Author News and Book Reports
Elizabeth Gilbert finds commitment in the aftermath of 'Eat, Pray, Love'
With a salute of her coffee cup and a nod to the early morning 'librarian hours,' Elizabeth Gilbert appeared at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, nearly four years to the day after her meteoric memoir Eat, Pray, Love first took flight, to present her long-awaited follow-up memoir, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Viking; January, 2010). Gilbert began with an ironic, self-effacing story about sitting at an airport waiting gate contemplating Nerf Guns while missing her flight to a conference where she was to speak on the topic of 'how I got my life together.' Acknowledging that she was no self-help guru, Gilbert laughed off the label and told the story of a woman wearing her crazy-face, wanting to know if she should leave her husband. Gilbert then recounted the story behind the story of Committed, the book that seemed doomed to follow Eat, Pray, Love when she first began writing it, and why she became uncommitted to Committed when she saw the was packing it up to send to the publisher, before finding the inspiration in Australian author and critic Clive James to rewrite Committed, her memoir of being forced by Homeland Security to marry her Brazilian boyfriend. Gilbert wrapped her ALA appearance by taking questions from the audience on book recommendations in spirituality and memoirs; her childhood, family background and her sister, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, author of Dairy Queen; her perspective on the literary relationship of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed; her comments on the movie version Eat, Pray, Love; her balance between love of home vs. travel; the Nerf wars and what really happened at the Gilbert family Memorial Day picnic; how she came to write a cowboy biography, The Last American Man; how she came to write her first novel, Stern Men, about lobster wars in Maine; and the sometimes unrealistic expectations of fans.
