“Eat, Pray, Love?” I remember that. It’s by the woman who found her husband, then wrote a best-selling book about commitment, then dumped him when she self-discovered she was a lesbian and wrote a best-seller about that. I’d rather take spiritual advice from a fortune cookie. It does serve as a bad example.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed is a strong follow-up memoir to her brilliant predecessor Eat, Pray, Love. Again opening up with candor and humility about the most intimate details of her life, Gilbert picks up in Committed with the cliff-hanging question that ends Eat, Pray, Love: what happens to her relationship with Felipe? Fate and circumstances once again fuel the driving force for Gilbert’s compulsion to delve deeply into the subject of one of life’s most cherished traditions: that of marriage.

She and Felipe had sworn eternal devotion as a couple without the necessity of legal matrimony, but they find their decision compromised by an unexpected dilemma. When Felipe's frequent visits to America to be with Elizabeth raise eyebrows with U.S. immigration, the couple must face their options: either dealing with Felipe’s permanent non-entry to the states or choosing to legally wed, which will enable Felipe the opportunity, under the protection of Elizabeth’s citizenship, to join her in America and become a citizen.

Gilbert confronts this strange crossroads as more than a momentous personal decision. She uses the circumstances as a springboard to begin her own personal quest to investigate marriage and how its conventions may impact her relationship with Felipe. She essentially searches for answers of what makes two people compatible, and what does the institution of marriage allow them in terms of their ability to grow as lifelong partners and ultimately succeed at loving each other for the same reasons they vowed to commit forever in the first place? Gilbert covers issues of marriage in a thought-provoking manner. She explores the historical context of marriage in various cultures. She also looks at marriage’s time-honored traditions and the challenges marriage faces in the modern world, which is constantly changing, especially in regard to the legal debate over gay and same-sex marriage.

Some have dismissed this book as lackluster and pretentious. I see it in the exact opposite light. Gilbert again shares her most personal secrets, which many of us can relate to, learn from, and use to make our own relationships with loved ones better and more everlasting. Gilbert is a brave and sensitive writer, full of empathy and compassion. Committed is a perfect complement to Eat, Pray, Love. I have tremendous regard for Gilbert’s work. Her ideas are invigorated with hope and the courage to seek the truth to life’s most sacred questions. What makes both Eat, Pray, Love and Committed beautiful and heartfelt is Gilbert’s open-mindedness and wit to explore the depths of her own soul and to discover who she is.

s anybody else sick of memoirs? Yeah, big deal you did something for a year or moved somewhere or beat your alcoholism. Gilbert, who wrote the egregiously overrated "Eat, Pray, Love," is back with another self-indulgent, irritating and completely unnecessary memoir, this one about marriage. Resolve to read less of these things in 2015 and maybe they'll start to go away.

This book was written in a very different style to Elizabeth Gilbert's other titles - a fact she acknowledges in the introduction to this book. I so loved several of her other works, yet could not get into this book. It was the first book I have returned to the library in many, many years, that I just had no interest in finishing.

Interesting.

Loved it! It's sort of a follow up from her book Eat, Pray, Love. She is an entertaining writer. I actually liked Commited more than Eat, Pray, Love.

I actually liked this book about the same as "Eat, Pray, Love".
Worth the read. I must admit at times I felt I wanted to shake the author and yell at her to 'just bite the bullet and marry him for God sakes"...

A personal narrative interwoven with cultural/historical notes about marriage. I actually liked this book more than 'eat, pray, love', as I found it to be hopeful and relatable. Gilbert tells the reader upfront that the book was written in an attempt to unravel her personal discomfort with the institution of marriage and this is exactly what 'Committed' is. This book is probably best read quickly other wise the subject matter may feel repetitive.

Though some parts of this were interesting...I found it a little slow in places and I have trouble staying interested.

Enjoyed the book but was somewhat disappointed. 'Eat, Pray, Love' is hard to top.