Wartime sizzler full of showbiz and New York high society

CITY OF GIRLS

Elizabeth Gilbert (Bloomsbury, $37)

You know a book is going to be good when the first line reads, “In the summer of 1940, when I was nineteen years old and an idiot…”

As World War II is erupting in Europe, New York is humming to the tune of Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and old-world glamour — infamous nightclubs, elegant hotels and iconic theatres. It’s the era of live entertainment.

Vivian Morris, 19, is a high-school dropout, expelled from exclusive private girls’ college Vassar, where her mother was an esteemed alumnus. Vivian is dispatched to New York to live with her eccentric Aunt Peg, another family embarrassment ensconced in the world of showbiz.

Peg owns the Lily, a crumbling old theatre in the wrong part of town, producing B-grade shows to local Jewish and Italian immigrant families. The performers are showgirls, dancers, actors and playboys living a life largely devoid of responsibility and mostly in pursuit of pleasure. Peg’s girlfriend, Olive, is the only sensible one among them and tirelessly attempts to keep the vessel from sinking.

Vivian dives into this shabby world, embracing the life of showbiz with unbridled enthusiasm. She assumes the role of costume director, sewing and sourcing costumes by day and boozing, clubbing and seducing men by night.

Gilbert says she wanted to write about promiscuous women whose lives are not destroyed by their sexual desires.

The first half of the novel is a whirlwind. Expect to feel exhausted by dizzying benders night after night followed by hideous hangovers as Vivian teams up with the beautiful but damaged showgirl Celia Ray for a reckless adventure through New York high society. The second half of the novel has a different pace. New York loses a little of her lustre with post-war trauma and the narrative loses its colourful bohemian characters.

All is narrated by the older Vivian looking back over her life in a letter to the daughter of the man she eventually loves. Whether or not you can relate to Vivian, her enduring ability to live life exactly as she wants to is to be admired.

The pain and horrors of World War I and II are background themes, perhaps highlighting Gilbert’s message to embrace pleasure and passion when we can. Gilbert will always be synonymous with Eat Pray Love but City of Girls has the makings of a movie, too, if only for the grand leading lady — New York in the 1940s.