and compassion to pay for lifesaving operations, or to rescue the family farm, or to take in a child whose mother had fallen gravely ill. I have a friend who calls these sorts of child-rescuing auntie ‘sparents’ – ‘spare parents’ – and the world is filled with them.” If you have an interest in how men and women come to make the all-at-once radical, exciting, crazy, romantic, mundane, pedestrian, ridiculous and hope-filled decision to bind themselves to one another for life then Committed might have some answers for you. And it’s a good story to boot. But does Elizabeth Gilbert finally take the leap of faith into the institution she had come to despise? Well, if you don’t already know I’m not going to spoil the ending for you.
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