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Perhaps our favorite thing about Heart.Wants.Books is getting to share our favorite titles with you.  Help us find new favorites by joining us for Virtual Book Club on August 7 at 7:30 p.m. This time, we’ll be discussing The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray!   Registration is open here.  Even if that doesn’t turn into a favorite book, you can still tell us what titles you’re loving or suggest a book for us to review.  Sign up and show up to share, and find out if we finish the book before the day of book club (as we’re hoping to start this weekend)!

When a book hits the favorite of the year list, it gets a book buddy’s attention.  Actually, I think City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert may have had Ashley’s attention before that, as I read it last June, the same month that it came out and gave it five enthusiastic stars.  I’m not certain where I heard about it to recommend it to my library before it came out (and get in early on the holds), but THANK GOODNESS.  While a good chunk of this book took place in the 1940s, let me say now, THIS IS NOT WWII FICTION, not really.  This is a coming of age tale of Vivian, as she’s looking back on her life.  City of Girls is also about women and society and finding oneself, recovering from mistakes, reinvention, and adaptation, with a side of family saga and a sliver of mystery and romance.  The sliver of a mystery begins on page one with a letter from his daughter, Angela, because now that her mother has passed away, Angela wants to know what Vivian was to her father.  That starts us down the path following 19-year-old Vivian through the twists and turns of being sent to live with her Aunt in a New York City theater, finding her place in the company, her way in the world, and ultimately carving her own path.  This book is told by Vivian, who at 95 years young, takes a nearly 500 pages journey through the last 75 years (but mostly in the 40s) to address Angela’s question.  While she can’t say what she was to Angela’s father, Vivian seeks to explain who he was to her.  

When I started this book, I’d only read one of Gilbert’s other titles, Eat, Pray, Love, and have since read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.  If you’ve read either of those, you know her writing is gorgeous (and if you haven’t, well, there you go, just don’t judge any book by the movie), but it’s not just that with City of Girls.  While I may have connected with this title because my grandmother was only a few years younger than Vivian and I felt like she could have been one of my great aunts (just with extra drama), I don’t think that’s all.  Gilbert writes Vivian in a way that makes her real and relatable.  She comes alive on the pages, as do her companions.  There are moments in this book where I was laughing so hard I was crying and parts that were gut-wrenching (and got to relive them as a friend of the blog texted me periodically while she read through this book last fall – thanks A!), but I think my favorite part was the wrap up, where readers learn about the life Vivian has created for herself.  This isn’t the life her parents envisioned for her when they sent her off to Vassar, but the life Vivian designed through trial and error, finding her way slowly but surely by following her heart, picking herself back up again, and continuing on with energy and passion.  

In case this title being on my 2019 favorites list wasn’t clear, I give City of Girls five enthusiastic stars, and I will be rereading it at some point.  Also, because endings are a big deal, this one was solid.  It was everything I wanted it to be.  Mysteries explained, a clear image of Vivian’s present, and how she got from 1940 to 2010.  Just a really complete, gorgeously written novel!  

I think the pandemic has led me to a lot of introspection (or at least a desire for it), and Vivian has helped (as has Gilbert herself).  From the first chapter of City of Girls, we know of her passion and skill for sewing.  Throughout the pages we learn how Vivian uses this to find her way, in whatever place she finds herself.  I know I’m passionate about impactful stories, well-told.  I do some of that in my day job, and I get to do more of it with you here dear readers.  What are you passionate about, and how has it led you to finding your way?  

~Nikki 

City of Girls is the newest release of bestselling author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert. Most famously known for her non-fiction travelogue Eat, Pray, Love, which was made into a movie staring Julia Roberts, Gilbert has written more novels, a collection of short stories, and other non-fiction works, including Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. While living in New York, she wrote for Spin, The New York Times Magazine, and GQ – where one of her essays about bartending on the Lower East Side became the basis for the movie “Coyote Ugly.” Now, back to the novel.

The first thing I messaged to Nikki immediately upon finishing City of Girls was: “OMG, it’s so beautiful and so sad and so full of life and I’m dead.” I wanted more of Vivian’s story, but, there was literally nothing else that could have been said that would have made the story any better. Except for maybe lots of wine and several girlfriends with whom to discuss it. The only tricksy thing is that the best parts are the parts you don’t want spoiled, so it’s hard to discuss here on the blog the things that I truly loved about this story.

Nikki said it well, that it’s NOT WWII FICTION, it’s a coming of age story set in a NYC theatre, where the majority of the book happens between 1940 and 1945. The Lily Playhouse is where you learn to love or hate the players in the novel with equal and sometimes surprising ardor. There were times when I despised the choices that Vivian made, but as her story unfolded we see the pieces of ourselves in her that we try to keep hidden. For much of her story, I was jealous of the life she was able to lead, but that life came with a considerable amount of economic privilege. She lived with her Aunt Peg at the Lily and worked as the costumer, using her sewing machine to best outfit the actors, but she wasn’t paid for that work, she received a weekly allowance from her parents for her upkeep. I want the problem of leaving Vassar and then being able to do as I wish around the shops, bars, and clubs of New York. To sleep most of the day hungover and then turn around to party all night. I will say that, barring a few experiences during college and after, I have never been a partier, but I can see the appeal even now. I am jealous of others’ ability to let go and have no fear of the consequences of letting one’s responsibilities go with every drink one finishes.

My favorite part came later in the story, and I don’t want to give too much away, but she learned what it was to forgive, because she saw herself in the one who was asking for forgiveness. By seeing herself in that person, she was able to give to them the forgiveness she had not previously received. If only we could all be forgiven our stupidity and other transgressions as Vivian forgave, what a happier world it would be. She realized that in that moment the forgiveness wasn’t about her feelings, it was about the other person needing to feel the release of guilt that had plagued them.  

I am so glad I was finally able to get City of Girls off my holds list and onto the Reading Life Review. I had been waiting since Nikki had highly recommended it as I was skeptical about the possible WWII timeline, and had been #1 since about February, and finally had the break in our reading life to commit to the 400+ pages. (Y’all, the holds game is real!) I had read Eat, Pray, Love and its follow up, Committed, during and after college respectively, and I am happy to place the rest of Gilbert’s works on the TBR. Her writing sucks you in and makes you FEEL things, enough that I thought I died. 😉

~Ashley