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missapples's review against another edition
5.0
A remarkably sophisticated novel! In many ways it resembles “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt - both novels being about intelligent young people, so if you enjoyed it you should like this one. It‘s about a group of several women, recent graduates of a prestigious American college. Some of them are obviously from a very privileged background (how about having your father let you use his private plane?). Others are solid middle class. Still others were poor but ended up important members of The Group. All of them are smart yet distinctly different young women. Thanks to McCarthy’s detailed observations you get to know almost all of them so well as if they were real. I wonder though what was it like to get such brilliant education knowing all the while your main goal would be to get married and start a family? There’s a poignant moment when two women, new mothers with, talk about “serious“ stuff and one asks another, shocked by her liberal views, if her husband agrees with her.
It was not a fast read but totally absorbing.
It was not a fast read but totally absorbing.
hj22's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
bibliobliss_au's review against another edition
3.0
The Group covers sex, marriage and fidelity, contraception, motherhood, socialism and many other issues facing women during the Depression and looming war. The women often struggle for autonomy in the face of sexism, controlling men and the social norms of the day.
This was a difficult book to read. I struggled throughout with the misogyny, gaslighting and oppression these women faced - a doctor telling a labouring woman to put on more make up?!? The gender relations were awful and the racism worse. The language used to describe people of colour, women and gay characters made for uncomfortable and horrifying reading at times.
I'm glad I gave this book a go. It was an interesting and informative look back at how things have changes since the early 1900s, but it wasn't for me.
This was a difficult book to read. I struggled throughout with the misogyny, gaslighting and oppression these women faced - a doctor telling a labouring woman to put on more make up?!? The gender relations were awful and the racism worse. The language used to describe people of colour, women and gay characters made for uncomfortable and horrifying reading at times.
I'm glad I gave this book a go. It was an interesting and informative look back at how things have changes since the early 1900s, but it wasn't for me.
demottar's review against another edition
3.0
While I enjoyed Mary McCarthy's writing style so much, I found the structure of the novel a little difficult. I mixed up many of the characters, since we only spent one chapter with each, and generally felt like I still needed more on each member of the group by the end of the novel. I didn't care for the brief chapters told from outside characters (e.g. the Prothero's butler), and wish I could read an entire book about Polly Ridgely.
erinbro1's review against another edition
3.0
The Group has been on my TBR list for years and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It won't be a favorite, but it's a fascinating look at how life both has and hasn't changed for women over the past (almost) 100 years or so. The setting was a little odd to me - I know it's taking place around the 1930s but it really felt like all of this was happening in the 50s or 60s, and I think McCarthy would have been better off setting the novel in her present day.
There are a lot of characters, but the structure of the novel is short-story like in its focus on each of the women in the Group and how they relate to each other. Some parts of it dragged when it got into really specific details about the characters, but any time they were actually interacting with each other, I was riveted.
There are a lot of characters, but the structure of the novel is short-story like in its focus on each of the women in the Group and how they relate to each other. Some parts of it dragged when it got into really specific details about the characters, but any time they were actually interacting with each other, I was riveted.
therightprofile's review against another edition
4.0
The book was published in 1963 and became a bestseller while being banned in several countries, but I only just got to read it.
It was a rather interesting, insightful and often harrowing read, with all 8 women dealing with various challenges in their lives, especially those perpetrated by the men. Not to go into too much details, there is physical and emotional abuse, and a tragedy punctuates the novel. The characters appear to have been lifted from real life and feel tangible. The writing is very matter-of-fact, almost documentary in its approach, which does become tedious but the important and the overall impact of the novel cannot be overstated. I especially recommend that men read it.
It was a rather interesting, insightful and often harrowing read, with all 8 women dealing with various challenges in their lives, especially those perpetrated by the men. Not to go into too much details, there is physical and emotional abuse, and a tragedy punctuates the novel. The characters appear to have been lifted from real life and feel tangible. The writing is very matter-of-fact, almost documentary in its approach, which does become tedious but the important and the overall impact of the novel cannot be overstated. I especially recommend that men read it.
cowmingo's review against another edition
2.0
This book was just okay. A little hard to follow at times and then it just sort of ended. Like you would end a chapter but this was an end to the book. I had to go back and read the ending a few times because I couldn't believe it just ended like it did. Definitely not a re-read here but it was interesting for the most part.
heartsneedle's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
Sexuality, Marriage, Instability
“You have to live without love, learn not to need it in order to live with it.”
Overall: The Group tried to be too many things, had too many characters, and in the end had a hit-or-miss quality to it. The unevenness between characters was all very glaring, and the ending left me abit baffled.
Pros:
-- handles discussions about (the 1930s) contraception with detail
-- Kay’s and Harold’s relationship until psychiatric stay
-- Libby’s character
Cons:
-- haphazardly written plot
-- dealt with too many characters
Sexuality, Marriage, Instability
“You have to live without love, learn not to need it in order to live with it.”
Overall: The Group tried to be too many things, had too many characters, and in the end had a hit-or-miss quality to it. The unevenness between characters was all very glaring, and the ending left me abit baffled.
Pros:
-- handles discussions about (the 1930s) contraception with detail
-- Kay’s and Harold’s relationship until psychiatric stay
-- Libby’s character
Cons:
-- haphazardly written plot
-- dealt with too many characters
jessmanners's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think I have anything to say about this book that hasn't been said a million times already...it's a fun read, but it feels like McCarthy bit off more than she could chew. I don't understand why she felt the need to focus on eight girls, because a) it's clear she doesn't care about some of them at all (Pokey, for example, and Helena seems to just exist to push other stories along), b) there are other people she seems more interested in (Norine, Harald), and c) the end result is that I have only a hazy idea of who Libby or Pokey or Dottie or Priss are, and even the characters who get much more time, or character--Kay--feel very surface-level.
I think you could make the argument that that's a deliberate choice--we never really get to know anyone else, so just dropping in on these girls lives and hearing about them through rumors and innuendo reflects real life, but still...books can delve deeper, and I would have liked this one to!
I was sure when I started reading this that it was written much earlier than it was, so when I double checked and realized that it was actually published in the 60s, I felt a little...cheated. I can't articulate this well, but there are so many moments that scream "can you believe life was really like this back then?!" that lose their shock value, or feel more manipulative, when you realize they're being told from a 30ish year distance. The best analogy I can come up with is Mad Men, which is great with period detail when it comes to set and costume design, but seems to be just hitting the broad strokes of what The Sixties Were Like (okay, I confess, that's a borrowed opinion that I can't back up). I found myself second-guessing all my reactions. Did husbands really have that much control over their wives? Would women really respond that way (or that way, or that way) to infidelity? or rape? or a million other things in the book...I guess, to be fair, that isn't entirely McCarthy's fault. Hell, I might want to write a novel about the early 2000s in 20 years, and it's not my fault if some dumb reader comes along later and feels skeptical, but, well, still. I feel skeptical. And a little manipulated.
Also, I honestly don't understand the role of Lakey. I had it in my head that she was the central figure (I think because her counterpart in [b:A Fortunate Age|4052110|A Fortunate Age|Joanna Rakoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347414779s/4052110.jpg|4099117] was the central figure, but she seemed to loom so large in everyone's mind, and then she has that bizarre interaction with Harald, and then...nothing. I don't get it!
I do like the style in which the wedding and funeral scenes were written...is it free indirect discourse? I've been out of the teaching game too long! Anyway, this sense that when The Group is back together, they have this sort of collective consciousness, this hivemind, even after they've been apart for so long. It does strike me as strange, now that I'm thinking it through, that we actually only see the group together at the beginning and the end. I expect that's the point, but again, I feel like I don't quite get that, either. Ah well!
I think you could make the argument that that's a deliberate choice--we never really get to know anyone else, so just dropping in on these girls lives and hearing about them through rumors and innuendo reflects real life, but still...books can delve deeper, and I would have liked this one to!
I was sure when I started reading this that it was written much earlier than it was, so when I double checked and realized that it was actually published in the 60s, I felt a little...cheated. I can't articulate this well, but there are so many moments that scream "can you believe life was really like this back then?!" that lose their shock value, or feel more manipulative, when you realize they're being told from a 30ish year distance. The best analogy I can come up with is Mad Men, which is great with period detail when it comes to set and costume design, but seems to be just hitting the broad strokes of what The Sixties Were Like (okay, I confess, that's a borrowed opinion that I can't back up). I found myself second-guessing all my reactions. Did husbands really have that much control over their wives? Would women really respond that way (or that way, or that way) to infidelity? or rape? or a million other things in the book...I guess, to be fair, that isn't entirely McCarthy's fault. Hell, I might want to write a novel about the early 2000s in 20 years, and it's not my fault if some dumb reader comes along later and feels skeptical, but, well, still. I feel skeptical. And a little manipulated.
Also, I honestly don't understand the role of Lakey. I had it in my head that she was the central figure (I think because her counterpart in [b:A Fortunate Age|4052110|A Fortunate Age|Joanna Rakoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347414779s/4052110.jpg|4099117] was the central figure, but she seemed to loom so large in everyone's mind, and then she has that bizarre interaction with Harald, and then...nothing. I don't get it!
I do like the style in which the wedding and funeral scenes were written...is it free indirect discourse? I've been out of the teaching game too long! Anyway, this sense that when The Group is back together, they have this sort of collective consciousness, this hivemind, even after they've been apart for so long. It does strike me as strange, now that I'm thinking it through, that we actually only see the group together at the beginning and the end. I expect that's the point, but again, I feel like I don't quite get that, either. Ah well!
breadforsong's review against another edition
3.0
Tone and content wise, this reminded me a little of The Golden Notebook. And in the same way, there are some very touching and memorabe scenes that will stay with me, but large chunks of the book I wanted to speed read, as they just didn't grip me. Still, overall I think it's quite a powerful piece of literature.