[REBORN FROM THE ASHES][comment][01.07]

海王泪UID: 2673613

My Comment
Some people say “Marriage is the grave of Love”; however, some argue that ”Without Marriage Love would die without burial.”
I agree with the latter though martial ambivalence rules world of art now. Not only literature but also many soup operas film and broadcast are keen for this topic.
Whatever works! More I consider is that I won’t earn my bride under 30 years old. Having a marriage would limit the career of a man (or a boy). And probably thus, make a family…. Whatever works…
The analysis of two books flows in this critique. But sorry I have limited time in reading so that I could hardly get all ideas in our first book review. I’m gonna go now.

dingyi0311UID: 2627919

What Happens After Eat, Pray, Love? Fret, Mull, MarryBy MARY POLS Wednesday, Jan. 06, 2010

Once upon a time in the annals of women's stories, getting married was the fairy-tale ending. These days, marital ambivalence矛盾 rules the literary scene. December brought Julie Powell's new memoir, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession (Little, Brown; 307 pages), in which the Julie & Julia author tells the sad, sordid tale of the recent years she spent butchering pigs, cows and her husband's heart. Meanwhile, in a New York Times Magazine story, writer Elizabeth Weil detailed her efforts to subject her "perfect union" to every kind of therapeutic scrutiny available in Northern California. Her goal of complete marital introspection — needed or otherwise — inspired heated holiday-party conversations and terror at the thought of the memoir to follow, as well as giving single women everywhere a new appreciation of their unburdened ring fingers. (See the 100 best novels of all time.)

Elizabeth Gilbert does these reluctant wives one better. The author of Eat, Pray, Love returns with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Viking; 285 pages), in which she is a vehemently wary second-time bride, due to be dragged down the aisle by Uncle Sam's immigration henchmen, who will otherwise toss her beloved, Brazilian-born "Felipe," as she calls the older man she met in the last section of EPL, out of the U.S. for good. They hadn't planned to marry. Like Gilbert, Felipe had endured a hard divorce, and they were content to be "lifers" together. But a helpful Homeland Security officer prescribes marriage as the only certain way out of Felipe's immigration dilemma, and the couple agree that they love each other enough to do it. (See a Q&A with Elizabeth Gilbert.)

Gilbert cites statistics, scientific studies and her painful experience with her first marriage — the impetus for the worldwide spiritual ramble of EPL — as her reasons for not wanting to tie the knot. She demonstrates how the institution threatens her independence and the well-being of many women. Her fears hold up even when she's considering union with a man who loves her, excuses her memoirist tendencies and has been known to tell her that the curves of her body "look like sand dunes."

But whereas in Eat, Pray, Love the journey was what mattered, the end of Committed is, as of page 18, a foregone conclusion. As Gilbert puts it, she and her lover are "sentenced to marry." This makes the book a supreme act of navel-gazing, even for a memoir. While the legal complexities are being worked out, the two kill time by traveling together. Along the way, Gilbert, ever the good journalist, gathers string on marriage and love from various sources, including the humble Hmong women of North Vietnam, seagulls, a humble frog-farming family in Laos and her humble 96-year-old Grandma Maude back in Minnesota. (Gilbert practices humility with vigor, even when sweetly patronizing Third World cultures.) Her process is exhaustive, and the results are exhausting, though some of her points are astute. This slog through one woman's relationship angst feels, in the end, like much ado about nothing.

Gilbert is a highly conversational writer — a blessing if you are in the memoir business. Four years after its publication, Eat, Pray, Love remains on the New York Times best-seller list, giving its author a chance, with the likely sales of this new book, to become the Malcolm Gladwell of soul-searching. Gilbert left her loyalists believing that a year of spiritual questing would end with peace, love and the address of the best pizzeria in Naples. There could be no doubt that her readers wanted more. She and Felipe had gone off into the sunset; could she now describe the rosy glow? (See the top 10 fiction books of 2009.)

But Committed — and to a certain extent, Powell's Cleaving — demonstrates the curse of the conversational writer. I confess to having found EPL tedious at times and to struggling with the fortuitous arrival of true love at the end of Gilbert's year of self-discovery. (In Committed, she pokes fun at herself, quoting her sister Catherine's response to her gushy e-mails from Bali: "Yeah, I was planning to go to a tropical island this weekend with my Brazilian lover, too ... but then there was all that traffic.") There was no denying, however, that she was a vibrant woman on a cool adventure, with stories to tell. The pressure to return to that fertile ground must have been enormous. Just as she was sentenced to marrying, she was sentenced to sequel writing. (See questions and answers about retirement.)

Committed gives us a woman trapped in a command performance she's too smart not to be dubious about. She seems self-conscious about the need to remain everyone's best friend, littering her prose with chirpy asides ("Listen, I want to make it clear here that I am not intrinsically against passion. Mercy, no!") and cutesy interjections ("Just a little free advice there, from your Auntie Liz"). Then there are the apologies for anything that might offend. Her eloquent defense of gay marriage, for instance, is diminished by this chatty advisory: "You see where I'm heading with this, right? Or rather, you see where history is heading with this? What I mean to say is, you won't be surprised, will you, if I now take a few minutes to discuss the subject of same-sex marriage?"

Gilbert also repeats, incessantly, information she's already conveyed, whether it be the vastness of the belly of a pregnant woman she's dining with or the details of a coat — wine-colored, with a fur collar — once owned by her grandmother. (We hear about its beauty four times in three pages.) There are useful insights into the dilemma of modern marriage here, but the overall effect of the heavily padded Committed is like that of being called, over and over, by a friend who wants to talk your ear off about her impending nuptials. Only instead of debating the floral arrangements, she's wondering, Should I really be taking the leap? Halfway through Committed, I wanted to put the phone down and walk away, leaving Gilbert to figure it out on her own.

How to Butcher a Marriage
It would be much harder to hang up on Powell. She makes no apologies and no effort to be likable in Cleaving, a ghastly work of revelation without enough self-reflection. Soon after wrapping up Julie & Julia, Powell began cheating on the kindly Eric, that husband who dutifully ate her butter-soaked Julia Child meals for a year. Her lover and S&M partner was Damian, a former college fling with "Mick Jagger lips, and a weak chin." I am saddened that I have a clearer vision of Damian's masturbatory methods than of his actual appeal, and sadder still at the mental images Powell provides of herself tied up, awaiting his next "R-owwr." (Since when is talking like Austin Powers sexy?) This recipe for marital disaster comes with scattered recipes you'd hesitate to trust, given the horrific disorder of Powell's upstairs kitchen. (See the top 10 nonfiction books of 2009.)

Cleaving is, however, a much livelier book than Committed, in the way that your narcissistic pal is more riveting than your earnest, loyal girlfriend. Powell's interest in butchery is genuine, and the passages set during her internship at Fleisher's, an upstate New York butcher shop, bristle with clarity. That's not to say the intended metaphor — that as she learns to butcher, she's also exploring the anatomy of her tumultuous love life — is clear or convincing, largely because her journey feels so incomplete.

What is fascinating is the impact of previous writing successes on these pages. In one heartbreakingly venal passage, Powell thrills at Damian's audacity in pretending to be Eric for an eager reader who recognizes her on the street. The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse the implied disrespect for those — from the real Eric to her fans — who adore her. Powell was also sentenced to sequel, although her amply demonstrated lack of humility suggests she was happier to comply than Gilbert. But when she runs out of story — the Fleisher's internship complete — she copies earlier Gilbert, setting forth on a haphazard journey around the world. Her "Eat, Sulk, Stew" wraps up with a return to the husband she belittled and betrayed. Now here is a marriage to be debated. Maybe one of Weil's therapists could lend a hand.

Both books feel rushed into print. Cleaving begs for better boundaries and structure; the ladylike Committed is too confined to feel truly intimate. Gilbert overshares only in the department of exclamation points, and if you want to know what life postsunset is like, be advised: she takes us only to the altar. But these two writers share more than just marital ambivalence. It may be difficult to work up sympathy for best-selling authors who end up portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Amy Adams and Julia Roberts. (EPL the movie is scheduled for release this year.) Yet these women have been caged by the expectations of voracious publishers and readers. Their escape methods are different — Powell appears to be chewing her own leg off, Gilbert gently boring her captors into letting her go — but it's hard not to empathize with someone in a trap, even one built on success.

My comment
This is a critique about works of two writers. The critic make a brief introduction of books like Committed and Cleavage, this books are all about the love affairs and marriage. Then, the flaws and deficients of the books are pointed out, the conversations in the books some times make it seems awkward and some interceptions are strange.since I have not understood some of the idiom and not have read the book criticized I still could not understand some place in this article.

qxn_1987UID: 2610437

Once upon a time in the annals of women's stories, getting married was the fairy-tale ending. These days, marital ambivalence rules the literary scene. December brought Julie Powell's new memoir, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession (Little, Brown; 307 pages), in which the Julie & Julia author tells the sad, sordid tale of the recent years she spent butchering（n.屠夫，屠户 v.屠宰，屠杀） pigs, cows and her husband's heart. 【Meanwhile, in a New York Times Magazine story, writer Elizabeth Weil detailed her efforts to subject her "perfect union" to every kind of therapeutic scrutiny available in Northern California.】【Her goal of complete marital introspection — needed or otherwise（或相反） — inspired heated holiday-party conversations and terror at the thought of the memoir to follow, as well as giving single women everywhere a new appreciation of their unburdened ring fingers.】(See the 100 best novels of all time.)

Elizabeth Gilbert does these reluctant wives one better. The author of Eat, Pray, Love returns with Committed: A Skeptic(n.) Makes Peace with Marriage (Viking; 285 pages), in which she is a vehemently（激烈地，暴烈地） wary second-time bride, due to be dragged down（把…向下拖，使衰弱） the aisle by Uncle Sam's immigration henchmen, who will otherwise toss her beloved, Brazilian-born "Felipe," as she calls the older man she met in the last section of EPL, out of the U.S. for good. They hadn't planned to marry. Like Gilbert, Felipe had endured a hard divorce, and they were content to be "lifers" together. But a helpful Homeland Security officer prescribes marriage as the only certain way out of Felipe's immigration dilemma, and the couple agree that they love each other enough to do it. (See a Q&A with Elizabeth Gilbert.)

Gilbert cites statistics, scientific studies and her painful experience with her first marriage —【 the impetus for the worldwide spiritual ramble of EPL 】— as her reasons for not wanting to tie the knot. She demonstrates how the institution threatens her independence and the well-being of many women. 【Her fears hold up even when she's considering union with a man who loves her, excuses her memoirist tendencies and has been known to tell her that the curves of her body "look like sand dunes（沙丘）."】

But whereas in Eat, Pray, Love the journey was what mattered, the end of Committed is, as of page 18, a foregone conclusion（预料中的结局）. As Gilbert puts it, she and her lover are "sentenced to marry." 【This makes the book a supreme act of navel-gazing, even for a memoir. 】While the legal complexities are being worked out, the two kill time by traveling together. 【Along the way, Gilbert, ever the good journalist, gathers string on marriage and love from various sources, including the humble Hmong women of North Vietnam, seagulls（海鸥）, a humble frog-farming family in Laos and her humble 96-year-old Grandma Maude back in Minnesota. (Gilbert practices humility with vigor, even when sweetly patronizing（俨然以恩人态度的，要人领情的） Third World cultures.) Her process is exhaustive, and the results are exhausting, though some of her points are astute. This slog（v.艰难进行） through one woman's relationship angst（n.焦虑，担心） feels, in the end, like much ado about nothing（庸人自扰，小题大做，无事空忙）.

Gilbert is a highly conversational writer — a blessing if you are in the memoir business. Four years after its publication, Eat, Pray, Love remains on the New York Times best-seller list, giving its author a chance, with the likely sales of this new book, to become the Malcolm Gladwell of soul-searching（真挚的自我反省，深思）. Gilbert left her loyalists believing that a year of spiritual questing would end with peace, love and the address of the best pizzeria in Naples. There could be no doubt that her readers wanted more. She and Felipe had gone off into（开始，爆发出） the sunset; could she now describe the rosy glow? (See the top 10 fiction books of 2009.)

【But Committed — and to a certain extent, Powell's Cleaving — demonstrates the curse of the conversational writer. I confess to having found EPL tedious at times（有时，不时） and to struggling with the fortuitous arrival of true love at the end of Gilbert's year of self-discovery（自我发现）.】 (In Committed, she pokes fun at（取笑） herself, quoting her sister Catherine's response to her gushy（流出的，易动感情的） e-mails from Bali: "Yeah, I was planning to go to a tropical island this weekend with my Brazilian lover, too ... but then there was all that traffic.") There was no denying, however, that she was a vibrant woman on a cool adventure, with stories to tell. The pressure to return to that fertile ground must have been enormous. Just as she was sentenced to marrying, she was sentenced to sequel（结局） writing. (See questions and answers about retirement.)

Committed gives us a woman trapped in a command performance she's too smart not to be dubious about. She seems self-conscious（自觉） about the need to remain everyone's best friend, littering her prose with chirpy asides ("Listen, I want to make it clear here that I am not intrinsically against passion. Mercy, no!") and cutesy（矫揉造作的，忸怩作态的） interjections ("Just a little free advice there, from your Auntie Liz"). Then there are the apologies for anything that might offend. Her eloquent defense of gay marriage, for instance, is diminished by this chatty advisory: "You see where I'm heading with this, right? Or rather, you see where history is heading with this? What I mean to say is, you won't be surprised, will you, if I now take a few minutes to discuss the subject of same-sex marriage?"

【Gilbert also repeats, incessantly（不间断地）, information she's already conveyed, whether it be the vastness of the belly of a pregnant woman she's dining with or the details of a coat — wine-colored, with a fur collar — once owned by her grandmother.】(We hear about its beauty four times in three pages.) There are useful insights into the dilemma of modern marriage here, but the overall effect of the heavily padded（填补） Committed is like that of being called, over and over, by a friend who wants to talk your ear off（对某人叨叨不休） about her impending nuptials. Only instead of debating the floral arrangements, she's wondering, Should I really be taking the leap? Halfway through Committed, I wanted to put the phone down and walk away, leaving Gilbert to figure it out on her own.

How to Butcher a Marriage

It would be much harder to hang up on Powell. She makes no apologies and no effort to be likable（可爱的） in Cleaving, a ghastly work of revelation without enough self-reflection（自省）. Soon after wrapping up（掩饰, 伪装, 使全神贯注, 围好围巾, 包起来）Julie & Julia, Powell began cheating on（对…不忠） the kindly Eric, that husband who dutifully ate her butter-soaked Julia Child meals for a year. Her lover and S&M partner was Damian, a former college fling with "Mick Jagger lips, and a weak chin." I am saddened that I have a clearer vision of Damian's masturbatory methods than of his actual appeal, and sadder still at the mental images Powell provides of herself tied up, awaiting his next "R-owwr." (Since when is talking like Austin Powers sexy?) This recipe for marital disaster comes with scattered recipes you'd hesitate to trust, given the horrific disorder of Powell's upstairs kitchen. (See the top 10 nonfiction books of 2009.)

Cleaving is, however, a much livelier book than Committed, in the way that your narcissistic pal is more riveting than your earnest, loyal girlfriend. Powell's interest in butchery is genuine, and the passages set during her internship at Fleisher's, an upstate New York butcher shop, bristle with（充满） clarity. That's not to say the intended metaphor — that as she learns to butcher, she's also exploring the anatomy of her tumultuous love life — is clear or convincing, largely because her journey feels so incomplete.

What is fascinating is the impact of previous writing successes on these pages. In one heartbreakingly venal passage, Powell thrills at Damian's audacity in pretending to be Eric for an eager reader who recognizes her on the street. The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse（v.纯净） the implied disrespect for those — from the real Eric to her fans — who adore her. Powell was also sentenced to sequel, although her amply demonstrated lack of humility suggests she was happier to comply than Gilbert. But when she runs out of story — the Fleisher's internship complete — she copies earlier Gilbert, setting forth on（动身） a haphazard journey around the world. Her "Eat, Sulk, Stew" wraps up with a return to the husband she belittled and betrayed. Now here is a marriage to be debated. Maybe one of Weil's therapists could lend a hand.

Both books feel rushed into（仓促行动） print. Cleaving begs for（乞求） better boundaries and structure; the ladylike Committed is too confined to feel truly intimate. Gilbert overshares only in the department of exclamation points, and if you want to know what life postsunset is like, be advised: she takes us only to the altar. But these two writers share more than just marital ambivalence. It may be difficult to work up sympathy for best-selling authors who end up portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Amy Adams and Julia Roberts. (EPL the movie is scheduled for release this year.) Yet these women have been caged by the expectations of voracious publishers and readers. Their escape methods are different — Powell appears to be chewing her own leg off, Gilbert gently boring her captors into letting her go — but it's hard not to empathize with someone in a trap, even one built on success.

Comments:

The passage is mainly about a comment on two authors and their books--- Cleaving and Committed. Bluntly put, I am not so interested in this passage, and which is a bit abstract and obscure to me to some extent.

Anyhow, we can see,obviously, that the author’s writing skill is graceful, masterly and workmanlike. The passage is highly effective in its use of language---such as effective vocabulary and sentence varity, the language is precise and often figurative. At the same time, there are a great amount of vocabulary or glossary for me to learn, and which will take me a long time to assimilate them completely.

豆腐店的86UID: 2512956

What Happens After Eat, Pray, Love? Fret, Mull, Marry
By MARY POLS Wednesday, Jan. 06, 2010

Once upon a time in the annals of women's stories, getting married was the fairy-tale ending. These days, marital ambivalence rules the literary scene.（..矛盾凸显 的表达方式） December brought Julie Powell's new memoir, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession (Little, Brown; 307 pages), in which the Julie & Julia author tells the sad, sordid tale of the recent years she spent butchering pigs, cows and her husband's heart. Meanwhile, in a New York Times Magazine story, writer Elizabeth Weil detailed her efforts to subject her "perfect union" to every kind of therapeutic scrutiny available in Northern California. Her goal of complete marital introspection — needed or otherwise — inspired heated holiday-party conversations and terror at the thought of the memoir to follow, as well as giving single women everywhere a new appreciation of their unburdened ring fingers. (See the 100 best novels of all time.)

Elizabeth Gilbert does these reluctant wives one better. The author of Eat, Pray, Love returns with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Viking; 285 pages), in which she is a vehemently wary second-time bride, due to be dragged down the aisle by Uncle Sam's immigration henchmen, who will otherwise toss her beloved, Brazilian-born "Felipe," as she calls the older man she met in the last section of EPL, out of the U.S. for good. They hadn't planned to marry. Like Gilbert, Felipe had endured(过程感~~) a hard divorce, and they were content to be "lifers" together. But a helpful Homeland Security officer prescribes marriage as the only certain way out of Felipe's immigration dilemma, and the couple agree that they love each other enough to do it. (See a Q&A with Elizabeth Gilbert.)

Gilbert cites statistics, scientific studies and her painful experience with her first marriage — the impetus for the worldwide spiritual ramble of EPL — as her reasons for not wanting to tie the knot. She demonstrates how the institution threatens her independence and the well-being of many women. Her fears hold up even when she's considering union with a man who loves her, excuses her memoirist tendencies and has been known to tell her that the curves of her body "look like sand dunes."

But whereas in Eat, Pray, Love the journey was what mattered, the end of Committed is, as of page 18, a foregone conclusion. As Gilbert puts it, she and her lover are "sentenced to marry." This makes the book a supreme act of navel-gazing, even for a memoir. While the legal complexities are being worked out, the two kill time by traveling together. Along the way, Gilbert, ever the good journalist, gathers string on marriage and love from various sources, including the humble Hmong women of North Vietnam, seagulls, a humble frog-farming family in Laos and her humble 96-year-old Grandma Maude back in Minnesota. (Gilbert practices humility with vigor, even when sweetly patronizing Third World cultures.) Her process is exhaustive, and the results are exhausting, though some of her points are astute. This slog through one woman's relationship angst feels, in the end, like much ado about nothing.

Gilbert is a highly conversational writer — a blessing if you are in the memoir business. Four years after its publication, Eat, Pray, Love remains on the New York Times best-seller list, giving its author a chance, with the likely sales of this new book, to become the Malcolm Gladwell of soul-searching. Gilbert left her loyalists believing that a year of spiritual questing would end with peace, love and the address of the best pizzeria in Naples. There could be no doubt that her readers wanted more. She and Felipe had gone off into the sunset; could she now describe the rosy glow? (See the top 10 fiction books of 2009.)

But Committed — and to a certain extent, Powell's Cleaving — demonstrates the curse of the conversational writer. I confess to having found EPL tedious at times and to struggling with the fortuitous arrival of true love at the end of Gilbert's year of self-discovery. (In Committed, she pokes fun at herself, quoting her sister Catherine's response to her gushy e-mails from Bali: "Yeah, I was planning to go to a tropical island this weekend with my Brazilian lover, too ... but then there was all that traffic.") There was no denying, however, that she was a vibrant woman on a cool adventure, with stories to tell. The pressure to return to that fertile ground must have been enormous. Just as she was sentenced to marrying, she was sentenced to sequel writing. (See questions and answers about retirement.)

Committed gives us a woman trapped in a command performance she's too smart not to be dubious about. She seems self-conscious about the need to remain everyone's best friend, littering her prose with chirpy asides ("Listen, I want to make it clear here that I am not intrinsically against passion. Mercy, no!") and cutesy interjections ("Just a little free advice there, from your Auntie Liz"). Then there are the apologies for anything that might offend. Her eloquent defense of gay marriage, for instance, is diminished by this chatty advisory: "You see where I'm heading with this, right? Or rather, you see where history is heading with this? What I mean to say is, you won't be surprised, will you, if I now take a few minutes to discuss the subject of same-sex marriage?"

Gilbert also repeats, incessantly, information she's already conveyed, whether it be the vastness of the belly of a pregnant woman she's dining with or the details of a coat — wine-colored, with a fur collar — once owned by her grandmother. (We hear about its beauty four times in three pages.) There are useful insights into the dilemma of modern marriage here, but the overall effect of the heavily padded Committed is like that of being called, over and over, by a friend who wants to talk your ear off about her impending nuptials. Only instead of debating the floral arrangements, she's wondering, Should I really be taking the leap? Halfway through Committed, I wanted to put the phone down and walk away, leaving Gilbert to figure it out on her own.

How to Butcher a Marriage
It would be much harder to hang up on Powell. She makes no apologies and no effort to be likable in Cleaving, a ghastly work of revelation without enough self-reflection. Soon after wrapping up Julie & Julia, Powell began cheating on the kindly Eric, that husband who dutifully ate her butter-soaked Julia Child meals for a year. Her lover and S&M partner was Damian, a former college fling with "Mick Jagger lips, and a weak chin." I am saddened that I have a clearer vision of Damian's masturbatory methods than of his actual appeal, and sadder still at the mental images Powell provides of herself tied up, awaiting his next "R-owwr." (Since when is talking like Austin Powers sexy?) This recipe for marital disaster comes with scattered recipes you'd hesitate to trust, given the horrific disorder of Powell's upstairs kitchen. (See the top 10 nonfiction books of 2009.)

Cleaving is, however, a much livelier book than Committed, in the way that your narcissistic pal is more riveting than your earnest, loyal girlfriend. Powell's interest in butchery is genuine, and the passages set during her internship at Fleisher's, an upstate New York butcher shop, bristle with clarity. That's not to say the intended metaphor — that as she learns to butcher, she's also exploring the anatomy of her tumultuous love life — is clear or convincing, largely because her journey feels so incomplete.

What is fascinating is the impact of previous writing successes on these pages. In one heartbreakingly venal passage, Powell thrills at Damian's audacity in pretending to be Eric for an eager reader who recognizes her on the street. The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse the implied disrespect for those — from the real Eric to her fans — who adore her. Powell was also sentenced to sequel, although her amply demonstrated lack of humility suggests she was happier to comply than Gilbert. But when she runs out of story — the Fleisher's internship complete — she copies earlier Gilbert, setting forth on a haphazard journey around the world. Her "Eat, Sulk, Stew" wraps up with a return to the husband she belittled and betrayed. Now here is a marriage to be debated. Maybe one of Weil's therapists could lend a hand.

Both books feel rushed into print. Cleaving begs for better boundaries and structure; the ladylike Committed is too confined to feel truly intimate. Gilbert overshares only in the department of exclamation points, and if you want to know what life postsunset is like, be advised: she takes us only to the altar. But these two writers share more than just marital ambivalence. It may be difficult to work up sympathy for best-selling authors who end up portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Amy Adams and Julia Roberts. (EPL the movie is scheduled for release this year.) Yet these women have been caged by the expectations of voracious publishers and readers. Their escape methods are different — Powell appears to be chewing her own leg off, Gilbert gently boring her captors into letting her go — but it's hard not to empathize with someone in a trap, even one built on success.

----------------------

ambivalence The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person, an object, or an idea.

矛盾情绪，双重人格：对人、对物或对观点的相对立态度或感情的共存，如爱和恨

memoir An account of the personal experiences of an author.

自传：有关作者个人经历的叙述

therapeutic Having or exhibiting healing powers:

治疗疾病的：有或显示治疗能力的：
a therapeutic agent; therapeutic exercises.
治疗剂；治疗练习

impetus  An impelling force; an impulse.

推动力；冲力，刺激

ramble To move about aimlessly.See Synonyms at wander

闲逛：无目的地到处移动
astute Having or showing shrewdness and discernment, especially with respect to one's own concerns.See Synonyms at shrewd
敏锐的，精明的：有或显示出精明和敏锐的理解力或判断力，尤指对与其相关的方面

slog To walk or progress with a slow, heavy pace; plod:

沉重缓慢的前进：以缓慢、沉重的步子行走或前进；沉重缓慢地走：
slog across the swamp; slogged through both volumes.
沉重缓慢地走过沼泽地；缓慢吃力地读完了那两卷

vibrant Pulsing or throbbing with energy or activity:

充满活力的，活跃的：有精力地跳动或震动的：
the vibrant streets of a big city.
大城市中的充满活力的街道
----------------------------------------------------------------
It is really hard to believe that this is the first time that I read books comments and I find they are really interesting. I watched the movie Julie & Julia few months ago and felt the writer’s ambitions. She is strong willing and persist in her willingness not matter how hard her life prevented her from achievements. The book comments say a lot about marriage, especially the dark side. The book writers are master of words since the expression “sentence to marry” keeps hovering in my mind because it is so vivid and ironic. In general, book comments are somewhat like movie reviews and maybe after I get rid of all the tests and tough stuffs will pick up more books to read.

domudomuUID: 2670967

Once upon a time in the annals of women's stories, getting married was the fairy-tale ending. These days, marital ambivalence（正反感情并存） rules the literary scene. December brought Julie Powell's new memoir, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession（迷住困扰） (Little, Brown; 307 pages), in which the Julie & Julia author tells the sad, sordid（肮脏的，卑鄙的） tale of the recent years she spent butchering pigs, cows and her husband's heart. Meanwhile, in a New York Times Magazine story, writer Elizabeth Weil detailed her efforts to subject her "perfect union" to every kind of therapeutic治疗的 scrutiny available in Northern California. Her goal of complete marital introspection — needed or otherwise — inspired heated holiday-party conversations and terror at the thought of the memoir to follow, as well as giving single women everywhere a new appreciation of their unburdened ring fingers. (See the 100 best novels of all time.)

Elizabeth Gilbert does these reluctant wives one better. The author of Eat, Pray, Love returns with Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage (Viking; 285 pages), in which she is a vehemently激烈的，竭尽能力的） wary second-time bride, due to be dragged down the aisle（走廊通道） by Uncle Sam's immigration henchmen, who will otherwise toss her beloved, Brazilian-born "Felipe," as she calls the older man she met in the last section of EPL, out of the U.S. for good. They hadn't planned to marry. Like Gilbert, Felipe had endured a hard divorce, and they were content to be "lifers" together. But a helpful Homeland Security officer prescribes marriage as the only certain way out of Felipe's immigration dilemma, and the couple agree that they love each other enough to do it. (See a Q&A with Elizabeth Gilbert.)

Gilbert cites statistics, scientific studies and her painful experience with her first marriage — the impetus（动力推动力） for the worldwide spiritual ramble（漫步闲聊） of EPL — as her reasons for not wanting to tie the knot. She demonstrates how the institution threatens her independence and the well-being of many women. Her fears hold up even when she's considering union with a man who loves her, excuses her memoirist tendencies and has been known to tell her that the curves of her body "look like sand dunes."

But whereas in Eat, Pray, Love the journey was what mattered, the end of Committed is, as of page 18, a foregone conclusion. As Gilbert puts it, she and her lover are "sentenced to marry." This makes the book a supreme act of navel-gazing, even for a memoir（自传，传记）. While the legal complexities are being worked out, the two kill time by traveling together. Along the way, Gilbert, ever the good journalist, gathers string on marriage and love from various sources, including the humble Hmong women of North Vietnam, seagulls（海鸥）, a humble frog-farming family in Laos and her humble 96-year-old Grandma Maude back in Minnesota. (Gilbert practices humility with vigor, even when sweetly patronizing（俨然以恩人态度的,要领情的） Third World cultures.) Her process is exhaustive, and the results are exhausting, though some of her points are astute（机敏的，狡猾的）. This slog through one woman's relationship angst feels, in the end, like much ado（费力，无谓的纷扰） about nothing.

Gilbert is a highly conversational writer — a blessing if you are in the memoir business. Four years after its publication, Eat, Pray, Love remains on the New York Times best-seller list, giving its author a chance, with the likely sales of this new book, to become the Malcolm Gladwell of soul-searching. Gilbert left her loyalists believing that a year of spiritual questing（寻求追求） would end with peace, love and the address of the best pizzeria in Naples. There could be no doubt that her readers wanted more. She and Felipe had gone off into the sunset; could she now describe the rosy glow? (See the top 10 fiction books of 2009.)

But Committed — and to a certain extent, Powell's Cleaving — demonstrates the curse of the conversational writer. I confess to having found EPL tedious at times and to struggling with the fortuitous arrival of true love at the end of Gilbert's year of self-discovery. (In Committed, she pokes fun at herself, quoting her sister Catherine's response to her gushy e-mails from Bali: "Yeah, I was planning to go to a tropical island this weekend with my Brazilian lover, too ... but then there was all that traffic.") There was no denying, however, that she was a vibrant（活跃的，战栗的，响亮的） woman on a cool adventure, with stories to tell. The pressure to return to that fertile ground must have been enormous. Just as she was sentenced to marrying, she was sentenced to sequel writing. (See questions and answers about retirement.)

Committed gives us a woman trapped in a command performance she's too smart not to be dubious about. She seems self-conscious about the need to remain everyone's best friend, littering her prose with chirpy asides ("Listen, I want to make it clear here that I am not intrinsically against passion. Mercy, no!") and cutesy interjections ("Just a little free advice there, from your Auntie Liz"). Then there are the apologies for anything that might offend. Her eloquent（雄辩的，有口才的） defense of gay marriage, for instance, is diminished by this chatty advisory: "You see where I'm heading with this, right? Or rather, you see where history is heading with this? What I mean to say is, you won't be surprised, will you, if I now take a few minutes to discuss the subject of same-sex marriage?"

Gilbert also repeats, incessantly（不断的）, information she's already conveyed, whether it be the vastness of the belly（鼓起） of a pregnant woman she's dining with or the details of a coat — wine-colored, with a fur collar — once owned by her grandmother. (We hear about its beauty four times in three pages.) There are useful insights into the dilemma of modern marriage here, but the overall effect of the heavily padded Committed is like that of being called, over and over, by a friend who wants to talk your ear off about her impending nuptials（婚礼的）. Only instead of debating the floral arrangements, she's wondering, Should I really be taking the leap? Halfway through Committed, I wanted to put the phone down and walk away, leaving Gilbert to figure it out on her own.

How to Butcher a Marriage
It would be much harder to hang up on Powell. She makes no apologies and no effort to be likable in Cleaving, a ghastly（可怕的，惨白的） work of revelation without enough self-reflection. Soon after wrapping up Julie & Julia, Powell began cheating on the kindly Eric, that husband who dutifully ate her butter-soaked Julia Child meals for a year. Her lover and S&M partner was Damian, a former college fling with "Mick Jagger lips, and a weak chin." I am saddened that I have a clearer vision of Damian's masturbatory methods than of his actual appeal, and sadder still at the mental images Powell provides of herself tied up, awaiting his next "R-owwr." (Since when is talking like Austin Powers sexy?) This recipe for marital disaster comes with scattered recipes you'd hesitate to trust, given the horrific disorder of Powell's upstairs kitchen. (See the top 10 nonfiction books of 2009.)

Cleaving is, however, a much livelier book than Committed, in the way that your narcissistic（孤芳自赏） pal is more riveting than your earnest, loyal girlfriend. Powell's interest in butchery is genuine, and the passages set during her internship at Fleisher's, an upstate New York butcher shop, bristle with clarity. That's not to say the intended metaphor — that as she learns to butcher, she's also exploring the anatomy of her tumultuous love life — is clear or convincing, largely because her journey feels so incomplete.

What is fascinating is the impact of previous writing successes on these pages. In one heartbreakingly venal passage, Powell thrills at Damian's audacity in pretending to be Eric for an eager reader who recognizes her on the street. The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse the implied disrespect for those — from the real Eric to her fans — who adore her. Powell was also sentenced to sequel, although her amply demonstrated lack of humility suggests she was happier to comply than Gilbert. But when she runs out of story — the Fleisher's internship complete — she copies earlier Gilbert, setting forth on a haphazard journey around the world. Her "Eat, Sulk, Stew" wraps up with a return to the husband she belittled and betrayed. Now here is a marriage to be debated. Maybe one of Weil's therapists could lend a hand.

Both books feel rushed into print. Cleaving begs for better boundaries and structure; the ladylike Committed is too confined to feel truly intimate. Gilbert overshares only in the department of exclamation points, and if you want to know what life postsunset is like, be advised: she takes us only to the altar（祭坛，神坛）. But these two writers share more than just marital ambivalence（正反感情并存）. It may be difficult to work up sympathy for best-selling authors who end up portrayed（描绘，描写） on the big screen by the likes of Amy Adams and Julia Roberts. (EPL the movie is scheduled for release this year.) Yet these women have been caged by the expectations of voracious publishers and readers. Their escape methods are different — Powell appears to be chewing her own leg off, Gilbert gently boring her captors into letting her go — but it's hard not to empathize with someone in a trap, even one built on success.

moonmouseUID: 2694347

1# tequilawine

Words：
Pray, 祈祷
Fret，烦恼
Mull， 沉思
Once upon a time, 从前，很久以前
Annals, 历史，编年史
Fairy tale 神话故事，童话，谎言
Marital
婚姻的，夫妻间的
Ambivalence
矛盾心理，犹豫不定
Memoir
回忆录，记事录，自传
Cleaving
裂开
Obsession
着迷，困扰，烦扰
Sordid 卑鄙的，肮脏的
Butcher
屠夫，屠宰
Therapeutic
治病的
Introspection
内省，自省
Skeptic
怀疑论者
Make peace with
讲和，言归于好
Vehement
感情强烈的;热情的；热烈的
Wary
谨慎的，小心翼翼的
Aisle
通道，过道
Henchmen
追随着，心腹，亲信
Toss 投掷，使摆动
Prescribe 开处方，规定
Dilemma 困境，左右为难
Dune 沙丘
Navel-gazing 目光如豆，光盘算无行动，纸上谈兵
Slog 猛击，艰难行走或劳动
Angst （因担忧）引起的焦虑和不安
Ado 无谓的忙乱
无谓的纷扰
Chirpy
快活的，活泼的
Intrinsical 本质的，内在的
Cutesy
矫揉造作的,忸怩作态的
Nuptials 婚礼
Leap 跳跃
Floral 花的，花香的
Ladylike
贵妇人似的，娴熟的
Comment：
Not only many GRE words, but lots of idioms and slangs make it really difficult for me to catch the main point and understand the article fully.
I think this passage is a critique about two books, Cleaving and Committed, which talk about the marital, especially on negative side of marriage. These days, marital ambivalence rules the literary scene. Getting married was the fairy-tale ending, which is still practical nowadays.
Every coin has two sides, so is marital. I prefer the good things of marital, because in the world there are many lovers who are living happy and blessed life all the time.

123runfordreamUID: 2697608

Julie Powell (born 20 April 1973) is an American author known for the book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

Elizabeth M. Gilbert
(born July 18, 1969) is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, biographer and memoirist.

Malcolm Gladwell (born September 3, 1963) is an American-based journalist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He is best known as the author of the bestseller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
.

Comment:

I have to confess that it’s a brilliant introduced article that I spend a lot of time to get it, which it’s not quite well now. But I do know a little massage about those two people showed in it before I read this book. Julie Powell, who writes the book of Julie and Julia, then, made it a movie, and Elizabeth Gilbert, who gave a speech which I’ve seen before about the creativity, who wrote a book named Eat, Pray, Love which is mentioned in this article, also impressed me very much.
Ad my poor understanding about this article which focuses on the introduction of Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession Eat, Pray, Love, discussing about marriage for women, which is an interesting issue for my saying. I don’t know much about the marriage situation in the western countries for women except the high rate of divorcing. And I don’t understand what is in the women’s sensitive inside of age thirty and above. What I do know is that both Julie Powell and Elizabeth Gilbert are brilliant though this article’s author says their work seem rush into print. The brilliant I appreciate is the courage they both have on the half of women to explore and write down the feeling of love and marriage.
I think the comments come from the author is a little harsh but a good one. Anyway, all those things mentioned in it are interested me, even the book written by Mr. Gladwell.


PS：笔记太多了。帖子里。

敛寒影UID: 2613052

fairy-tale    宛如神话故事的
ambivalence   
memor
introspection
unburdened
vehemently   激烈地
impetus
curve
chirpy  活泼的
cutesy  矫揉造作的
ghastly   苍白的
ado   纷扰，忙碌

This slog through one woman's relationship angst feels, in the end, like much ado about nothing.
Just as she was sentenced to marrying, she was sentenced to sequel writing.

Comment:

This is a book review about two books,concerning about marriage.I am not quiet understand this article.Then talking something about marriage.
It seems that marriage is an popular and hot key word last year,and many friends around us got married.In my mind,marriage is a beautiful and holy word with unforgetable experience in our lifetime.Two people are united in wedlock because of love,many years later,the relatonship between each other likely being company,moreover,a kind of habit to being together,ultimately,love changes into relative.The marital ambivalence the two books mentioned referring the burdened feeling,which feeling I can not underatand deeply about,for having no personal experience.In my oppinion,as long as we both have independent own life,the time being together should be more colourful.The little home belongs to us is our soul harbor ever,and the feeling that there is a person waiting for you all along is warming.

miki7catUID: 2533330

My comment
Frankly, I hardly grasp the main point of the article, but there is awareness that it seems the author maintains a critical attitude towards the methods of expression of the two writers. In the critical view of the author, Committed, as well as Cleaving —the other book mentioned in this article — to a certain extent, demonstrates a so conversational writing that readers will abandon the book because of the repeated information, which offers a insights into the dilemma of modern marriage though. And about Cleaving, the description about sex leads the readers to concern with sexual activity more instead of the characters' actual appeal.

番茄斗斗UID: 2720914

1sordid（邋遢的）

2she is a vehemently（强烈的） wary（警惕的） second-timebride

3tie the knot.

4This makes the book a supreme actof navel-gazing（纸上谈兵）, even for a memoir.

5This slog（艰难的工作） through one woman'srelationship angst feels, in the end, like much ado about nothing（庸人自扰）

6She andFelipe had gone off into the sunset; could she now describe the rosyglow?

7poke fun at herself(寻开心)

8She seems self-conscious about the need to remaineveryone's best friend, littering（使。。到处都是） her prose with chirpy asides（离题话）  

9Her eloquent defense of gay marriage,for instance, is diminished by this chatty advisory.

10Her lover andS&M partner was Damian, a former college fling(玩乐，放纵) with "Mick Jaggerlips, and a weak chin."

11The honesty of the admission doesn't cleanse the implieddisrespect for those — from the real Eric to her fans — who adore her.

12Both books feel rushed into print.

Comment:

Ok,i give up..i have to admit that i didn't really grasp the meaning of the article. With trivials and tons of character names, i'm much lost in the words. As i see it, it's more likely a comment on two current best-sold books. With the given excerpt and particular judgement, the author filled me with the rough idea of the characters. Though these two focus its own views, they do share some similarities, which win them  best-seller. With the cases given from the article, i'm shocked rather than amazed by the marriage situation nowdays. Concept of marriage has evolved along with the time.And as one of the post-80s, i can hardly obtain the future image of marriage.

jilinlinUID: 2396929

Comment:
This essay is an introduction and overview of two books, one is Committed written by Gilbert, the other is Cleaving by Powell. Both books expressed their authors’ discontentment about marriage. Gilbert wrote about her own painful marital experience and intended to collect statistics, scientific studies through journey for the reasons of not wanting to tie the knot. And Cleaving described a woman butcher’s fiction in which the woman character butchered her husband’s heart. From the essay we can understand some tradictional views of marriage has been changed in the US. Those modern women some of who care more about the curves of their bodies enjoy and appreciate the single’s freedom. In my opinion, whether the women singletons or the reluctant wives lack certain familial responsibility. Because marriage which requires devotion and contribution is a commitment of love and passions. No matter how romantic the love is at the beginning, it will become commonplace and ordinary in the end. Instead of losing interests or blaming each other, wives or husbands should learn to be tolerant and respect for each other which would bring about stability of family that benefits the couples. In overall speaking, marriage brings more happiness than troubles.

splendidsunUID: 2723757

1-7
Comment：
Actually, I cannot comprehend throughout this article. It is full of complexity for me to understand the plot in the books. Thus, I just talk about the attitude that I hold for love and marriage. There are thousands people say that marriage is the tomb of love. I extremely disagree with this ridiculous opinion. Marriage is a kind of promise between lovers to share sorrow and happiness in the coming life. Also it informs both sides to take responsibility for each other and their love. The true love should have none change before or after getting marriage. And also nuptial is the happiest time that one should have for his/her life. For me, having a happy family and true lover is much important than any other thing in my life. The feeling of being loved is the greatest time that I have experienced. I hope we would have a fairy-tale ending for our life. Ha~~  

Words:
marital 婚姻的
ambivalence矛盾情绪
sordid肮脏的
butcher屠杀
introspection反省，自省
reluctant 不情愿的
vehemently 激烈地
wary谨慎的
Uncle Sam美国的代称
henchman追随者
impetus 促进，冲力，动力
be sentenced to被判决
a foregone conclusion预料中的结果
much ado about nothing 小题大做
vibrant有活力的
sequel继续，续集
incessantly 不停地
nuptial婚礼
narcissistic自恋的
haphazard偶然的，无计划的
voracious贪婪的