A review by blythehill
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

3.0

It was OK— entertaining, easy to read, interesting enough in its historical fiction and women’s liberation. I didn’t like Vivian, though— at first I hoped I just didn’t like her 20 year old self, but by the end I didn’t like her 40 year old self or her 90 year old self. She was vain, selfish, and self aggrandizing until the end. It also threw me off to hear her address “Angela” every 20 or so pages, and I had to remind myself of the exactly one page at the start of the novel where this is set up as epistolary. Without spoiling it, it took about 300 pages to finally find out who Angela’s father was, and the remaining ~150 were to tell specifically their story which, although touching, I found hard to believe.
I have a feeling I’ll hear about this book in a passing convo in a couple years and have completely forgotten what it’s about.