I'm currently reading
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert, the follow up to
Eat, Pray, Love. It's been a slow process, whereas I devoured
Eat, Pray, Love (likely caused by the fact that I was, indeed, reading the book on sloooow Italian trains).
Prior to the movie coming out this past summer, I had read a lot of blogs from travelers who generally disliked EPL for whatever reasons. The reasons that stuck with me though, is that her writing is narcissistic, her story is narcissistic/unrealistic/etc. These were things that I never experienced while reading EPL. But, I can certainly see in
Committed how her writing can be narcissistic. In fact, there are times when Gilbert's writing just starts to grate on my nerves. Perhaps that's why I've struggled to get through this one.
But, for all the times that I just want to punch Gilbert in the face, she manages to redeem herself with some really great passages. And while it's auto-biographical and the insights aren't particularly revolutionary or earth-shattering, it is nice to see that Gilbert can take old cliches and apply them to her own life. Rather than being preachy, Gilbert comes off as a friend giving you guidance and advice (that occasionally you want to punch, hard).
All in all, I'll be glad when it's over (I can't wait to get to The Lost Girls!), but I'll be glad to have read it. And it may become useful for when I get married? Maybe?
