From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of
Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All
Things, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and
adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don't
have to be a good girl to be a good person.
"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 eighty-nine 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.
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