Count me in on the demographic of young women who was so inspired by “Eat Pray Love” that I promptly Googled “how to find a guru” and “living in an ashram in India” upon completing the autobiographical tale from author Elizabeth Gilbert. Her story swept me away – I felt profound sadness as she battled through a messy divorce, my mouth watered with hers when she described the food she ate in Italy, I found inner peace as she meditated in India and I fell in love with her Brazilian in Bali, there right by her side.
As its “sequel” “Committed” helps to answer the question that Gilbert left readers with at the end of “Eat Pray Love.” What happens next? Does she live happily ever after? Gilbert, still on her quest for “happily ever after” finds herself still in love with her Brazilian in “Committed” and faces pending nuptials as a way to prevent his deportation. Gilbert, still very much shaken from her first marriage, had resolved to live with and love Felipe for the rest of her life, though convinced she didn’t need a band of gold and a piece of paper to seal the deal.
So begins a journey of an entirely different kind. A journey into the history, spirituality and culture behind weddings and marriage. The result is what I consider required reading for anyone who is considering walking down the aisle. Less like the rich narrative that Gilbert spun in “Eat Pray Love,” “Committed” reads more like short stories or magazine articles strung together by a common theme. If you are looking for “Eat Pray Love Part Deux” this is probably not the book club pick for you. But if you enjoyed Gilbert’s cutting sense of humor, wry insight and her ability to gently tug on your heartstrings, this book is committed to all of that and much more.
Photo by: knodum‘s flickr photostream
