Minutes September book: The Group

The Group

by Mary McCarthy

(Chosen by KM)


KM chose this book on the recommendation of her GP who has also recommended several of KM's other book choices (The Gargoyle, The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Literary Society, Water for Elephants).

About the author:

Mary Therese McCarthy was born in 1912 in Seattle, Washington. Her parents became victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the siblings were taken in by their great-aunt and her new husband,  and subjected to a horrible life depicted in McCarthy's work, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1957). After six years, Mary was taken back to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents,  and her brothers were sent to boarding school. Mary moved to her grandparents' upper-class home and enjoyed a life of luxury. Her grandparents wanted Mary to have an excellent education and enrolled her good schools.  From there she went on to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, with her bachelor's degree in 1933.

Following commencement McCarthy moved to New York City and married Harold Johnsrud, an aspiring playwright, the first of her four husbands.

Mary McCarthy was the author of twenty-eight books during her lifetime, both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels were partially autobiographical, and many times her characters were based on her acquaintances.

She died of cancer in 1989, aged 77.

(general biographical detail from here)

What the publisher says about the book:

The Group follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, forge careers, gossip and party in 1930s Manhattan.
The Group can be seen as the original Sex and the City. It is the first novel to frankly portray women's real lives, exploring subjects such as sex, contraception, motherhood and marriage.

What we discussed about the book:

• We started the discussion by each confessing to how much of the book we had actually read - JM was the winner at three-quarters of the way through!
• Why did we find this a difficult book to get through?
• How does this novel contribute to our understanding of the status and roles of women in the 1930s in America?
• Was it difficult to keep track of the eight "group" members through the book? Was there continuity of their stories?
• The nature of women's friendship - how did these women support each other?
• What was the significance of starting with a wedding and ending with a funeral?
• In what ways do 'occasions' bring the Group together?

And then we were sidetracked into:

• How is this novel like Sex and the City?
• In what ways did the friendships between the women in the two books (or the SITC TV show) differ? How were they similar?
• How would this novel have been received when it was first published in 1963? Were any of the topics considered taboo at the time?

In other news:

• We discussed shoe-sizing in Asia. Is it possible to get size 9 or 10 shoes there? 
• We admired the photos from T-Rex's sojourn in Paris.

Ratings:
Range: 7-7.5
Average: 7.25

Next book: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (chosen by JM)