Elizabeth Gilbert has a new book.
Ordinarily, this kind of thing is not huge news but this particular writers’ previous book was Eat Pray Love. So what? Well….several years ago, THAT book become a megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir about Gilberts’ process of finding herself by leaving home. She faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of…running off for a year!! She spent that time in spiritual and personal exploration while traveling abroad through Italy, India and Indonesia. The memoir was on The New York Times best seller list in the spring of 2006 and by October, 2008, after 88 weeks, the book was still on the list at #2!
But now what do you do?
Gilbert said, “There’s something very scary about having millions of people waiting to see what you’re going to do next. The people who love ‘Eat Pray Love’ are very dear and are very encouraging, but they also have their expectations” (Motoko Rich, The New York Times Book Review, August 19, 2009).
“At the end of Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous horrific divorces.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which—after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing—gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.” (From the jacket)
Her next book, Committed, was born.
When she finished a draft in May 2008, she took it to a copy shop to print out a first version. As soon as she began paging through it, she recoiled. “It was different from just the anxiety and insecurities that you feel when you’re writing something,” she said. “It was non-debatable.” Without showing it to Viking’s publisher, she wrote asking for a deferral on her deadline. They gave her another year. After taking six months off, she decided she could write again, this time in what she believed was a more authentic voice. “I was scared that all the people who loved ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ might not want to read that new voice,” she said. “But I knew that if I didn’t do it that way it would just be a lousy book” (Motoko Rich, The New York Times Book Review, August 19, 2009).
“Ultimately, Gilbert is clear about what she, like most people, wants from marriage: everything. “We want intimacy and autonomy, security and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can’t have it.” Gilbert understands this, yet she tries to convince herself and her readers that she has found a loophole. She tells herself a familiar story, that her marriage will be different. And she is, of course, right—everyone’s marriage is different. But everyone’s marriage is a compromise” (Ariel Levy, “The New Yorker“, January 11, 2010).
Committed has not received the acclaim or initial devotion of Eat Pray Love but at least she had the guts to get back out there. We seem to long for books that enlighten, entertain and motivate change in its readers, etc, but we tend to turn right back around and skewer any follow-up writings from that same beloved author. Go figure. This new book is good. It’s just not as good as the other. So what? I still like her.
Just in case your wondering what Elizabeth Gilbert was up to before she wrote Eat Pray Love; I think you will be fairly amazed! She was no literary lightweight. Her previous books include the collection, Pilgrims, a compilation of short stories which received the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. This was followed by her novel, Stern Men, (about lobster fishermen in Maine) which was selected by The New York Times as a “Notable Book” and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man, which was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award and a finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Not too shabby!!!
Gilbert speaking at the 2009 TED Conference; Watch full talk at ted.com
But Gilbert writes: “I don’t think I will ever write another book as raw, intimate and revealing as Eat. Pray, Love, which I wrote without imagining that millions of people would ever read it. While Committed is also written in a familiar-enough memoir structure, it is far less personal, and much more a meditation, or a contemplation, on a vast historical subject. I use myself and Felipe as sort of stand-ins for the readers, who, I suspect, probably have similar questions and hesitations about their own marriages and relationships, but I actually don’t feel very exposed or revealed by this story. If anything, I think Felipe and I are pretty representative of modern day lovers…” (see Elizabeth Gilberts’ website for full Q & A)
On writing, in general, she shares this:
“I love this work. I have always loved this work. My suggestion is that you start with the love and then work very hard and try to let go of the results. Cast out your will, and then cut the line.” (see Elizabeth Gilberts’ website for full Q & A)
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