Tuesday, May 23, 2017

"Committed"

No, I am not sharing my views on (not) being committed.
Yes, this is one of my (vain) attempts to keep this blog alive.
No, I have not made any effort of writing in the past few months even though I had all the time.
Yes, that is certainly not a very good thing.
So, this is a book review.
Well, not really a review, just a few words here and there since I finally managed the onerous task of finishing reading this mostly boring book.
Just a few things that will stay with me.
Ok fine.
Yes, this is a book review.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9805465-committed



A brief background about how I came to read this book. My dear friend for almost six years now gifted me this this Valentine's Day (much to my surprise as I did not expect him to actually take into consideration my all-time love for Eat, Pray, Love) and hoped this would give me some insight on our 'future'. Marriage was always on the cards albeit things have been extremely rocky lately. This was supposedly my anchor to rough the high seas. And I must admit it did serve its purpose. And so I began-

Nothing quite like its prequel, Committed did not manage to hold my interest for long. It was, therefore, quite a task to get it over with. I had dropped it almost altogether after February, but managed to pick it up again a couple of days back. Apart from the chapter on Marriage and Infatuation (and a part of Marriage and Women), the entire book seemed like a crystallized educational thesis on marriage. The narrative is mostly drab and, for the lack of a better word, seems educational. 

However, I very much related to the narrative on infatuation. Fortunately or unfortunately (one can never be sure since even this marriage of Gilbert, after all her issues, her phobia of getting married, her extensive research, has fallen apart, and how!!), I see a lot of Gilbert in my own life. I understand what it is like to lose yourself completely to another person, to not be able to see where they end and you begin, to not be able to understand, as she aptly puts it, that sometime 1 plus 1 has to equal 2. So while her love story with Felipe does give me hope that I may eventually grow up to not always get so swayed by another person that I lose myself completely, I am very skeptical about how long it will last (considering, well, you know what), or how it may eventually end.

The book does have some good parts. I have earmarked those to get back to them later. What I do understand now, and I quote - ...anything that the heart has chosen for its own mysterious reasons it can always unchoose later-again, for its own mysterious reasons.

Pick it up for the love of Gilbert, if nothing else.










2 comments:

CRD said...

Hey hey! Look who's back to blogging!

Kahan chali gayi thi madam? 29th February ki tarah 4 saal mein ek hi baar kyu aati ho?

Written a whole lot of bullshit (read poems and senti stuff) over the past couple of months. Wonder if you'll like them.

Cheers,
CRD

Mishika said...

Hey!! Nothingness is keeping me fairly busy these days, but I intend to blog more often (like I do every year *rollseyes*).

Catching up on my reading. Will we visiting very soon and reading EVERYTHING!

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