Book Review (more just a pile of my personal opinions from my personal experiences)

Title: City of Girls

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

Year: 2019

Genre: Fiction, female relationships, building a life, responsibility (idk, these aren’t genres)

Queer shit: One side gay character, a threesome, lesbians, theater (IYKYK)

Vibe Check: Young woman decides to go against the plan her family had for her life and moves to her Aunt’s theater in NYC after dropping out of college in 1940

Pile of Opinions: This book as a whole piece was confusing to me as it felt like the first 250 pages were one book and the last couple hundred were a second book. I enjoyed both books but they didn’t feel cohesive. I felt like the first part felt like what I expected the book to be about and I loved it and enjoyed it. It was very coming of age, finding your purpose outside your parents’ expectations, understanding the value you already have that you can contribute to a community, fitting in without losing yourself. I loved the friendships and lessons learned and observations. I enjoyed the second part of the book, living through the war and building an independent life as an adult in NYC. I loved the friendships in this book and enjoyed seeing how they change over decades. This book was told from the perspective of the lead woman looking back on her life and telling her stories as an old woman. Seeing friendships over a lifetime and how someone can be our everything for a time and out of our life another time and that doesn’t make the relationship any less valid or important. I read this book in a few days and I feel like perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it over a longer period of time. Some shows aren’t meant to be binged in a single weekend and some books aren’t either. I really enjoyed this over all once I accepted it as more than the 250 I expected it to be and enjoyed it for the collection of stories that it was. I love a good found family and there should be more books about the beautiful chaos of a theater community.