"The Group" follows eight Vassar graduates from the class of 1933 and chronicles their diverse lives. The reader first meets them one week after graduation at the wedding of one of the girls and follows them for over 400 pages until they are all reunited seven years later at the funeral of one of the group. Along the way we are given a lesson in social history as we share their courtships and marriages and take a hard look at the social mores of the 30's. Mental illness, virginity, the breast v. bottle debate, and political upheaval all come up for examination as the girls reach the conclusion that an education, even the very best one, does not guarantee emotional balance. This is a sometimes profound, sometimes hard-biting satirical look at American women in the important period between the two World Wars.
In 1966 the novel was transferred to the big screen with an all-star cast featuring Candice Bergen as Elinor Eastlake, the group leader. Though much of the book's and the movie's shock value (the lesbian issue) has been lost in the 21st century, this still remains a viable novel on women and the bonds they forge.
I have finally read Mary McCarthy's book and found it absolutely wonderful. Having completed it, I feel I understand my mother and aunts a little better. They were of the same genertion as Polly, Libby, Lakey, Kay, and the other eight Vasser graduates who are the protagonists of the book. Although my relatives attended state colleges in Wisconsin, I was exposed to "thinking" women who for the most part lived lives comparable to the women depicted in THE GROUP. All but one of my aunts married, and she became an "old maid school teacher." Some of my uncles were more liberal than others, but all of the men including my father had expectations about how their wives should conduct themselves after marriage and motherhood. I came of age at the tail end of this oppressive period when women were still called girls.
As we read about the oppression of women in other parts of the world today, I cannot help but wonder if younger men and women can fully appreciate how recently civil rights have been extended to U.S. and European women. It's so easy to discount feminists but without the resumption of the Woman's Movement in the late 1950s and 1960s, a husband like Harald might still be able to have his wife Kay committed to a psychiatric hospital if she defended herself from his drunken attack.
THE GROUP covers the years 1933 to 1940--it begins just after the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression and ends with England on the verge of invasion from the Nazis. The book was described as a "gem of American social history" by 'The Nation' but it is also a very good read. (Supposedly, McCarthy based her characters on friends from her Vassar days, so one never knows how much is really fiction.)
Reading this book, I found myself outraged and sad and laughing out loud. The discussions about child rearing are enough to make you hoot -- especially if you have been exposed to the "bottle versus breast" battle. As the victim of parents like Priss and Sloan who read entirely too much literature, I went onto subject my children to the techniques of Dr. Spock, and am now am amused by the current thinking of my daughter and daughter-in-law who also read child-rearing literature and attend discussions and are struggling with potty-training and aggressive behaviour. If you have ever raised children or are trying to raise children you will enjoy the exchanges between parents and spouses and friends in this book.
The passages describing mental illness caused me react with everything from laughter to impotent rage. Polly's father is resentful because his melancholia has been rediagnosed as manic-depression -- only he's never had the manic experience. Polly's obsession with her psychoanalysis is familiar. Kay's incarceration in the "looney bin" and description of the several floors of the mental hospital dedicated to recovery--from the seventh floor lock-up with padded cells to the fourth floor "just like a college dorm" from whence the cured patient depart--is frightful. This is a great book. Don't let its publication date fool you, it's as salient today as it was the day it was written.
These girls are the creme of society but, of course, they have their misconceptions and make their mistakes just like we ordinary folk do. Kay marries a man who she thinks is a genius, but who's also conceited and selfish; another (whose name I can't remember) marries an up-and-coming obstetrical specialist who forces her (with the best intentions) to have their baby his way.
Libby is determined to become a great writer, but, unfortunately, all her verve, self-confidence, and connections can't make up for the fact that she has no talent. Polly's family lost all their money in the Depression and, when her lavish-spending father comes to live with her, she's forced to sell her blood to pay his debts. Lakey, really the most sophisticated and intelligent, and the leader of the group, is nonetheless a very unhappy misfit, for reasons we find out later on, in the very satisfying ending.
Although there is a good deal made about the upper-class setting - how these girls are aware of themselves as being leaders of their generation and role models - nonetheless the author (who must herself have been part of this milieu) is aware that, in a sense, this is ludicrous, and that the girls are in some ways, despite the best of educations, limited by their lack of perspective. There is also a strong moral underpinning to the story - the author is not a cynical person, she believes in true love, happiness, etc., and knows what goes around comes around. This allows you to sympathize with and root for the girls.
If you like women's novels (Jane Austen, et al.), I think you'll like this one.
This classic tale of innocent girls becoming interesting women lives up to its reputation. Moving easily from educationally historic, to intriguingly racy, through unbearably sad, laughably dated, juicily gossipy, The Group invites thoughts on the necessity of the not-yet-born modern feminist movement. So what if McCarthy's Vassar friends turned on her after recognizing themselves in this tell-all roman a clef? It's worth it for what she gives to the rest of us, her new best friends.reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4