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by Mary McCarthy. Does anybody like her? Is it going to be worth reading all 344 pages?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 10 April 2003 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember some tv adaptation of a bit of McCarthy autobiography where she was played by Elizabeth McGovern so I have always had a bit of a crush on her, despite having read v little. I get the impression she was... a bit of a witch... in old age.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 April 2003 12:09 (twenty-three years ago)

But surely a remarkable woman.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 10 April 2003 12:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I know next to nothing about her. However I agree with Jerry that any woman who can inspire such casting must have something going for her.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:34 (twenty-three years ago)

bolt out of the blue is fucking amazing, her essay on burroughs is so clean and eloquent and fair, the group is really quite funny and definatly worth it.

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

It may be interesting as an historical document, as a kitsch sign, but I can't imagine it would be interesting otherwise, though I read it when I was pretty young. They all went to Vassar? The movie is also a dud.

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 10 April 2003 18:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Opening few minutes of the movie are nice enough in a 'very obvious of its time and place' type deal. In fact, having never seen it at all before, I identified the movie as being what it was at Chris Barrus's old place one night before any of the credits had come on, and we had just turned to the channel randomly. Archetypal without knowing it!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 10 April 2003 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

What, you don't have a Vassar fetish?

Mary McCarthy vs Lillian Hellman: FITE! "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the."

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 10 April 2003 18:50 (twenty-three years ago)

i think that it is really well written, and tells much about women and mental illness, in fact as good or better then the bell jar, but then i hate slyvia.

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 10 April 2003 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

The future of The Group is in doubt. This book is always in secondhand shops looking very 60s. I haven't read it. I thought this thread would be the follow-up to the Book Group thread which we all enjoyed so much.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 10 April 2003 20:46 (twenty-three years ago)

She wrote a very nasty and vindictive piece on Salinger and I've always been too pissed about that to read anything else she wrote. I know, I'm a mentalist.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 11 April 2003 00:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Mary McCarthy’s work is really quite good.

Aside from being a fascinating character who was either friends or enemies with everyone in the literary world of he 40s & 50s, her essays on politics & other writers from that time are fabulous reading. She usually walks this thin line between gossip and journalism but it is so beautifully (acerbically) written that it can't count as fluff.

“The Group” is pretty boring and would never be what I’d recommend (but sadly, isn’t that easy to find her other stuff). She is part of the group of authors I don’t understand whose fame I don’t understand as their talent is clearly in a field not directly related to their fame .

and anyone who got that dig in at Lillian Hellman as in "Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the." is classic just for the over the top level of accusation.

― H (Heruy), Friday, 11 April 2003 02:41 (twenty-three years ago)

very confused sentence up there - (its 6:30 AM - excuse me)

I meant to say that McCarty is one of those authors whose stature is based on material/field which is unrepresentative of their best work.

― H (Heruy), Friday, 11 April 2003 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's more of historical interest than worth reading for fun. It's interesting enough, and pretty well written, but very unexciting. I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone, and I won't read it again.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 11 April 2003 11:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Mary!!! McCarthy taught at Bard AND Sarah Lawrence!

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Still, I think I would have to go for Lillian Hellman in that fight. Anyone see the new Sarah Lawrence movie by the way?

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 11 April 2003 15:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I am touched that people responded to this unlikely thread.

― the pinefox, Saturday, 12 April 2003 09:20 (twenty-three years ago)

The subject is au courant, Pinefox—Nora Ephron's play, "Imaginary Friends", is on at the Ethel Barrymore on Broadway, with Swoozie Kurtz as Hellman and Cherry Jones playing McCarthy. I've heard tell that it's not so hot, but the inclusion of some big music-hall numbers sounds promising.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 12 April 2003 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

i think she's a minor novelist but a very good critic, like many good brains. see this board(!) and also cyril connolly, in whose company i would bracket her.

― jeanne picot (jeanne picot), Sunday, 13 April 2003 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Hand's last post here begins so superbly.

― the bellefox, Monday, 2 January 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

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