I finished “That Damn Book.”
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert is in the category of That Damn Book because I feel hungover today. That Damn Book is a label reserved for Those Damn Books that make me hate myself the day after I read them.
Unlike young Vivian, the main character in City of Girls, nine hours of sleep, a “good morning” smile for my husband, and a generous helping of spirited enthusiasm are my preferred way to tackle a busy day.
That Damn Book has robbed me of all three: sleep, smile, and spirit, with its glittering language, gut-wrenching truthfulness, and glamourous subject matter. I was rude to my husband, irresponsibly stayed up almost all night, and cried myself mildly dehydrated. I’ve never been one for alcohol hangovers, but Those Damn Books that leave behind book hangovers…they’re worth it.
My Goodreads Review explores why:
If you’ve ever longed to walk the streets of historical New York City…If words about clothing, sewing, and a passion for fashion light you up…If you’ve ever itched to feel the inside skin of someone complete, but completely different from yourself…If you love reading books that you can’t put down even when they are sad and bleak and more than a little gross at times…City of Girls is all of that.
For me, only two of the four criteria above are true. Despite my personal preferences, I stayed awake and immersed. (The book *is* that good, but there might have been a caffeinated tea mistake as well.)
Yvette Keller, Excerpt from Goodreads Review
I bought City of Girls as a physical paperback edition. The format is easier for book club discussions and I like to support Chaucer’s, my local bookstore. That meant I needed a bedside light to read by. How old fashioned of me.
That Damn Book is a historical novel, set in New York City. It follows the final teen year of a 1930s WASP society girl named Vivian. Having flunked out of college, Vivian is sent to New York City to live with her Aunt Peg who owns a rundown theater. Vivian’s one skill and passion is sewing. She is a character I was doomed to fall in love with.
It was 3:00 AM. I hadn’t been able to stop reading. A few hours after “going to bed” I abandoned the warm mattress and restless spouse for the couch, the dog, and the antique brass library lamp in my living room. At least one of us would get some sleep.
For a while, Vivian’s life is charmed. Then she does what young people do: she makes bad decisions. That turns out to be what the book is about: a literary absolution for all young people who have had their moment with “the bad-decisions.”
Mine involved Pizza, Beer (which I hated), and then tequila. To this day looking up at wooden ceilings and seeing knots on the boards makes my breathing go shallow.
I should have left my bedroom sooner. I know my husband is sensitive to light while he sleeps (I am not, BTW). It was rude to disturb his sleep with my reading, but it wasn’t until I’d been at it for hours, when an older and wiser Vivian began her night walks with Frank, that I realized the book was not going to have “a lull.” I wasn’t going to “feel tired.”
I stopped being an inconsiderate, selfish wife, and let the man sleep!
Around 5:30 AM I thought, “If I finish this tonight, I’m just going to open it up again at the beginning tomorrow.”
However, the end of the book was satisfying enough that although I will enjoy a re-read someday (the language, the humor, and the main character are so welcoming!), I chose to tear myself away from my new “best friend” and do my actual work.
What’s the best recommendation I can give? I’m a better person for having read this book, met this character, and walked in her shoes with my imagination.
Yvette Keller, Excerpt from Goodreads Review
So if the book was SO GOOD why an A minus?
The author gets full marks from me for the historical setting and the discussion of clothing and costume design. There is a beautiful literary framing device used to draw the reader in, to make us a part of the story. She has created characters that feel utterly real and whose love for each other exposes rare kinds of relationship truths.
But there are very hard moments in this book. The minus is not for the moments themselves, those are necessary. But the minus is because sometimes those moments landed in my heart the way I believe the author wanted them too…and sometimes they didn’t.
I suspect the reason for this can be laid at the feet of Vivien, the character. Because the story is from her first-person point of view, the reader is with Vivien’s reaction and reflection on her own story as an older woman. The things in the book that left me distanced, chilled, and aching for liveliness or the rich language I found elsewhere, may have been things that made the character Vivien pull away. In order to be true to the character, the author lost me a little bit as a reader. In places where I wanted more or wanted the book to go deeper, Vivien herself had pulled back from the story. When the character just won’t go there, what’s an author to do?
But that was a few small moments of discontent in an otherwise exemplary book. I would normally recommend it to everyone I know…but I know better.
(Dear Husband, as much as I’d love to have you read it so that we could talk about it, you would hate this book. You would appreciate the humor, the history, and the hedonism, but there’s so much beautiful language and so few car chases. But for everyone else curious, That Damn Book is so very good at what it is. I respect that so much.).
If you read it, please do share your thoughts with me!
What do you think?