City of Girls: A Novel

I'm reading the best book of fiction I've read in twenty years (Me--a bonified memoir-creative non-fiction reader actually reading fiction!) by Elizabeth Gilbert, The City of Girls is a page turner. I stayed up until 5 am reading. I can't put it down! Only when I passed out and my iPad konked me on the head did I stop reading! I love the scenes, characters, dialogue and narrative. The fact that it is written in an epistolary form from a 70 year old woman to an old friend and confidant made it so interesting. It reads like a coming of age memoir with delightful coming of age sexual confessions, reflections, and life lessons that speak to us in 2020. This novel is set in the delicious golden age of the 40's in NYC and anyone who was born and raised in NY have at least heard of the places named in the story. BTW--last week, I took a memoir writing workshop with Elizabeth Gilbert for an hour, she said she is relived to write fiction so she can write freely without worrying about being sued by anyone and that she feels completely liberated; as her protagonist in this novel becomes over a period of time. It's a perfect escapist read for these dark days of too much bad news. This book is a real delight. I recommend it heartily!

It’s 1940, and Vivian’s wealthy parents have sent her off to live with her eccentric Aunt Peggy in New York City after she flunked out of Vassar. Aunt Peggy owns the Lily Playhouse, a once grand, three-story building in Manhattan, where nightly stage productions are put on. The second and third floors of the structure are the living quarters for Aunt Peggy, her business manager Olive, and a menagerie of showgirls, singers and dancers, and other free spirits. Up until her parents sent her away, nineteen-year-old Vivian had led a pretty sheltered and pampered life. The only thing she knew how to do was sew. This talent was quickly put to use, designing and creating the costumes for the performers. Vivian thrived on the chaos and freedom of her new life, which included lots of alcohol, cigarettes, and men. Lots of men. This book chronicles the next seventy or so years of her life. Vivian narrates this story, which consists of her writing a letter (a book-length letter) to a woman named Angela. She’s responding to a note from Angela asking about the relationship between Angela’s dad (now deceased) and Vivian. Vivian agrees to answer the question, but only if Angela will hear her entire life’s story. And it’s quite a story. FYI, the reader doesn’t know which man in Vivian’s life was Angela’s dad is until the book is 90% done. All the characters were interesting, particularly the women. Besides Vivian and Peggy, there was a famous English actress named Edna Parker Watson who steals the show; a show girl named Celia who taught Vivian how to party; and a young woman named Marjorie who ends up playing a significant part in Vivian’s life. They were all strong and independent women. I liked Vivian, but I didn’t understand why the drunken sex with multiple men was so appealing. Some nights it turned out to be rough sex. Bruises and hangovers the next morning, then ready for a “good time” again the next night. But that was just part of Vivian’s story. I found the last chapters to be quite touching, and the ending good. This is a story about strong, independent women who lived their lives on their own terms. It’s not a book I’ll soon forget. Four Stars.

Spoilers Alerts!! I purchased this book in 2020 during the height of COVID. My Beloved Grandmother had died of old age that year. And, I was working two jobs. It took me until this year to grab this book off my shelf and read it. I so glad I did, this book was wonderful very well written. This was the first book I have read by this author. Vivian the main character was a lost soul. Her grandmother taught her to sew anything and that became her saving grace. She could take random pieces and make the most beautiful clothing. Vivian came from a rich and elite family and couldn’t seem to find her way while she was in college. She failed her first semester so bad that the dean kindly ask her not to return. Her spit fire aunt Peg was something else. She produced and directed theater plays in New York. Peg had a wild crazy sense of style and ways of doing things. Honestly she had no sense of direction either. Her lover/ girlfriend Olive was as strait laced as they come. She was the voice of reason and never showed emotion. Celia was a beautiful showgirl who was living a wayward lifestyle. She had so much talent but was living so wild that it was bound to bite her in the butt. Vivian wanted to be like her and she was for a while until she almost ruined herself. This book and the likable and unlikable characters was such a treat to read! The story was unexpected and the ending was a well. Must read!

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726) launched the scientific era with the publication of “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, at a time when philosophy was considered to encompass all knowledge, including scientific knowledge. That, of course, has all changed. Science, in the modern era, is truth. Philosophy is, to many, but certainly not to me, gibberish. I distinguish the two today in this fashion: 1. Science is what we know or can reasonably expect to know. 2. Philosophy is what we don’t know and may never be able to know. Unfortunately, science has won the war for minds, or, at least, students. Scientists are smart and objective. Philosophers are just, well, they might be smart, but they’re weird. I am definitely of the philosopher class although I have no advanced degree in anything. No real philosopher would even think to wonder if I did. I am with Newton, however. I think all future scientists should be forced to study philosophy. I don’t know how you can know anything if you don’t also ponder what you don’t know. A confident scientist lacks the objectivity to be a true scientist in my book. So how does this pertain to this book? This book is all about Vivian. And that does get a little burdensome at times. And the characters are not people, but clichés pretending to be people. The dialogue, of course, mirrors the people, as well it must. And, yes, this book could have been written in a heartbeat and just for the money, as some reviewers have claimed, by such a talented writer. But I’m guessing not. First of all, I grew up in a town not ten miles where Vivian grew up and there was no family like hers within a hundred miles. But, more importantly, the clichés are just, well, too clichéd, and as one who loves the written word that is not easy to pull off. This author had a hidden motive. And I believe I saw it, sometimes briefly, but throughout the book. The message is that we know sh** about life or each other. And that is a powerful message. A philosophical one, for sure. But true. In the end I don’t believe this is a novel about the NY theater scene in the 1940s, the war, and it was a big one, emotional scarring, or even female emancipation. This is a story that could be titled: “Who the heck do we think we are?” I loved it. The writing is superb. Snappy, for sure, but that’s a lot harder to pull off than it may seem. The characters are more than over the top but they are based in reality. Peg, the alcoholic lesbian theater owner, was my favorite. She holds the wisdom of the ages. There is an awful lot of talk about sex. Vivian loves it – with lots of different men she doesn’t know - because, she says, it brings her satisfaction, if not fulfillment or happiness. But she never takes the reader to bed with her and I’m okay with it because male protagonists have been doing the same thing since paper was invented. To the people who follow my reviews, and there are apparently more than a few of you – thank you - I don’t think this is the greatest book of the decade. But it is good. Most importantly it is not a novel by today’s standards. It is either a sick and sexually deviant romance novel, a feminist manifesto, or a novel of great philosophy. I choose the latter. Pick at your peril. But if you like my reviews you will probably like this book. I don’t buy in to all of the themes, but well done, I say. A solid 5!

Overall: A fun, lively, and sexy tale about women growing up in New York during a golden time. Recommend to fans of fiction, love stories, chick-lit, and anyone who likes New York city 3.5/5 or 6.5/10 Summary: City of Girls is a coming of age story about a beautiful young girl who moves to New York and lives with showgirls in her late teens. The story is told as she is an older woman telling her life story to the daughter of one of her great loves and she is looking back on her life and she recognizes her flaws as well as her successes. When she arrives in New York, she is young, naive a very good sewer and quickly realizes she loves and is great at sex. The Good: This book is very fun and should be enjoyed with a glass of wine or champagne. It is easy to get lost in this one as the time period and plot are fun and entertaining and there are great descriptions throughout. The main character is likable (mostly) and the supporting characters add some different perspectives and personality to the book. The biggest theme in this book was passion and it was at the forefront throughout the story. The Bad: I had a hard time getting past the narration to Angela. I found it overly familiar and just too hard to believe; felt this way about some of the events in the novel as well. I also did not enjoy the second half of the book as much as the first, found the relationship with Angela's father very difficult to believe. And the ending was rushed. Still, overall this is a fun and entertaining read.

Have patience if you start to read this novel. Its talking points are not revealed early. You will encounter what you take to be the plot's main theme soon enough. It gives little away to say that the book takes the form of a memoir in which an impressionable girl named Vivian leaves her staid small-town home and discovers the sensual palette of the big city, namely New York. There is a prequel which hints at a love affair to come, but that takes a while to unfold and probably will be put out of mind for many pages. The reader is unlikely to be surprised by the contrast between the expectations and disciplined conduct of Vivian's childhood home and the Bohemian entourage surrounding her Aunt Peg at the Manhattan theater she owns. Slightly more unexpected may be the period in which the story is set. Did New York really function so lasciviously in the late 1930s? In some quarters, apparently so. In a way, life then in these quarters seems to have been a mirror image of post-Great War - except instead of license following the martial deluge it preceded it. As would be expected from a memoir format, much of the narrative reflects on the past and how it shapes, often irrevocably, lives and characters. Vivian's introduction to life at a relatively insignificant, run-down theater is a necessary but, as it turns out, somewhat subsidiary phase in the story. The initial cast of characters is interesting, for sure, but it is consequences and later conclusions that give the novel its raison d’etre. Perhaps it can be acknowledged , without giving away crucial elements, that inner perceptions and motivation, particularly of a sexual nature in Vivian's case, are intrinsic to this process. It is also a story, reminiscent to me of James Joyce's The Dead, of how the relationships that mean the most can be the least apparent to others. Sufficient to say, author Elizabeth Gilbert investigates the subject evocatively and with acumen, with — for those fearful of a pornographic bent — hardly an explicit reference to bodily function. It's all about appetite and aspiration, and even abandon. Can a “bad” girl be a good person? Hardly a shocking proposition these days, but still one that will always intrigue. As a man I found myself reflecting on the power of feminine mystique, and I suspect that may true for a number of female readers. What more could a fella ask?

How refreshing to have a woman become who she really is, to know what works for her, and to embrace it whole heartedly, and to be honest with others about that. This is really unheard of, or nearly so. It’s a fascinating story about one woman’s long life of discovering her truest self, and then having the courage to live her life in accordance with that knowledge of what’s important to her. The many deep relationships, the family of choice we call it in my world, is satisfying and enlightening. May we all be so lucky as to have a life filled with such people. I know it’s a hugely important part of my life to have always had such a loving and fun and interesting group of people whom I love and who love me back. It may be the only area of my life where I have truly and thoroughly succeeded, and it’s profoundly meaningful to me. I can’t say that every reader will enjoy a book like this, written about such deep questions about how best to live one’s own best life. But I know I found it useful, entertaining, moving and eye opening. Quite a feat for one book!

Tell it like it was, so yeah, for women in the 20th Century in New York. No sugar-coating the glamorous life or the everyday working life of women through the decades as readers follow the first-person narration of an independent woman who tells her story to another, younger woman. “You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm---Colette” From her careless, "wanton" twenties (Come on, unless you fell into the stereotypical marriage-to-whom-your family thinks-you-should trap, who wasn't self-indulgent and careless as well as carefree during their 20s?) through the dismal WWII years of women working in factories, doing without staples, as well as comforts, like sex with men, as the men fought "the great war" far away from home, the narrator lays herself bare, admits her mistakes, and moves into adulthood as a single, adult, female business owner. One character advises, “I hope you’re having a good time, too. People will tell you not to waste your youth having too much fun, but they’re wrong. Youth is an irreplaceable treasure, and the only respectable thing to do with irreplaceable treasure is to waste it. So do the right thing with your youth —squander it.” Fiercely loyal to her friends, and thoroughly "satisfied" with sex with multiple men, she is a real woman, not one of fantasy fiction to be "rescued" by a man. “Anyway, at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whomever she truly is.” She rescues herself and her life, decade after decade. Gradually, she learns to accept and enjoy who she is. “You asked if it [sex] makes me happy. I don’t think so. Other things in my life make me happy. My work makes me happy. My friendships and the family that I’ve created, they make me happy. New York City makes me happy. Walking over this bridge with you right now makes me happy. But being with all those men, that makes me satisfied. . . And I’ve come to learn that this kind of satisfaction is something I need, or else I will become unhappy. I’m not saying that it’s right. I’m just saying—that’s how it is with me, and it’s not something that’s ever going to change. I’m at peace with it.” Meanwhile, we witness the NYC off-Broadway small (and often tacky), theatre world of showgirls, singers, swingers, and players. What a gay and seedy life it is. Oh, to be single, young and free to explore this world and NYC itself. ”It is preserved forever in my memory like an orchid trapped in a paperweight. That city will always be my perfect New York.” Read this book, lustily, and thoroughly enjoy New York through the eyes of one 20th Century woman. . “