Scan barcode
readings_musings2002's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
"John and I read Malraux’s Man’s Fate, in English, without noticing that it had a Trotskyite slant on the Chinese revolution. We read Céline (I never liked him), and one Sunday afternoon the two of us read The Communist Manifesto aloud—I thought it was very well written. On another Sunday we went to a debate on Freud and/or Marx—surely a Communist affair. More hazily I remember another debate, on the execution of the “White Guards” in Leningrad in 1935; this may have been a Socialist initiative, for the discussion was rancorous. Actually, that mass execution was a foreshadowing of the first Moscow trials in the summer of 1936, which ended with the execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev."
willnotte's review against another edition
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
This, her final book, published after her death, was my introduction to Mary McCarthy. I bought it from my local bookstore in my early twenties and have kept it with me for the ensuing three decades.
Why did I pick this off the shelf? The snob’s appeal for a better life than the common folk—New York City intellectuals!—even if that would be snob was enmeshed in his hometown and going absolutely nowhere? Mild shock at (shadowing the appeal of) the freedom of her lifestyle as demonstrated by (and proclaimed on the back cover) her realization one day that she had slept with three different men in a 24-hour period? A hungry desire from someone building (at least partially) an identity as a serious reader who had very limited experience with serious authors?
Probably a combination of all of the above resulted in my buying and reading the book, but why did I love it so? Rereading it now, it is very gossipy, full of names and publications I would have stumbled across for the first time in these pages. It is also very political, the book starts with the author’s participation in a May Day parade. If a reader is well versed in McCarthy’s writings this is an interesting final journey to take with her. As an introduction it is a tantalizing glance at an author's early life and some of the inspirations behind the characters and events in her later novels.
Your mileage as a reader may vary, but Mary McCarthy is one of the authors I most love. This book made me want to read all of her writings—which I did—and pulling it off the shelf for a quick reread (it is a thin book) makes me want to revisit them all.
If someone wants to read Mary McCarthy for the first time I would point them towards one of her novels. But there is absolutely no denying this randomly purchased book was a milestone for my personal development as a reader and helped shape what I read for years.
Why did I pick this off the shelf? The snob’s appeal for a better life than the common folk—New York City intellectuals!—even if that would be snob was enmeshed in his hometown and going absolutely nowhere? Mild shock at (shadowing the appeal of) the freedom of her lifestyle as demonstrated by (and proclaimed on the back cover) her realization one day that she had slept with three different men in a 24-hour period? A hungry desire from someone building (at least partially) an identity as a serious reader who had very limited experience with serious authors?
Probably a combination of all of the above resulted in my buying and reading the book, but why did I love it so? Rereading it now, it is very gossipy, full of names and publications I would have stumbled across for the first time in these pages. It is also very political, the book starts with the author’s participation in a May Day parade. If a reader is well versed in McCarthy’s writings this is an interesting final journey to take with her. As an introduction it is a tantalizing glance at an author's early life and some of the inspirations behind the characters and events in her later novels.
Your mileage as a reader may vary, but Mary McCarthy is one of the authors I most love. This book made me want to read all of her writings—which I did—and pulling it off the shelf for a quick reread (it is a thin book) makes me want to revisit them all.
If someone wants to read Mary McCarthy for the first time I would point them towards one of her novels. But there is absolutely no denying this randomly purchased book was a milestone for my personal development as a reader and helped shape what I read for years.
More...