Book Review: "City of Girls" by Elizabeth Gilbert
“City of Girls” by Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher Synopsis:
“Life is both fleeting and dangerous, and there is no point in denying yourself pleasure, or being anything other than what you are.”
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.
In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves – and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest.
Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life – and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. “At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time,” she muses. “After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.” Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other. - Penguin Random House
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review:
Do you ever “meet” a character in fiction that you just want to sit down and have a cocktail with? No, just me? Well, I feel like that with all of the characters of the Lily Playhouse - Vivian, Aunt Peg, Uncle Billy, the cast and crew that put on the shows. Not only does Elizabeth Gilbert create an engrossing world, she creates one that makes you want to put on your best hat and dancing shoes and figure out a way to time travel back to 1941.
I need to start off with the format — the whole book is structured as an explanation from Vivian to Angela, a character only described as “his daughter” on the first page of the book. We soon know why: “Vivian, Angela wrote, given that my mother has passed away, I wonder if you might now feel comfortable telling me what you were to my father.”
That’s not a spoiler - I promise! - it’s on the first page. For the majority of “City of Girls,” we don’t know know who the father is, or what role he played in Vivian’s colorful life — I think this narrative device was meant to drive the story, and it definitely allows for a more informal, conversational style, but I often forgot that’s what I was supposed to be remembering. I was so wrapped up in Vivian’s recounting of her life that the occasional “…and that’s why this is a thing, Angela” often caught me off guard. It felt almost defensive in a way that seemed out of character for Vivian, who is telling her story, warts and all.
As a character, Vivian is one of the most vivid that I can remember reading in quite a long time; Elizabeth Gilbert did a magnificent job in immersing the reader in her world. I have never pretended to live a bohemian lifestyle (tbh, the idea of it stresses me out a little bit), but I did enjoy reading about the one in this novel — a freewheeling theater group in World War II New York City. That said, I didn’t always like Vivian. She was incredibly selfish throughout the book — unabashedly so — and it only slightly mellowed with age. I did love that she was so sex-positive; throughout the book, she was very open about her love for male company (and her dislike for “conventional” and “traditional” relationships) and all that entails. It’s something that continually gets her in trouble, often to great comedic relief.
My favorite person in this book was Aunt Peg - she was thoughtful, she was gregarious, she was a bit naive, and she was, I believe, not only the heart of the theater, but the heart of the book. Another highlight was watching Vivian meet the varied “loves of her life” and the evolution of those relationships. Mostly, it’s an ode to friendship — female friendship, unexpected friendship, and friends that become the family you choose — in the best way that I can imagine.
Trigger warnings: lots of sex (I don’t think that’s a bad thing?), overbearing big brothers
TL;DR: A fun and sexy summer read that will make you want to go back in time to see City of Girls at the Lily Playhouse and to have a cocktail with Vivian and her chosen family. I think the best description this book is an “old-fashioned romp.”
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