Elizabeth Gilbertstill remembers the moment whenCity of Girlscame together.
She was interviewing a 95-year-old former showgirl, and the conversation took a turn.
I asked her, Do you ever regret never getting married?'
Credit: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders; Riverhead Books
the author, 49, recalls.
She said, Who the hell wants to f the same man for 60 years?'
She lands in the citys theater scene and meets an endlessly entertaining group of artists.
The product of years of research,Girlsgave theEat, Pray, Loveauthor the chance to have some fun.
The dialogue crackles, the costumes receive lush descriptions, and the plot moves like a perfectly escapist romp.
Its no wonder Gilbert callsGirlsher love letter to the city she calls home.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This is your first novel in six years.
One of the books that she gave me was a collection of essays by Alexander Wolcott.
It was so fascinating: all these people whose names Id never heard.
They were famous stage actors of their day.
Theres something about dipping into that world that was so exotic to me, and exciting.
I thought, Oh my God, New York City in the 1940s with visiting British actresses in hotels?
I want to write about that!
Thats really how it began.
Obviously, it grew from there.
Those two things folded together.
From there, the book was born.
How do you keep it all straight?
How were you able to stay focused?The setting is always the first thing I get.
All I knew was New York City, theater, 1940s girls.
Thats all I had.
The characters started to be created by all of that, inspired by what I was reading.
Theres something very simple about the structure of the book: Theres nothing easier than writing first-person memoir.
Its not a complicated story in that way.
Its very linear, taking you right to the present day.
All I had to do was figure out the plot and let her tell it.
It just happens to be written in Vivians voice.
Shes a pretty engaging storyteller, so that was fun.
I have to do a big amount of research so that create.
I think fiction is harder but its more fun.
Memoir is way easier because you dont have to create the world; youre just reporting the world.
Its emotionally much more strenuous.
You have to be so rigorous in your integrity about making sure youre being absolutely fair and honest.
How do you write about other people?
How do you write about sensitive things from your own life?
you’re free to put all of that into fiction but you get to disguise it.
Its a lot more liberating.
And the question is being posed to Vivian.
We dont know who the person is, whos asking it at the beginning of this book.
The reader doesnt know who she is.
But I actually didnt know what the stories of the girls father were to each other.
For me, I decided to go ahead and write into it not knowing anything.
For me, it was as much of a mystery as it was for Angela.
Vivian knew, but she hadnt told me to it.
I just didnt know.
That sustained my curiosity through the book.
It was nerve-wracking to be investing so much in the story and not knowing.
I am such a control freak about my fiction, knowing where everything was going.
I didnt know where that was going.
I just let the two of them tell me.
But I was very happy with how it turned out.
I surprised myself about what they were to each other.
I was struck by how much fun you seemed to be having in this book, too.
Theres a lot of humor, and a general lightness.
Did you enjoy letting loose a little more?For sure.
The characters are savvy in a way that other characters Ive written havent been.
Particularly fun for me was writing the attraction and the dialogue between Aunt Peg and her husband.
Just letting them fire off I saw them as Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, or likeHis Girl Friday.
That kind of a tone.
It was so, so fun to be able to do that.
In fiction, [characters] cant sound smarter than they are.
They cant be more sophisticated than they are.
It was great to be able to unleash that.
Theyre worldly and theyre drunk.
You throw all that together.
You mentioned doing a lot of research.
Its not that long ago.
Its slightly different here.
Where you really get it is reading letters and journals.
Reading letters from that time was invaluable.
But I was like, This isnt so different from our language.
Theres a lot of people living today who spoke that way!
This is recent history.
I was struck by how similar New York was in 1940 compared to now, in that regard.
Ive lived in New York myself for 30 years.
I felt more at home in that world than I thought I was going to.
There was a former showgirl in her 90s.
Her candor about her sexual life was incredible for me to behold.
She was more than happy to.
Every generation thinks they invented sex.
But there has always been that kind of girl.
It was just incredible to hear it come out of her mouth.
Would you describeCity of Girlsas your love letter to New York?Absolutely.
This is the great mother.
This is the place that always takes me back, even if I screwed up somewhere else.
Between the research and interviews and actual construction of the narrative, I imagine this book took some time.
What was your process?
I do so much research and then I do so much outlining and so much character development.
I really do have it blocked out and ready to go.
But that takes years.
Three or four years of just that.
It seemed like the least important thing in the entire world to me.
I honestly thought Id never write it because I just couldnt imagine caring.
Shortly, after she died, I dont know I just got a message from the mothership somehow.
I wrote it really fast.
But thats also because I needed something to do, you know?
I was very happy to sit at my desk for hours a day.
I wrote in a shockingly short amount of time probably just a few weeks.
I was more than happy to have the distraction.
I was the audience member who needed it.
