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Title: The Group by Mary McCarthy ISBN: 0-15-637208-8 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Satire of 8 women who grad from Vassar, 1933
Comment: This upper-class New England satire of the post-college lives of 8 women has definitely stood the test of time. I read it maybe 30 years ago and just reread it: it still works, and at my present age, I find myself appreciating McCarthy's superb writing on an entirely new level. Each of the women comes from a different background, has widely different experiences both in Vassar and after graduation, and sees her world after college thru different eyes. Told mostly thru the point of view of one member of the group, McCarthy's classic story lacerates socialism, the Ivy League, the prevalent double standards of the era, men - and psychoanalysis. Is there anything she doesn't excoriate with her talented tongue. Um, no, I don't think she's missed a thing.
Rating: 4
Summary: Unabashedly melodramatic, yet delightfully readable
Comment: Mary McCarthy's deft and sometimes sordid examination of "The Group" is enlightening, if sometimes melodramatic. The novel reads a bit like a soap opera at times, especially when the reader deals with the tumultuous lives of Kay and Harald, two young newlyweds with a penchant for finding trouble in their marriage. Harald is hardly likeable, Kay often flippant, and their friends oblivious or at the very least unresponsive to their increasingly abusive problems. Of course, Kay and Harald are only the tip of the iceberg in this novel.
Dottie, Lakey, and the other members of The Group--eight Vassar graduates trying to make their way after college--all find out plenty about the roughness and beauty of living through the course of the book. Yet it is impossible to say that this is a superficial work, because McCarthy never treats her characters lightly. Yes, they act a little flighty at times, but there is always a human edge to their stories. When Dottie takes a lover she shouldn't, according to The Group, the entire affair is treated with remarkable sensitivity and candor. Therein lies the charm of this particular work.
McCarthy has a knack for getting a lot out of her characters. She peopled this novel with plenty of personalities, but they never simply read as sketches or caricatures. Even Kay and Harald, the queen and king of the over-dramatic (an ironic and clever connection to the theater they both love so much) are amazingly well-written and well-thought out. Sure there are moments when the reader may roll his or her eyes in annoyance at some of the more pandering moments, but there is always the next page, ready to lead the audience back into the charmingly fragile relationships that make this book so lovely.
While this may not be the epitome of McCarthy's writing, it is certainly a novel worth the read, and well worth the thought it should generate afterwords.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Mother of the 'Girlfriends' Books
Comment: With all the recent interest in books about women and their relationships with other women ( Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Saving Graces, etc.) I was interested in going back and reading one of the groundbreakers of this genre.
"The Group" follows eight Vassar graduates from the class of 1933 and chronicles their diverse lives. The reader first meets them one week after graduation at the wedding of one of the girls and follows them for over 400 pages until they are all reunited seven years later at the funeral of one of the group. Along the way we are given a lesson in social history as we share their courtships and marriages and take a hard look at the social mores of the 30's. Mental illness, virginity, the breast v. bottle debate, and political upheaval all come up for examination as the girls reach the conclusion that an education, even the very best one, does not guarantee emotional balance. This is a sometimes profound, sometimes hard-biting satirical look at American women in the important period between the two World Wars.
In 1966 the novel was transferred to the big screen with an all-star cast featuring Candice Bergen as Elinor Eastlake, the group leader. Though much of the book's and the movie's shock value (the lesbian issue) has been lost in the 21st century, this still remains a viable novel on women and the bonds they forge.
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Title: Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (A Harvest/Hbj Book) by Mary McCarthy ISBN: 0156586509 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: March, 1972 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: A Charmed Life by Mary McCarthy ISBN: 0156167743 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy ISBN: 0156027860 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 13 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy And Her World by Carol Brightman ISBN: 0156000679 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: July, 1994 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (Twentieth-Century Classics) by Richard Farina, Thomas Pynchon, Richard Fariina ISBN: 0140189300 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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