Exploring the author's girlhood, this intimate memoir offers a reflective look at her formative years. Known for her influential work, the author delves into personal experiences that shaped her identity and perspectives, providing insights into the challenges and triumphs of growing up as a woman. The narrative captures the essence of her journey, illuminating the moments that defined her and resonated with many readers.
Published in 1942, Mary McCarthy's first novel creates a fascinating portrait of a 1930s New York social circle.
Die Mitvierzigerin Amy wird nach dem Tod ihrer dominanten Mutter von Depressionen geplagt. Als sie von einer mysteriösen alten Schuld ihrer Mutter erfährt, muss Amy sich mit der Vergangenheit auseinandersetzen.
In den 60er-Jahren wird die irische Studentin Sheila schwanger, ohne verheiratet zu sein und gibt das Kind unter dem Druck der Umgebung zur Adoption frei. Doch der Gedanke an ihre Tochter lässt sie nie los und 20 Jahre später macht sie sich auf die Suche nach ihr.
Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the twenties, when she was orphaned in a world of relations as colourful, potent and mysterious as the Catholic religion. There were her grandmothers- one was a blood-curdling Catholic who combined piousness and pugnacity; the other was Jewish and wore a veil to hide the disastrous effects of a face-lift. There was wicked Uncle Myers who beat her for the good of her soul and Aunt Margaret who laced her orange juice with castor oil and taped her lips at night to prevent unhealthy 'mouth-breathing'. 'Many a time in the course of doing these memoirs, ' Mary McCarthy says, 'I have wished that I were writing fiction. ' But these were the people, along with the ladies of the Sacred Heart convent school, who helped to inspire her devastating sense of the sublime and ridiculous and her witty, novelist's imagination.
Pass her in the street and she would turn your head, She looks like she has all the answers. She looks like a woman in control. That is until a trip to Vienna turns into a nightmare. Anonymous phone calls, footsteps following her - a stalker.
American writer Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt, a philosopher who had fled Nazi Germany, met in New York City, and soon became friends. In Between Friends, a complete record of their epistolary dialogue which lasted a remarkable 25 years, the two intellectual celebrities trade ideas about politics, literature, and morality, and share gossip and intimate domestic details.
