A joyous, exhilarating,
riot of a book
When one of my favourite authors writes a new book I always
experience a confusing mix of emotions. Excitement and anticipation mix with
fear; will I love it as much as I love their last book? I don’t want to be
disappointed. This is how I approached Liz Gilbert’s new book City of Girls.
Like a lot of readers my first encounter with Gilbert’s writing was Eat, Pray,
Love; a book that was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon, not to mention
the following hit film. For me, it was her novel The Signature of All Things that
caught the imagination. The combination of a sparky and intelligent heroine,
the feminist theme and the historical detail came together in a beautifully
woven story. So as the publication date approached for her new novel I
desperately wanted it to live up to her first.
I shouldn’t have worried. City of Girls is a joyous, exhilarating
riot of a book. Our narrator, Vivian, plunges us into 1940s Manhattan where she
is sent by her parents after expulsion from Vassar. There she is placed in the
care of her Aunt Peg who runs the, slightly ramshackle, Lily Theatre. I was
suddenly immersed in the bohemian world of theatre people where Vivian soon
finds her niche. At Vassar she made friends by creating outfits for the other
girls on her trusty sewing machine. So, in her new rooms above the theatre she
is soon surrounded by showgirls wanting costumes. I have an interest in fashion
and sewing, so I really enjoyed the descriptions of Vivian’s creations, made on
a shoestring with a lot of help from Lowtsky’s vintage clothing store downtown.
Yet not everything is as it seems on the surface. Is her friendship with
showgirl Celia as mutual as it appears? What influence does the matronly and
doom laden Olive have over Aunt Peg? Where is Uncle Billy, whose rooms Vivian
has been using since her arrival?
Some of these questions
are answered during the production of the brand new play City of Girls. Aunt
Peg’s friend Edna Parker Watson comes to stay after losing her London home
during the Blitz. Edna is a talented theatre actress who is petite, beautiful
and impeccably dressed. She arrives at the Lily with her huge wardrobe and her
very famous and much younger husband, Arthur. Every member of the theatre
company does their very best to get this musical off the ground and make it a
success. Vivian works hard on her costume designs, but also finds herself
becoming an unofficial PA and friend to Edna. Determined to put on the best
show they can to turn the Lily Theatre’s fortunes around, Aunt Peg agrees to
audition for new actors. When Vivian meets Anthony, the new leading man, she falls
in love for the very first time. But alongside the awakening of first love,
Vivian will also have her eyes opened to how cruel showbiz and the wider world
can be. Several revelations teach her that not everyone can be trusted, the
most unexpected people can come to your aid, and Vivian realises she has been
walking around with her eyes closed. As the Second World War moves ever closer
to their shores Vivian is left with a reckoning of her own. Does she want the
respectable, quiet life her family expects or does she want to make her own way
in a city and a career that is anything but quiet?
You will fall in love with Vivian as she takes you into her
past and candidly shares her exploits in 1940s NYC. She takes you from theatre,
to nightclub to a dingy apartment in Hell’s Kitchen where she conducts her
first love affair. She holds nothing back and I felt her delight at
encountering the bohemian characters of the theatre, her passion and ingenuity
for costume work and her discovery of a city laid out before her like a
playground. She allows us to experience her growing up with every triumph and
mistake she makes along the way. Such an engaging central character is well matched
with other beautifully drawn female characters from the dowdy killjoy Olive who
has surprising depths, the enigmatic Edna Parker Watson, the brisk and sometimes
foolhardy Aunt Peg to the glamorous showgirl Celia who leads our narrator into
a world of nightclubs, make-up and disposable men. The women in this novel are
strong, surprising and all teach Vivian something about the kind of woman she
wants to be. The novel emphasises the importance of strong female role models
or mentors in both our personal and working life. I found myself torn between
bingeing on this book or savouring it slowly: I wanted to know what happened
next but I didn’t want my adventures with Vivian to come to an end.
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