“Never has it felt more important for me to tell stories of joy and abandon, passion and recklessness. Life is short and difficult, people. We must take our pleasures where we can find them. Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live.”

City of Girls is set in 1940s New York. It’s a book of two halves. I really enjoyed the first half. It was absorbing and joyous, and made me forget the real world for a few hours (sorely needed). Vivian Morris has just flunked out of college, and is sent to live with her aunt Peg who owns a theatre in New York City. She is mesmerized by this world of beautiful showgirls, and gets to work experiencing life.

The second half of the book, set during and after the American war-effort, is a lot slower. This is when Vivian really has to grow up, face the music, and start sorting out her own mistakes. Eventually she settles into a life that is unconventional as she is. I can’t help but think this second half could be (A LOT) shorter. The end is lovely though and goes some way towards redeeming it.

I’m in two minds about whether or not to recommend you read this book, it's a solid entertianing read but it’s probably worth reading a few more reviews before deciding for yourself.

A wartime tale but with a difference... Vivian's experience of life and love in 1940's New York is a joy to read. The heady days of youth mixed with the colourful lives of the theatre set are intertwined and Vivienne navigates her way through with her talents as a seamstress to see her though. Written with warmth and humour, this book will lift your spirits.

For some reason the covid-19 lockdown has me turning to WWII novels and books. I find the spirit of that time heartening during our current struggles and this led me to City of Girls. Though most of the books have been from the British perspective ('The Splendid and the Vile' by Erik Larson as well as 'Love in the Blitz' by Eileen Alexander - both exceptional, by the way) City of Girls shows us the war through the rose coloured glasses of New York showgirls and the theater life. Amazing good fun for young, naive Vivian Morris moved to New York to live in the theater run by gloriously independent aunt Peg. She has a lot to learn and grows up quickly in this cracking read.

Everything is fun and games until events turn again our girl Viv and she must deal with the consequences. This seemed such a lighthearted and jolly novel but there is a real vein of bittersweet tenderness running through it as the war pulls America in. I didn't expect this book to be as touching as it was but love the turn it took as elderly Vivian recalls her life in New York and shows how the war impacted many globally even if not directly involved in the fighting.

I loved this novel for all the sarcasm and quick wit but more for the gentle love that stitched it all together. Not just a feel good book, here, but something that will warm your heart and make you feel satisfaction in your soul.

I loved the author’s memoir Eat, Prey Love when I read it a couple of years ago (never seen the movie). I’ve not read anything else by her and had no idea she wrote fiction as well. I adored this book. I need to read more by this author. This book has been everywhere and sounded like fun, so I wanted to read it. It’s one of my top read’s this year so far. This is a fun, entertaining read. It’s rare that I get as lost in a book as I did here. The simple language is very well done and makes the book easy to read. It spans many years in the character’s lives. I cannot recommended this book enough.

A fantastic fast paced story, this book is about a young girl Vivian, who has dropped out of college and gets sent to New York to live with her aunt who is in charge of a run down theatre in the heart of Hells Kitchen in 1940. A well researched portrayal of life in New York just prior to America joining the second world war. Vivian is young and silly, she gets caught up in the life of actors and showgirls and gets caught up in situations that she needs rescuing from. Not a thespian Vivian is saved by the fact that she can sew and is therefore in charge of costumes, again the research shines through in the descriptions of fabrics and tales of searching through thrift stores for material. I got lost sometimes in these scenes but could see the appeal for someone really into sewing and fashion, it also introduces Marjorie who is such fun, a real wise cracking New Yorker. There are some other really great characters in this book, Celia Ray, Aunt Peg, Olive, Frank and Edna. Having a book with so many strong women at its heart is also a refreshing change.
In some ways this is a familiar story but I enjoyed the insight that looking back on her life gives the older Vivian, where she is able to notice the sexist way that women were treated especially as they explored their sexuality. I found it a quick, enjoyable read and really appreciated seeing New York through this lens and at that time.

With thanks to Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Vivian Morris is the daughter of a prosperous family and a college dropout. In order to save their faces, her parents ship her off to her Aunt in New York to lie low and grow up. Grow up is exactly what Vivien does, in the theatre world of 1940 Vivian uses her skills as a seamstress and becomes involved in a louche and superficially glamorous world. However her naivety is her downfall and Vivian finds that as war approaches she needs to rethink her life.
After reading the author's introduction I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book - the idea of writing about a promiscuous woman didn't really appeal to me. It is a testament to Gilbert's storytelling that the sex seemed part and parcel of the character and actually this is a quite meaningful tale. If one views it as a period version of 'Sex and the City' it works really well!

I really enjoyed this, and will be buying it for a friend. It's a interesting story of wartime New York, looking at the roles of women and how they are perceived. The theatre setting is fun and I found myself caught up in the lives of the characters.

As I am a great enthusiast of New York I was really keen to read this book.

I found reading Vivian's story really interesting as she relays highlights of her life to Angela.

Absolutely loved it, a great read.

Heady, indulgent and dazzling!

I was intrigued by this book when I first saw Elizabeth Gilbert reveal it on her social media pages. It seemed different to what she was known for, and I generally love anything where wayward young women go off and have fun.
That's what this book was - pure fun! The story of an ordinary sort of girl in search of a more interesting life, in the run up to the war. After dropping out of her appropriate college education, Vivian is sent to New York to live with her theatre owning aunt, and ends up getting into heaps of trouble (fun) whilst sewing costumes and helping them pull together a hit show. It moved quickly, was written simply and beautifully, and it covered so much time and so many eras, with the characters becoming more known and loveable as the book continued.
Vivian learns her lessons but is never minimised, shamed or cowed. The book, whilst being about love and friendship, is also about sexual experience and shame and it was an incredibly refreshing read.
I read it with a joy at getting to be pulled along on this wonderful adventure. I imagine this book will be a big hit. It's clear Gilbert wrote it to be a joyful escape, and now more than ever, that's what we need.

Vivian Morris finds college of absolutely no interest, finds her pleasures elsewhere and is asked to leave, her parents have no idea what to do with her so ship her off to New York to stay with her eccentric Aunt Peg. Viv finds herself in the utopia of absolute freedom and plunges into the hedonistic pleasures available to her. The dressmaking skills she gained from her grandmother, ensure her popularity with the showgirls and actors in her aunt’s company at the Lily Theatre, where they live and work. This book is a telling of Viv’s adventures and life. It’s a bit like watching an old feature film, the detail brings it all to life and the story is fascinating if a bit bumpy but that makes it feel real. Highly recommended. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely adored this book! I got married in New York and have such fond memories of the city. It was a joy to be transported to a 1940's New York and I could almost smell the old theatre the descriptions were so detailed. I especially liked the mystery surrounding the identity of Angela and I didn't guess who her father was so the reveal took me by surprise. I've stopped short of 5 start because I found the pace of the book a bit slow to get into at the beginning and it wasn't until the big scandal in the middle that I really started to pick it up at every opportunity. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book. I've already recommended it to my book groups, friends and family.

City of Girls

Vivian Morris arrives in New York in 1940, after dropping out of college, to the disapproval of her parents. She joins her Aunt Peg at her theatre, the Lily Playhouse. There she becomes the costumer for the ragtag bunch of showgirls, actors and performers who live and work there. At the same time, she discovers her sexuality and the freedom of living in New York.

As a concept, the story is good and Vivian is a likeable character who deserves her happiness. However, for me there were two problems with the book. The first is that it was overlong for the content - whilst description is always good, the level of detail gone into at times was bordering on tedium. Secondly, I struggled with the fact that the whole story was intended to be a letter from Vivian to the daughter of a friend in 2010. Would anybody really discuss their sexuality in such detail with an almost stranger? Not in my world.

Sadly, not a book for me.

It's 1940 and Vivian Morris is 19 years old. She's a source of shame to her parents and older brother, after spectacularly failing her first year of college. She is sent to New York to live with her Aunt Peg. And so begins an awakening for this naive young woman. She is enchanted by New York City, and the characters she meets who are part of the cast and crew of Aunt Peg's theatre playhouse. As she forms a friendship with Celia, the dance captain, her eyes are opened to a world she could never have imagined existed. Sexual abandon, dancing, drinking and a sense of freedom she revels in.

When Arthur and Edna Watson enter her world, things are set to change beyond her imagining. Edna, a successful stage actress, becomes the star in a new play, written by Peg's errant husband, Billy. The play, City of Girls, is a resounding success but things begin to disintegrate for Vivvie. Arthur, believing his wife to be playing away with the man Vivvie has fallen in love with, persuades her to come on a night out with him and Celia. They end up in a hotel together, but unbeknownst to them, their menage a trois, has been captured by a salacious newspaper reporter. Once again shamed, Vivvie returns to her parents, and feels like she is now simply going through the motions of life. Peg comes to her rescue, and she returns to a New York that has changed since the end of the war, as has she. She enters a quieter phase of life, and during this time, she forms a connection with a man called Frank, who knew her now deceased brother. Their relationship is beyond friendship, and yet they never have a physically intimate relationship. He is however, the love of her life. They share their stories on endless walks, and are devoted to one another in a way that others would perhaps fail to understand.

City of Girls is a sweeping tale of self-discovery, shame, redemption, friendship and love and is simply a wonderful read.

The first third of this is frothy fun - Viv moves to New York to stay with her aunt (who runs a theatre), starts making the costumes, discovers sex. Then she makes a mistake and is caught up in a big scandal, around the same time as the USA enters the war. She returns home to escape the scandal but then returns to New York, which is where the story gets a bit more serious. Her post-war story, of friendships, business and an unusual love story is the rest of the novel.

As part of the scandal, she's told that she just isn't a very interesting person and sadly that's actually true. In some ways the rest of the book is her trying to become one, which sort of succeeds. But Vivian is mostly interesting because of where she is and who she associates with, she herself isn't that interesting (and the lengthy list of sexual conquests doesn't make her so, the only one who was interesting was the streetwise actor). The friendships she makes are the strength of the novel, particularly Marjorie. I'd read a book about Marjorie!

It's very readable, and a really interesting picture of 1940s-70s New York, but ultimately fairly forgettable,

This is a story that ticks A LOT of boxes for me; Vivian Morris is a fascinating character with an interesting story. I absolutely love Elizabeth Gilbert’s writing so I was excited to read this fiction. From the offset, 1940s America is brought to life and at first, each character suits the stereotype I’d expect of theatre makers of the time. The unravelling of each one (from showgirl to Hollywood star) kept me turning the page.

Promiscuous women, single mothers and lesbian couples powering through those decades flipped my initial expectation completely upside down. Towards the end, I completely grasped the underlying feminism that had been filtered when she (and all the characters) were younger and living through the era. The focus on Vivian’s sexual exploits is one of the reasons I think this book stands out amongst others and will definitely be memorable, whether the audience enjoy this or not!

For me, the outcome was such a positive representation of a modern woman and I liked the angle it was from. Her relationships at the end of the book (particularly with Frank) were really moving to say they had felt so understated. But I guess that was the beauty of them?

I received a copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this. I really liked the very human, fallible and flawed characters, and I found myself thinking of them while not reading. Beautiful writing too.

The story starts in 1940 when a young privileged girl is sent home from Vassar. Her parents think it would be a good plan to send her to live with her Aunt Peg in New York City. Aunt Peg owns a small theatre called The Lily, soon after arrival she was put to work making costumes for the actors and showgirls. She has always been a great seamstress and during the times of rations she is able to buy cheap antique cloths and use the fabrics to make wonderful outfits. She forms a friendship with one of the showgirls who showed her the darker side of New York, they drank and partied at all the famous night spots. Then she made the mistake of falling in love with the lifestyle that’s where the story gets interesting. Warm and sometimes sad this is a great book.

A book run of escapism and characters with big personalities and complicated lives then City of Girls is the book for you during these unprecedented times.

Where best to come of age then 1940s Manhattan just before America enters WWII where Vivian has escaped her parents and their suburban life to live with her aunt in a run down theatre where she creates costumes for the show girls and then goes out partying until dawn. Full of fantastic 40s details with glamour, excess, sex and glitz on every page as they prepare to put on the greatest show that the theatre has ever seen. Elizabeth Gilbert pushes at expectations that society put on how young women should behave in the 1940s as she pushes open the boundaries of becoming a woman free from these expectations with her own money and in control of her future.

This was an enjoyable read and I found myself full immersed with the details of the decade. Best not play a drink game each time a character knocks back a book or you'll end up clearing out the alcohol section of your local supermarket (look what happened to the toilet paper aisle at the beginning of this pandemic)! I really enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert's previous book, Big Magic and I'm glad I've finally tried some of her fiction.

(Netgalley provided me with a copy of this book).

This is a wonderful story of the adventures of a showgirl called Vivian Morris. As you can guess Vivian does not lead a conventional life but she does lead an interesting one. She was born in the USA in the twenties and takes us through the war years and into the present. Her motto was never apologise for who you are. I am sure you will instantly love Vivian, her friends and her escapades.

I loved this! Picked it up over a weekend and was struggling to choose my next read. Entertaining story and characters.
I would choose other books from this author based on this book.