A rollicking read that slowly morphs into a beautiful novel of surprising depth, City of Girls left me in floods of tears at the end. Which was embarrassing, as I was in the IKEA cafe. It’s kind of like watching a Disney movie; you know your emotions are being manipulated but you just can’t help going along with it. As the quote from Collette says in the front of the book; “You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” So I had an enthusiastic weep, then partook of the handy IKEA serviettes to clean up my foolhardy face. Part of me knew I had just finished a very sentimental piece of fiction and part of me knew I would miss the narrator, Vivian, forevor. Fortunately I still remembered to put my tray away.
I have tried to read Gilbert’s famous Eat Pray Love several times but tossed it away each time: it strikes me as the most reprehensible kind of chick lit. The Signature of All Things was such an entirely different and intelligent read, it’s hard to believe they were by the same author. And City of Girls is again an entirely different creature although it does have the same strong sense of character: a female protagonist who does her own thing regardless of the times she lives in. Who can resist a book that begins: “In the summer of 1940, when I was nineteen years old and an idiot….”
Don’t resist it, is my advice. It’s quite delicious. Read it with relish. Just try not to finish it in a public place.
