An interesting read for 2009 since it was written 40+ years ago about women from the 30's. This novel follows the lives of 8 Vassar graduates from the Class of '33 - an age of rapidly changing mores for women. It addresses the conventions of friendship, marriage, child rearing, socialism, equality, and etiquette in a satirical and searing, although sometimes tiresome, way. It was insightful to think about the times of the setting, the writing, and the reading. This was my first McCarthy novel and definitely not my last. ( )

Unfinished selection from Rowdy Readers book club.

Mary McCarthy's The Group is a sharply-pointed satire of upper-class New England society which follows the post-college lives of eight Vassar graduates, class of '33. Helena was registered for Vassar at birth; Pokey forged her mother's signature on her college application in defiance of the family tradition of "being dim-witted and vain of it." Out in the "real" world, Dottie loses her virginity to a "bad sort" but discovers that she enjoys sex, while Kay subsumes her own talent to the artistic "genius" of her egocentric and philandering husband. Libby writes book reviews that are almost as long as the original material and Polly works as a nurse, while Priss is forced by her pediatrician-husband to go against "tradition" and her inclinations and breastfeed her baby, as proof of his theories. Elinor "Lakey" Eastlake, the sleek, rich leader of the group, travels about Europe and ultimately returns, full of surprises. Adopting the non-stop, generally well-intentioned, but hopelessly narrow-minded voice that typifies the worst of the group, Mary McCarthy filets Ivy League society, socialism, 1930s child-rearing practices, sexual double-standards, psychoanalysis, and men in general.--review by Erica Bauermeister

A modern reprinting of a classic from 1963, about eight women from the same class at Vassar, and their efforts to live emancipated, fulfilling and educated lives at a time when such a life was not held as the universal ideal for women. Shocking at the time, dated now, it is an interesting portrait of a past era. ( )

I'd always been curious about The Group, having attended Vassar (albeit well after McCarthy's day). This novel is enlightening and infuriating. Women's lives, even among the prosperous and educated, were so different less than century ago.

Although the book skips around from character to character quickly, sometimes dropping storylines abruptly, McCarthy seems to provide just the right amount of information to allow the reader to draw her own conclusions. I was surprised at the frankness with which premarital sex and birth control were discussed. Very interesting. ( )