Mary McCarthy is an another is isn't well know, but in the time period during which she had written, her books have been know to "beat around the bush" as one can say. During her years an another, she has written books that have been known to highlight the "underground" of the lives of women. In her book, The Group, Mary McCarthy highlights the lives of Vassar graduates as they come to terms with their lives after college. McCarthy her self often created such a stir that everyone loved to read her without saying so out loud. However, The Group created a whirlpool of reviews that are still seen today.
Then:
When The Group was first published it became an instance bestseller and remain that way for almost two years. However, it also started that whirlpool that is still spinning. In a review of the book by Norman Mailer, he stated, "a trivial lady writer’s novel that bears scarcely a trace of the wit, the sharpness and the vivacity which glowed so often in her earlier work. A well-deserved fiasco, if you ask me." Mailer is saying that, in the simplest terms, writing this book was McCarthy's worst mistake. A mistake that she began to hate herself for. All because a friend say she hated it. but in reality, it help women see that they could change their spots, "Miss McCarthy finally hates the most: the atmosphere of the period demanded of all the leopards that they work as hard as they could at doing something about their spots." This book may of forced men to realized that the way that they treat women are horrible, and they know it. I mean why else would they have a reason to have secret lives and/or inappropriate thoughts?
Now:
In modern times, this book is still considered scandalous, but in a less tone. According to Kirkus Reviews,"This is the book which has aroused considerable advance speculation and well it might; it has a tremendous reader recognition (for a few—mottled with indignation) and there cannot be much doubt that Mary McCarthy is an exceptional social satirist, with a jackdaw eye and an infallible ear." Reviews also mentions that " there's the evidence that Mary McCarthy can not only impale but move and there's more than a little residual sympathy for those involved. It's a stunning entertainment, with many special effects, the civilized intelligence, the style, the wit." This highlights just how difference is shows between the years. Mailer hated the novel and society hide it away like a that chocolate cake your aren't supposed to have on your diet. This book, unknown to me before i did research, may have helped in the creation of one of the most iconic television shows of all times; Sex and the City.
The creator of that show, Candace Bushnell, " was advised by an editor in the early 1990s to write "the modern-day version of The Group", she responded with Sex and the City, a collection of confessional essays about a group of female friends that spawned a multimillion-dollar TV series and film. "The Group reminds us that not much has really changed," writes Bushnell in the foreword to the new edition. "It's a book I prize, not only for its blistering satire, but for its technical elements, including McCarthy's brilliant use of the soliloquy, her pacing and razor-sharp descriptions"
McCarthy may not changed things for women in the 1960's; many still chose to be a housewife, while others fought to work. I think reveiwers from both time periods can say, that without a doubt, McCarthy started the conversation about that fact that women have to hide their "secret lives".
