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A review by tomhill
The Group by Mary McCarthy
4.0
I couldn't put this book down! It's a witty and scathing account of young women's lives after college in the 1930s, and it touches on so much, including privilege, sexuality, misogyny, and the nature of friendship. A lot of what might have seemed scandalous to readers in the 1960s doesn't seem so now, but the novel's honesty and satirical tone remain obvious and relevant. So much hasn't changed. As I was reading the book, I thought of the last lines of a Donald Hall poem:
"Will you ever be old and dumb like your creepy parents?
Not you, not you, not you, not you, not you, not you."
And that's part of what McCarthy is concerned with here, the notion of not ending up like one's parents by falling into their habits or their ways of thinking, which seem outdated or restrictive. The various members of the group succeed or fail in this regard to various degrees, with varying levels of acceptance of what their lives have become. There are aspects of their lives they can control, but there are many more that they have no real power over. There's no doubt that the central characters in The Group have opportunities and freedoms their mothers did not, but the restrictions society places on them are still very real.
"Will you ever be old and dumb like your creepy parents?
Not you, not you, not you, not you, not you, not you."
And that's part of what McCarthy is concerned with here, the notion of not ending up like one's parents by falling into their habits or their ways of thinking, which seem outdated or restrictive. The various members of the group succeed or fail in this regard to various degrees, with varying levels of acceptance of what their lives have become. There are aspects of their lives they can control, but there are many more that they have no real power over. There's no doubt that the central characters in The Group have opportunities and freedoms their mothers did not, but the restrictions society places on them are still very real.