Elizabeth Gilbert's "City of Girls" Pray Don't Waste Time on this Vapid Vixen's Tale

It's great to have a kindle, especially one you share with a friend.  If you run out of reading material you can try a the book on put there by someone else.  This isn't fool proof.  The name Elizabeth Gilbert did ring a bell.  Gilbert is the best selling author of her memoir "Eat, Love, Pray" which I loathed.  It was made into an unwatchable movie despite the talents of Julia Roberts & Xavier Bardem.  Admittedly, I did finish the memoir.   And, though I checked out the film version, it wasn't  for long.  "City of Girls" is a dreadful, droll novel.  It's a stale saga of 19 year old Vivian, a Vassar drop-out who hits the bit time in the Big Apple.  Gilbert's structure is somewhat enticing.  An elderly woman looking back on her life when addressing her story to Angela, the daughter of a posthumous great love.  Vivian was born into aristocracy on the East coast in the late 1920s.  The epoch for the story is late 30s early 40s; prior to the outbreak of WWII.  Vivian showed no interest in her college curriculum.   Already a disappointment to her parents prior to her expulsion for never attending class, and having no skills other than sewing taught by her beloved grandmother, they ship her to NYC to live with her father's sister, Peg.  Peg is a sblacksheep in the family having led a bohemian thespian life abroad.  Peg is now manages a shabby NYC theater with a cast of characters including glitzy  showgirls.  Vivian falls for what appears a glamorous & exciting lifestyle.  Vivian is in awe of the incredibly gorgeous Celia, a conceited femme fatal out to for gusto & sexual escapades when she's able to pull herself away from the mirror.  Celia flatters "Viv" & turns her into her wingman for hitting the town.  Vivian recalls hearing Billy Holiday, seeing Joe Lewis fight without either making an impression & is oblivious to the approaching war.   I was over this dribble before war broke out on the home front.  War was a rude awakening for our insipid heroine whose only regret was not having sex with the men who went off to become soldiers.  The intrigue of learning when & how the man who will become Angela's father became torturous.  Poor Angela who had to wade through Viv's boring & self-indulgent backstory. "City of Girls" isn't worth a dime.