Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Summary

18 months after Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with "Felipe", the Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship whom she met in Bali. After resettling in America, the couple swore their love for each other, but also swore to never get married again after they both had bitter divorces. But when the United States government tells them that Felipe can't enter the U.S. unless they get married, or he would never be allowed to enter the country again, they break their promise and get married. Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by getting into the topic of marriage completely, trying her hardest to discover through research, interviews, and personal reflection on what marriage really is.

Some 6 years following the publishing of the book, Gilbert announced on her Facebook page that she and her husband were separating. On September 7, 2016, Gilbert published a lengthy Facebook post saying that she was in a relationship with her best friend, writer Rayya Elias, and that this relationship was related to the breakup of her marriage.

Reviews

Carolyn See with The Washington Post reviewed it as "This story is essentially journalism, written by an extremely competent journalist. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than that. It's a charming narrative that ends, Shakespearean-fashion, with a happy-hearted wedding. What's not to like?"

It spent 57 weeks at the #1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list.