City of Girls

City of Girls is the third novel by author Elizabeth Gilbert, published in 2019. Gilbert is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include Stern Men (2000) and The Signature of All Things (2013). A noted writer of nonfiction, she has also written a biography entitled The Last American Man (2002), as well as several memoirs including Eat Pray Love (2006), Committed (2010), and Big Magic (2015). Eat Pray Love became a worldwide bestseller and was adapted into a 2010 movie starring Julia Roberts. Gilbert currently works as a journalist for GQ and has written articles appearing in Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times Magazine.

City of Girls tells the story of Vivian Morris from the time she was booted out of Vassar College in 1940 until 2010 when she tells her life story to a young woman named Angela Grecco. The novel is told in first-person narration from Vivian’s viewpoint as an eighty-nine-year-old looking back on her exploits from decades earlier. The setting consists of only two locations: the small town of Clinton in upstate New York and New York City itself. A wryly funny historical fiction novel that shifts from broad comedy to poignant tragedy, the book portrays an eccentric cast of characters from Vivian’s years working in the theater.

Vivian looks back on her past with amusement and compassion as she tries to explain to Angela the complicated relationship that she shared with Angela’s father, Frank. Over the course of seven decades, City of Girls explores the themes of eccentricity, coming of age, the constricting rules of society, and the fluid and forgiving nature of life itself. This guide refers to the first Kindle edition of City of Girls.

Plot Summary

In 2010, Angela writes to tell Vivian that Angela’s mother has just died. Although Vivian never met Angela’s mother, she did have a long-term friendship with Angela’s father, Frank, and Angela wants to know more. Vivian responds that she doesn’t know what she meant to Frank, but she can tell Angela what he meant to her. The rest of the novel consists of Vivian’s attempt to answer that question in a direct address to Angela and, by proxy, the reader.

Vivian begins her story by going all the way back to 1940 when she is an unfocused, immature nineteen-year-old who is a major disappointment to her wealthy parents. Vivian’s life changes for the better when she is shipped off to live with her eccentric Aunt Peg in New York. While there, she develops a talent for costume design as she works in her aunt’s theater. Vivian feels at home for the first time when surrounded by the wildly eccentric behavior of her aunt’s theater crowd. Her own sexual escapades create a scandal that sends her back home in disgrace accompanied by her brother Walter. She later returns to New York to resume work as a costumer and later as a bridal gown designer.

After the end of World War II, Vivian develops a friendship with war veteran, Frank Grecco. He is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, having survived the Japanese attack on the USS Franklin in which Walter died. The two share a platonic friendship for thirteen years that is more emotionally intimate than any relationship that Vivian has experienced before. Frank’s tolerance helps Vivian break the cycle of self-condemnation instilled by her parents. Vivian’s compassion also relieves Frank of his own self-loathing for being a coward. At the end of the novel, after Vivian has given Angela a glimpse into her father’s character, Vivian extends an offer of friendship to his daughter when she says:

And should you ever find that your world feels lonely and sparse, and that you need a new friend, please remember that I am here. I don’t know how much longer I will be here, of course—but as long as I remain on this earth, my dear Angela, I am yours. (466)