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More Books

If you’ve been reading my notes for a while, you know that I praised Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. a memoir of her sojourns in these countries. I mentioned it here because it has some interesting observations on the culture of these very different locales.

She has just come out with another volume, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage which is about marriage and her decision to marry for a second time. What does this have to do with living abroad? Well, when in Bali, she fell in love with a man who is Brazilian. They became involved and lived together until...surprise, surprise… he was stopped by Homeland Security in Dallas for having exited and entered the U.S. too many times. Such are the hazards of international relationships and one should be aware that this can happen. Marriages would solve the problem, however. They are, in effect, “sentenced” to marry.  Deciding that they wanted to be together while he awaited a new visa, they found inexpensive places to stay in Southeast Asia.

The reason prospective expats might benefit from this book is Gilbert’s perceptive analysis of the difference between a traveler and someone who is at home anywhere. She admits she’s a traveler. When she and Filipe arrive at a comfortable hotel in Bangkok, he wants to sit by the pool and read mysteries while she wants to go to Cambodia and visit the temples there. Filipe is a person who is at home wherever he happens to be, so he’ll be happy living wherever she wants, while she acknowledges that she would not consider settling permanently anywhere but along the U.S. eastern seaboard. So, if you’re still wondering if you and your significant other are suited to the expat life, it’s not enough that you enjoy traveling. Stop and ask yourselves, can you be at home anywhere?

Another book I can’t resist mentioning though it doesn’t have much to do with being an expat is Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, just because, in my opinion, it’s a gripping story, very well done. You can see what it’s about by looking at the cover, but there’s far more to it.

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