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New Release: Committed

41waKzNI4wL._SL160_By Elizabeth Gilbert
Viking Adult | 304pgs
Release Date: January 5, 2010

Elizabeth Gilbert is forced to reconcile her doubts about the institution of marriage in Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, the sequel to her 2006 breakout hit Eat, Pray, Love. The memoir opens with Gilbert and Felipe, the Brazilian-born Australian man she met in Indonesia, still blissfully in love. But, upon returning to Dallas, the couple gets a bitter shock when Felipe is detained and then deported by Homeland Security. The only way for him to re-enter the country is for the couple to marry, something they both vowed never to do again. Essentially, “sentenced to marry by the Homeland Security Department,” the pair spend the next year traveling the world while waiting for Felipe’s visa to be approved. Gilbert immerses herself in matrimonial research, interviewing women around the globe, and trying to come to terms with her ambivalence towards marriage.

In a recent interview with CNN.com, Gilbert reflects back on the circumstances that brought about her marriage to Felipe. “I can’t imagine now my life having taken any other direction, but that’s not to say that it was a delightful experience. I think ultimately Felipe and I would have married anyway…I feel more like I’m part of something that’s very old and interesting rather than having been shoved into a container that doesn’t fit me.” Early editorial reviews have been mixed for Gilbert’s journey to the alter. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly writes: “The deeper that Gilbert agonizes about marriage — the more she luxuriates in her dithering on What It Is All About — the more Committed loses its brightness, sharpness, and sense of welcome.”

Read CNN.com interview

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