We review fictions like City of Girls, The Rosie Result and Educated.
City of Girls
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
City of Girls is set in 1940 New York. Vivian Morris, a Vassar college drop-out has been exiled to New York. What’s intended as punishment, quickly turns into Vivian’s reckoning, as she lends her seamstress talents at her Aunt Peg’s revue theatre, mingles with the showgirls and finds that life in New York City can be every bit as exciting as she chooses to be. Flanked by her girlfriends, Vivian learns lessons, makes mistakes and tastes life for the first time, free and unchaperoned. That’s City of Girls in a nutshell.
The Rosie Result
Author: Graeme Simsion
The final instalment in the Don Tillman series follows Don and Rosie as they navigate their move back to Melbourne. With their son having trouble in school, Rosie having a hard time at work and Don drawing flak for a controversial lecture, their life-contentment graph is dipping, and how! Don, the world’s best problem solver, resolves to be a good parent and a good partner, and a change of course is in the works.
Educated
Author: Tara Westover
How do you go from never attending school to being a holder of a Doctorate? Raised by survivalists, Tara didn’t step into a classroom until the age of 17, never visited a doctor and spent her entire childhood away from mainstream society. In an account of domestic violence, gruelling work and constant preparation for the apocalypse, Tara’s memoir sheds light on the struggles of learning, self-invention and the role that education played in providing her an alternate reality.