Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. "After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is." Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.. "At some point in a woman\'s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time," she muses.
Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it.
It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest.
Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it.
But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand.
There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showGirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager.
Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse.
In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love