A review by tctimlin
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Gilbert is such an excellent story teller.  This time the focus is on NYC from the 40’s to the 70’s.  Vivian is writing a letter retelling her story to the daughter of Frank - trying to explain how she fought to live an unconventional and free life, and to explain her unconventional relationship with Frank.  The titular “City of Girls” is a musical put on by Vivian’s Aunt Peg’s theatre during WWII, but also is the theatre itself, off-off-Broadway, always struggling to pay its bills, but becoming a home to women looking for more from life than the strictures of society allow.  But of course, the story ranges widely from the CIty of Girls - looking at WWII and its effects on civilians and soldiers alike, at homosexual relations, at mid-century sexual mores, and at what it means to love.
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