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A review by jessmanners
The Group by Mary McCarthy
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!