Book Review…The Manhattan Girls: A Novel of Dorothy Parker and Her Friends by Gill Paul

NEW YORK CITY 1921: The war is over, fashions are daring, and bootleg liquor is abundant. Here four extraordinary women form a bridge group that grows into a firm friendship.

Their romances flourish and falter while their goals sometimes seem impossible to reach and their friendship deepens against the backdrop of turbulent New York City, where new speakeasies open and close, jazz music flows through the air, and bathtub gin fills their glasses.

They gossip, they comfort each other, and they offer support through the setbacks. But their biggest challenge is keeping their dear friend Dottie safe from herself.

The Manhattan Girls is a great novel about Dorothy and her three friends' lives and their ups and downs. They are amazing women to follow! Their friendship is what stands out the most for me! The way they support each other regardless of what's going on, it's what friendship truly is! It's a little slow paced but it fits perfectly for the story and the genre. If you've read any of Gill Paul's books before then you know the writing is wonderful! I would love to read another book about these women! A fabulous read! Thank you Random Things Tours for sharing this fantastic book with me!

Loved this book!

1920’s Manhattan; 4 strong women. This is a fictionalized account of real women, one of whom is instrumental in the development of The New Yorker. The Manhattan Girls is told in alternative POV and their stories all come together. I enjoyed reading about 1920’s New York and was surprised at the strength and determination these women had and their desire to not be dependent on men. They really were creating their own path! There are some tough subjects broached: alcoholism, abortion, infidelity but it makes for interesting reading!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Gill Paul does, in this book, what she does best - immerse readers in the setting. She takes readers back to 1920s New York city and introduces us to 4 women, Dorothy Parker, Peggy Leech, Jane Grant and Winifred Lenihan, who become fast friends - The Manhattan Girls. These career women have little in common, yet become a great support system for each other in a male dominated world. Stepping back in time, Paul meticulously recreates the backdrop of the ‘Lost Generation’ - a generation who’d lost the values of their past and were at a pivotal time and place, questioning mortality, defying social norms, and learning to live in the moment.

Paul masterfully offers 4 different points of view. It was a big step, and was, for the most part, successful. I did struggle with connecting to these women and wondered if it was because I didn’t ‘walk’ far enough in their shoes as I was taking them off to exchange them for another ‘pair’ just as I was getting comfortable with them.

Regardless, I enjoyed learning about the Algonquin Round Table and came to the conclusion that a century later, we’re still the same; climbing the corporate ladder, struggling to be noticed and appreciated, sacrificing way too much to get ahead, and throwing our arms up at the never ending battle.

I’ll be honest and admit that I had no idea about who these women were or their significance prior to reading this book. What I do love about Gil Paul’s approach to writing is that she gives readers enough to whet their appetite, but still leads us to the computer to research some more. What happened to these women? What legacy did they leave? A sign of a good historical fiction book is one that leaves me fulfilled but still drives me to find out more. Paul delivered. As I knew she would.

I was gifted this advance copy by Gill Paul, Avon Books UK, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A solid 3.5– this was cute and fun and I loved the four characters of the bridge club, but I wish it had been a little more plot heavy.

This one is a good story about Dorothy Parker and her friends living in New York during the time of prohibition and the rise of Women's Rights - but it just didn't live up to what I've come to expect from Gill Paul's novels. I've read several other books by her that I've really enjoyed. I enjoyed reading about the daily lives of women at this time -their struggles, the way they navigated a world meant for men, and their friendships. But I found myself losing focus at several points throughout the story. This one just wasn't as engaging as the other Paul books I've read.

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I’ve read two other Gill Paul books, Jackie and Maria: A Novel of Jackie Kennedy & Maria Callas and The Collector’s Daughter: A Novel of the Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb. I enjoyed them both, as they surrounded subjects for which I’m familiar. Yet when I picked up The Manhattan Girls, I knew nothing of Dorothy Parker other than that she was a writer and was a member of the Algonquin Round Table.

The book is full of sharp and witty women and men and their banter. My main problem throughout the book was that without having prior knowledge of Parker and her friends, I had no idea what was real and what was imagined. In one sense, that’s freeing for the reader, but in another sense, it’s really hard to see the fact in the fiction. I wished there were an afterward revealing what was true or not, where liberties were taken, and what happened to the people described in the novel.

While I found the writing top-notch as usual for a Gill Paul novel, I had trouble connecting because of the above-mentioned facts. I still feel like I didn’t know Dorothy Parker all that well. I did enjoy finding out more about the starting up and the early days of The New Yorker magazine. I would recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in the 1920s, or for fans of Dorothy Parker and her friends.