City of Girls: Bold. Fun. Dramatic.

Posted On August 12, 2021

Hi Readers! How is it going? August is moving swiftly and so far I have only read 2 books this month. Both were really good, so I am happy, but I really need to pick up my pace! So, last weekend I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘City of Girls’ and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this book. The only other book of hers which I had read earlier is ‘Eat. Pray. Love’, which was good. But, City of Girls is on another level altogether. I had as much fun writing its review as much as I did while reading the book!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

“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 ninety-five 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.

~~CHARACTERS~~

This story is not shy of colourful, memorable & witty characters with a grandeur of glamour, optimism, practicality & dramatic edge to them. We have our protagonist Vivian Morris who is one of the boldest narrators I have come across. From being a naïve 19-year-old country girl to becoming the girl who goes out every night & sleeps with random strangers, she literally discovered sex and went on to explore it some more in a matter of 2 weeks! While this was more of an effect of New York City, you can’t really blame her. As the story progressed, we watch her grow up to be a sensible woman with strong female friends and a purpose driven life. I loved watching her life unfold and to read about all the messed up decisions she made, but also all the right decisions she eventually made.

In the initial part of the story, we have a lot of characters who work at the Lily Playhouse. Vivian’s Aunt Peg is a force of nature. Even though she is Vivian’s parent-like presence, she behaves more like a friend. We have Olive, who is the manager of the Lily but more like the disciplinarian and only rational person of the lot. We have showgirls Celia and Gladys. Celia soon becomes Vivian’s best friend. We also have a handsome actor Anthony who becomes the highlight of Vivian’s love life. Then there’s Mr. Herbert who writes the script and Benjamin who plays the music. Both of them are more of background characters. 

And then enter three new characters! Billy Buell, who is Peg’s husband in name only. Also enter Edna Parker Watson and her husband Arthur Watson. I have loved reading Edna’s character. She is a role model of how a woman should be, if there ever was one. In ‘City of Girls’ play, we have these two most annoying, controlling and ruinous men – Billy & Arthur. It was kind of perfect how the reader is meant to hate them, because after all this book is about the girls, so please move over men!

In the second part, we see Marjorie’s character blossom. She works at the Lowtsky’s which is the shop where Vivian shops. Later in the story, she becomes her best friend and it’s lovely to watch their friendship grow.

All these characters bring something unique to this wonderful story! I have absolutely loved them, hated them, felt sorrow for them & simply had so much fun with them! City of Girls is a play which all of them work on during wartime. It becomes a comfort to all the people in those dark times. And, then once again, this book was a comfort to me in these dark times of the global pandemic. I am lucky to have read this book this month, because it gave me all the joy I could possibly have.

~~STORY & WRITING STYLE~~

City of Girls is an almost 500-page novel, and while I loved reading it, it could have easily been way shorter. The first 300 pages is where there is a lot of fun and drama and pure entertainment for the reader. This is the most enjoyable part of the book. It’s basically reading about someone’s nightlife, and yet it is written with so much imagination that you are never bored. And, when that becomes a lot, we have the play of City of Girls to liven the story even more. All the preparations to make the play a success was thrilling to read. Since I have never experienced any of these two things myself, I had a lot of fun reading about all the glamour which comes with it.

But, after that period, the next 200 pages were a let-down. I was not expecting it to take such a turn. It turned from all rage to all dull in one moment. More so, the 100 odd pages from 300 to 400 are entirely unnecessary and also too long because nothing ever happens there. And then, in the last 100 pages there is so much content which is simply fast forwarded. I knew all along that the person who drove the cab and took Vivian back to her home after the scandalous incident would be Angela’s father. The obvious reason is because all characters, even minor ones are named in the story. So, it was odd that this one person who called Vivian a ‘dirty little whore’ leaving a trauma with those three words was unnamed. It was obvious he had a big part in the rest of the story, and he did.

My major problem with the story is that the first 300 pages have next to no connection to the next 200 pages. It could easily be two separate books. I mean, sure, both those parts are polar opposites and because of this, it makes a rich, conflicting and emotional reading experience. But, was that really necessary? A book can do a lot of things; make you joyous to the point where you actually put on music and dance alone in your room because that’s what the characters are doing, make you so miserable that you cry into your pillow while you sleep, make you so conflicted by dilemmas that you end up getting a stomach ache from anxiety, make you feel a whole lot of feelings in the matter of 500 pages, and sometimes more! So, I wonder if it was really necessary to give us a comfort play which played during wartime with all the scandals, and then gave us the story of the soldiers who died or got burned or had PTSD from the war, all in the same book? Both these story lines just didn’t fit together well for me. Also, the entire book is about Vivian writing a letter to Angela answering her what she meant to her father. Who in their right mind would write about all the frivolous activities they did in the 40s just because they faintly connect to how she met Angela’s father? A letter was not the perfect form of writing this story, if you ask me.

“What we’re doing here tonight doesn’t matter in the cruel scheme of the world, but we’re doing it anyhow.”

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

Given all its faults and missed connections, I treasure this book and this story. City of Girls in three words is Bold, Fun & full of Drama, which makes it a fascinating unputdownable book to read. It is somehow a mixture of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s writing style mixed with the series Sex and the City and also How I Met Your Mother. If you are a girl, you should definitely read City of Girls. If you enjoyed watching those several seasons and movies of Sex and the City, then you should read City of Girls. If you are all about the proper structure in a novel, then you might not entirely enjoy City of Girls, but you might still like it in bits and pieces. If you have a desire for drama and entertainment, then this book is it! Either way, no matter your preferences, I think you should read City of Girls. At its best it gives you an illusion of a fun and perfect youth, and at its worst it’s still two well written parts of a not so connected story.

Until next time,