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camplaura's review against another edition
3.0
It was an interesting tale and I enjoyed the stories and the author’s revisiting and correcting the details of her memories.
bartendm's review
3.0
I thought I would get to read about really growing up Catholic in earlier times in America, but that was only a small part of this book. Mary McCarthy had a difficult childhood in some ways, but her memoir was not as interesting as I expected based on other reviews. Maybe I was less interested because I never heard of her before and had no investment in her as a person. I did like the interchapters where she commented on what she wrote in the memoir, commenting on how her memory must have failed her or that she had to bend the truth a little to make it more interesting. So glad she did, because it wasn't very much anyway.
motsinsatiables's review
3.0
Having read it, I definitely think I should have started with the author' works of fiction first because I felt quite detached to her. However, the writing was impactful, the hardships her family faced were horrendous and she truly was someone to look up to, having gone through all of that. I do believe her works must be powerful if it reflects her own trials and experiences. The discussion on faith especially as she was a woman raised in a catholic environment, was also of great interest to me. If you have any recommendation for her work of fiction, please let me know.
livingpalm1's review
4.0
I'm intrigued by the memoir as a genre, fascinated by the different forms it can take. For example, Ms. McCarthy sets up Memories of A Catholic Girlhood acknowledging the various ways truth can be reshaped in writing the story of one's life; an author might forget the particular details and need to create them in order to fill in the blanks of her story or she may just want to change the details because it makes the story more fun. In this author's case she followed each chapter of her story with a chapter setting the record straight. At first I found this admirable, but at some point I began to resent the interruptions to the flow of reading her story. In either case, her writing -- especially her description of people -- delighted me throughout.
I happened to listen to the Writer's Almanac podcast on June 21 which, unbeknownst to me, is Mary McCarthy's birthday. The brief bio they chose to highlight her work included a professional spat McCarthy held with playwright and memoirist Lillian Hellman, famously declaring on a televised talkshow, "Every word she [Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'"
I now better understand Ms. McCarthy's apparent compulsive need to differentiate between truth and fiction in her own memoir.
I happened to listen to the Writer's Almanac podcast on June 21 which, unbeknownst to me, is Mary McCarthy's birthday. The brief bio they chose to highlight her work included a professional spat McCarthy held with playwright and memoirist Lillian Hellman, famously declaring on a televised talkshow, "Every word she [Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'"
I now better understand Ms. McCarthy's apparent compulsive need to differentiate between truth and fiction in her own memoir.
penny_literaryhoarders's review against another edition
3.0
A bit of a meandering tale about the how, why and what being Catholic meant to Mary McCarthy at various times throughout her life.