City of Girls

I am a big fan of Elizabeth Gilbert. I was privileged to hear her speak at an author event in Bend. This is the 4th book of hers I have read (plus I watched Eat, Pray, Love) and I love her writing. That being said, this was not my favorite book she has written. I had several notes in the first couple of chapters and the last couple of chapters, and nothing in between.
In the Prologue I noted that I HATE the use of the work impact as a verb--it communicates nothing.
Chapter One:
p 3, "In the summer of 1940, when I was nineteen years old and an idiot..." Aren't we all. She remained an idiot for quite a while it seems.
p. 4, "...same shapeless wool skirts that looked as though they'd been constructed out of old sweaters..."  Love this description.
p. 4, "...some artistic girls with long and self-important hair, and some high-bred socialite types with profiles like Italian greyhounds..." Ditto.
p. 6, My own friends were moving forward with their lives, too. They were heading off to college, work, marriage, and adulthood--all subjecs that I had not interest in or understanding of. So there was noboydy around to care about me or entertain me." What a privileged--spoiled? being!
p.8, "...her hats were so big they required their own seats at the theater." (speaking of her colorful grandmother.
p.10, "It was a sleek, black Singer 201 and it was murderously powerful (you could sew leather with it; I could have upholstered a Bugatti with that thing!).  Speaking of the best gift she ever received--also from her grandmother.
p. 12, speaking of the death of her grandmother..."(my best friend, my mentor, my confidante)...That devastation might've had something to do with why I performed so poorly at college...Perhaps I had not been such a terrible student, after all, Perhaps I had merely been sad. I am only realizing this possibility at this moment...Oh, dear. Sometimes it takes a very long while to figure things out."

Chapter Two:
p. 13, "Anyway, I arrived in New York City safely--a girl so freshly hatched that there was practically yolk in my hair."

Chapter Four:
p.57, "...I didn't pay much attention to maids back then. I was so very accustomed to them, you see. They were nearly invisible to me. I just expected to be served. And why was that?...Because I was rich. I haven't said those words yet in these pages, so let's just get it out of the way right now: I was rich, Angela. I was rich, and I was spoiled."

Chapter Fifteen:
p. 200, "To listen to his singing," Billy diagnosed, "is to have the rare pleasure of envying the deaf." Speaking of Edna's husband.

Chapter Twenty-Two:
p.304, "I am an old woman now, As such, I have reached an age where I cannot stand the tears of young girls. It exasperates me to no end. I especially cannot stand the tears of pretty young girls....who have never had to struggle or work for anything in their lives....it makes me want to strangle them."

Chapter Twenty-Nine:
p. 405, "The field of honor is a painful field," Olive went on at last..."That's what my father taught me when I was young. He taught me that the field of honor is not a place where children can play. Children don't have any honor, you see, and they aren't expected to, because it's too difficult for them. It's too painful. But to become an adult, one must step into the field of honor. Everything will be expected of you now. You will need to be vigilant in your principles. Sacrifices will be demanded. You will be judged. If you make mistakes, you must account for them. There will be instances when you must cast aside your impulses and take a higher stance than another person--a person without honor--might take....Of course, nobody is required to stand in the field of honor," Olive continued. "If you find it too challenging, you may always exit, and then you can remain a child. But if you wish to be a person of character, I'm afraid this is the only way." I am reminded of Edna telling her that "You will never be a person of the slightest significance." I think this was a turning point for the character.

Chapter Thirty-Three
p. 466, "...as I've gotten older: you start to lose people, Angela. It's not that there is ever a shortage of people--...It is merely that--as the years pass--there comes to be a terrible shortage of your people. The ones you loved. The ones who knew the people that you both loved. The ones who know your whole history." Reflections on mortality and friendship.

I guess I just never really liked Vivian very much for most of the book, or any of the other main characters for that matter, even though they were fully and beautifully rendered.
I won't try to summarize the plot. Others have done that better than I can. Reviews abound:
NPR, which uses the term "sockdolager" in its review--Wow!
The New York Times
The Washington Post, which pretty well sums up my experience, "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, the kind of book one wouldn’t mind finding in a vacation condo during a rainy week. In exchange for a series of diverting adventures, it demands only stamina from its readers."
The Guardian, which says "an eloquently persuasive treatise on the judgment and punishment of women, and a heartfelt call to reclaim female sexual agency. “At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time,” says Vivian as she looks back on her life. “After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.”And I also sort of agree with this latter bit.
And, finally, Kirkus, which obviously loved the book, describing it as "A big old banana split of a book, surely the cure for what ails you."