Book Thirtytwo: The Group
10.27.2007
The Group, Mary McCarthy
I finished this over a week ago while I was out in New England and Canada for a little vacation, but it's taken me a while to settle back in at home enough to write anything at all about this book (never mind getting through my next book). However, that shouldn't diminish the fact that it totally rules! I love these kinds of books, that encapsulate a time and feeling so perfectly (how long has it been since I mentioned The Dud Avocado?). The book is about a group of eight friends who are graduates of Vassar, class of '33, and follows each member of the group after graduation. I loved how it flowed from one woman to the next so easily. There are some unbelievably quaint and dated things here: the horrors of breastfeeding or the fact that undergoing psychoanalysis is an unspeakable embarrassment. There are also some really progressive issues addressed, too: homosexuality, premarital sex, extramarital affairs, and communism.
And now, onward! To the next 20 books!
I finished this over a week ago while I was out in New England and Canada for a little vacation, but it's taken me a while to settle back in at home enough to write anything at all about this book (never mind getting through my next book). However, that shouldn't diminish the fact that it totally rules! I love these kinds of books, that encapsulate a time and feeling so perfectly (how long has it been since I mentioned The Dud Avocado?). The book is about a group of eight friends who are graduates of Vassar, class of '33, and follows each member of the group after graduation. I loved how it flowed from one woman to the next so easily. There are some unbelievably quaint and dated things here: the horrors of breastfeeding or the fact that undergoing psychoanalysis is an unspeakable embarrassment. There are also some really progressive issues addressed, too: homosexuality, premarital sex, extramarital affairs, and communism.
And now, onward! To the next 20 books!
posted by arajane at
11:57 PM
2 Comments:
Do you know if this book was ever made into a movie? If not, it should be. Ahh, I envy your travels around the northeast. It's been too long since my last visit to Beantown & Maine, and all my other favorite spots in that region. Octobers up there are truly fantastic, aren't they? I recently reconnected with one of my friends I went to school with ( a fellow blue lioness!), and oh, man, it's all making me want to go to New England so bad...
Yes, in fact, it was made into a movie in 1966! The director was Sidney Lumet and it starred Candice Bergen (also Jessica Walter most recently of Arrested Development, who I absolutely adore). This book totally made me think about our women's college past. It was great to see the alma mater again. It was just as beautiful as I remembered.
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