After Vivian, a rebellious girl from a well-to-do family, is kicked out of Vassar, she's sent to live with her theater-owning aunt in Manhattan. Vivian quickly becomes engrossed in the theater scene and gets a crash course in sex, drugs, and show tunes. What makes this book so engaging is the environment that [a:Elizabeth Gilbert|11679|Elizabeth Gilbert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1440718929p2/11679.jpg] creates--it has been a long time since I've felt so fully immersed and able to so vividly picture each scene in a story. Some may be frustrated by the pacing--in creating such a rich, detailed environment, the sense of plot movement suffers at times--or the premise that what we're reading is a letter that clocks in at nearly 400 pages long. But by surrendering to the setting and allowing myself to get transported in the process, I found this to be an extremely fun escape.