As is my custom, I don’t review books that have had a squillion reviews on Goodreads, but I will reflect on the timing of my reading of the Mary McCarthy classic, The Group.
I was plunged into the world of eight Vassar graduates in 1930s America, and the social expectations and restrictions placed on them – sex, relationships, religion, employment, education, aspirations, mental health, finances, birth control, violence – and, given the reversal of Roe v. Wade in the US, I was reminded of how little has changed for women.
4/5 Sobering.
They were very much interested, just at this time, in receipts for drinks; they all adored brandy Alexanders and White Ladies and wanted to hear about a cocktail called the Clover Club…
As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (June 26): Belfast 12°-16° and Melbourne 7°-13°.
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I re-read The Groves of Academe last summer and now I need to re-read The Group. Because of course, I forget that she was at Vassar in the 1930s and this was not a book about the 1960s which is when I read it!.
This has been on my radar forever! I might also try that drink. Sobering though, indeed.
I’ve never read this but it sounds exactly the sort of read I’d enjoy. It sounds like it still has so much to say, sadly.
I read this many years ago as an idealistic teenager, convinced that my generation would move things along so much quicker and further than McCarthy’s had.
We’ve been having a spell of really nice weather here at the minute – I hope it lasts! I enjoyed this one when I read it a few years back – still timely as you say,
My reading group did this a couple of years ago as our “classic” and it was generally really well liked. I remember we had a great discussion. But, as you say, plus ça change (to a large degree).
I’ve read and loved the Group–and, as someone else mentioned above The Grove of Academia (and Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood) all are so worth it. If anyone is interested (no pressure) here’s the link to my review of Groves of Academe https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2020/06/24/classics-club-spin-23-groves-of-academe-by-mary-mccarthy/
Lara Feigel recently wrote an updated take on this (also titled The Group). One of my favourites from a couple of years ago.
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