Elizabeth Gilbert: City of Girls, 9781594634734, Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House US, hardback (also available as EBook)
(No German publication date yet)
 

Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book “City of Girls” is pure entertainment, uplifting  yet serious, a story you like to sit down with in your beach chair and to be carried away into the theater world of 1940-ties New York with a cast of colorful, eccentric characters.

An aging 89 year old Vivian Morris writes to a mysterious Angela unfolding the story of her exceptional life and what a colorful one it was! The only time I felt slightly critical was in the middle of the book where the story got a little repetitive but the narration soon picked up and never let down.  With “City of Girls” Liz Gilbert proves how many facets as a writer she truly has.  This book is sheer entertainment and fun reading, with a feminist subject at the heart, completely different to “Big Magic” (Non-ficition) or “The Signatures of All Things” which read like a classic. 

After having failed her parent’s academic expectations at Vassar, Vivian Morris is sent to live with her aunt Peg in New York who owns the Lily Playhouse.  She feels right at home with this tribe of actors, showgirls, writers and misfits who put on a show every night for the less affluent viewers in their crumbling playhouse.  Swiftly her talent as a magician with needle, fiber and thread is detected, making her the costume designer and seamstress of the Lily Playhouse where she creates stunning costumes from old discarded clothes.  Celia, the most seductive of the showgirls, becomes her best friend and introduces innocent Viv into a world of wild partying, sex, drinking and men.  When London is bombed, her aunt Peg’s best friend, the famous actress Edna Watson and her husband find refuge in the Lily playhouse. With Edna's arrival Vivian gets a first taste of what a true Grande dame is spurring her on to create her best outfits yet.  Her carefree existence takes a shocking tumble when poor judgement on a drunken night lands her in a terrible situation altering her life course once and for all. As so often with fate, it ultimately leads her to the rich, fulfilling and unorthodox feminist life the 89 year Vivian recollects – and to the very unexpectedly love of her life.  

Liz Gilbert hasn’t written a novel for some time but this is a great chunky page turner which I loved. I can absolutely recommend “City of Girls” if you are looking for a rollicking trip into the wild New York of the 40ties.

Juliet Grames: The Seven or Eight Death of Stella Fortuna, 9781473686274, Hodder & Stoughton, hardback, available

(Deutsche Ausgabe: Die sieben oder acht Leben der Stella Fortuna, Droemer, September 2019)

As so often, I came to this book through a recommendation by a publishing colleague.  I would have missed a very unusual novel otherwise, a sweeping saga spanning over nine decades, set in Calabria/Italy and in the US, a portrait of the Fortuna family but mainly that of Stella Fortuna.  Stella’s fate stayed in my head when not reading which gives you an idea how much I was captured by this emotional story.  The archaic, barbaric patriarchy of her monstrous father Antonio affected all females in the Fortuna family, but most profoundly overshadowed the life of the two strongest, her mother Assunta and Stella’s. The narrator, whose identity is revealed much later in the book, recounts Stella’s life in an almost neutral tone giving the writing a very special edge. Stella’s battle for control over her own destiny fighting the codex decided by the men in their Italian clan is representative for countless female struggles. It left me terribly sad and furious at times but there were also some very funny moments.

Born into terrible poverty of  peasant life in 1920ties Calabria / Italy, where women were slaves to their men with no rights, good only for childbearing and servitude, Stella is named after her sister Mariastella who died under tragic circumstances in early childhood. Her entire life, Stella is convinced her dead sister is casting an evil eye over her fate, responsible for the eight near death experiences she luckily survives. When her brute of a father leaves for the US trying for a better life, they are able to enjoy independence for the first time. His home visits always lead to another pregnancy for Assunta increasing the mouths to feed. Her father finally sends papers for the whole family to immigrate to the US. Their sorrow of leaving their beloved mountain village is heartbreaking only topped by their dread to lose the little independence they enjoyed while her father was away.  The novel shifts into another gear when the Fortuna clan reaches the US. Stella has reached adulthood by now, a strong willed woman who has no desire to ever marry, clicking horns with her father the moment she touches American soil. What follows are 448 pages in total of gripping reading about family life versus the fight for independence with all its hardship, horrors, betrayal and also love.

The author Juliet Grames comes from a tight-knit Italian-American family herself which might be one of the reasons why this novel is so very authentic.