City of Girls (Gilbert) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[The] open-endedness, [the] refusal of received literary templates, is what makes City of Girls worth reading. It's not a simple-minded polemic about sexual freedom and not an operatic downer; rather, it's the story of a conflicted, solitary woman who's made an independent life as best she can. If the usual narrative shapes don't fit her experience—and they don't fit most lives—neither she nor her creator seems to be worrying about it.
David Gates - New York Times Book Review


Unfortunately, what should have been a mere 300-page novel became a 470-page tome. The best and worst thing that can be said about City of Girls is that it’s perfectly pleasant.… [I]t demands only stamina from its readers. Not that it’s without charm.… [Gilbert's] got a good ear for the arch repartee of 1940s comedy.… Novels so rarely get better [so] I was shocked to discover that the ending of City of Girls is genuinely moving.… [I]t’s a delight to see Gilbert finally invest these characters with some real emotional heft and complexity.
Ron Charles- Washington Post


[A] sometimes maddening, something frothy, and ultimately a punch-to-the-heart reminiscence.… [I]t’s hard to avoid growing impatient… [feeling] as though the best part of the story is waiting in the wings.… But the wait is not without its delights.… [T]he whole tone and texture of the novel dramatically change, becoming a more moving, haunting, and absolutely profound meditation on love, loss, friendship, and all the extraordinary ways people manage to live their lives.… [D]eliciously refreshing as a fizzy summer drink, but truly, in its second half, it’s also more like fine wine, thoughtfully crafted to be savored for its benefits.
Boston Globe


In other hands, this novel could have had all the adventure and enjoyment, but none of the depth; instead [Gilbert] makes it into a glorious, multilayered, emotionally astute celebration of womanhood. It would be easy to dismiss City of Girls as joyous escapism, and God knows there’s little enough of that around right now. But look more closely and what you’ll see is an eloquently persuasive treatise on the judgment and punishment of women, and a heartfelt call to reclaim female sexual agency.
Guardian (UK)


Gilbert spares her heroine anything resembling trauma.… I won’t spoil the dramatic fulcrum of the plot. But I will say that… some of the most dramatic moments in the novel may feel overly mechanistic. Is Vivian’s faux pas fully motivated? Likewise, is the pathos of the late-in-life love relationship convincing, or does it feel more like an idea grafted into the story to prove the Gilbert ethos that love is good even when unconventional? Still,… lush prose and firm belief in love… suffuses City of Girls.
San Francisco Chronicle


[A]n uneven yet decadently told tale about being a woman in a time when there was only one acceptable way to behave.… [T]he narration falters… [a]s the novel speeds up, allowing years of Vivian’s life to flash by, [and] the story-telling can’t keep up with the emotional weight it’s meant to carry. By fleshing out the journey of Vivian’s life, Gilbert distracts from the strength of the coming-of-age story and the descriptive power of her prose when she lingers on a moment.
Time


City of Girls, Gilbert's latest novel, has the faint whiff of the expected.… Still, Gilbert pulls off a breezy, entertaining read—and really, something better: a lively, effervescent, and sexy portrait of a woman living in a golden time. We just have to get past the somewhat ponderous, overly familiar framing device.… Passion, Gilbert never tires of informing us, that's the stuff of life.
Jean Zimmerman - NPR


[T]he glamorous greasepainted swirl of 1940s New York’s theater-world bohemia.… Girls takes a few darker turns as [the protagonist] stumbles toward adulthood, though Gilbert stays true to her pledge that she won’t let her protagonist’s sexuality be her downfall, like so many literary heroines before her. That may be the most radical thing about a novel that otherwise revels in the old-fashioned pleasures of storytelling—the right to fall down rabbit holes, and still find your own wonderland.
Entertainment Weekly


City of Girls is a testament to Gilbert's restless curiosity. She spent years researching the artistic scene of the city in the 1940s.… Their effect on the book is clear.… For anyone familiar with the lightness and the buoyancy of Gilbert’s own voice, the clunkiness of the period vernacular becomes a barrier to investing in the community at the heart of the novel.… Because Gilbert has a bewitching voice that comes through even when she is trying to mask it, though, City of Girls remains a vibrant novel about a woman balancing her desires with the age in which she lives.
Vanity Fair


(Starred review) [A] beguiling tale.… Vivian—originally reckless and selfish, eventually thoughtful and humane—is the perfect protagonist for this novel, a page-turner with heart complete with a potent message of fulfillment and happiness.
Publishers Weekly


The first half of Gilbert's historical novel is a rollicking coming-of-age delight, vividly capturing the spirit of the era. But the melancholy second half feels flat, owing to the awkward narrative structure that has.… Vivian reflecting on her life in a letter. —Wilda Williams, New York
Library Journal


(Starred review) Reading City of Girls is pure bliss, thanks to its spirited characters, crackling dialogue, rollicking yet affecting story lines, genuinely erotic scenes, and sexual intelligence, suspense, and incisive truths
Booklist


(Starred review) Vivian Morris.… [is a] delightful narrator.… Whatever Eat Pray Love did or did not do for you, please don't miss out on her wonderful novels any longer. A big old banana split of a book, surely the cure for what ails you.
Kirkus Reviews