If you liked the first quarter of Eat Pray Love. where Gilbert is going through her divorce and a bit of a pre-mid-life-crisis, complaining about motherhood and marriage; you will love this book. I did not. Committed is touted as a "historical study" on marriage. It is not. Gilbert did research, yes, but the words and views she chooses to put to mind and paper are one sided. She skims the surface of history. This was a lackluster, dogmatic, historical analysis on marriage. More disconcerting and apparent is her bias for one spiritual path over another. What Gilbert does best is bring her compassion and wit to discussing other cultures and people. I hope she and Felipe hop a train and go back to Knoxville, a small city on the edge of a verdant, misty mountain range, rich in southern culture and ripe with colorful peoples. In Committed the only description we get of Knoxville is that she "preferred to live in a crazy old residency hotel than anywhere else in town". Just as her perspective is limited and narrow on the city of Knoxville it too is limited on the institution of marriage.

This was a very different novel from "Eat, Pray, Love." We enjoyed the history of marriage chapter the most. Our group had a great discussion about marriage and the role of the husband and wife and the differences in age too.

Careful, you may wish to never take those sacred vows...

http://grayology.blogspot.com/2010/06/elizabeth-gilbert-woos-me-again-with.html

This book continues with the love story of Liz and Felipe from 'Eat, Pray, Love'. As in EPL, Liz delves deeply into the subject of the day - in this case her upcoming marriage. I enjoyed both the history and the humor contained in the book and look forward to her next work.

I didn't love the book on a whole...although I did enjoy reading about what marriage meant to the many different cultures...especially the Laotians - great concept that should be adapted by all!