I solidly liked this book. The stories of the eight Vassar graduates were engaging and I truly cared about them, in spite of their many flaws. The transitions from one character's perspective to another's were expertly handled, and I thought the book explored the insider/outsider dynamic really well, juxtaposing Norine's story with that of "the group" and, in the end, Lakey's story with everyone else. The book feels very 'of it's moment,' and feminist in a way that isn't overt, which for me, is both good and bad. Reading this, I found myself being extremely thankful I was born when I was, and I feel like I have a greater appreciation for what the women of that generation endured. It was weak on plot, and I would have liked to read more about Lakey's expatriate experiences, but overall I enjoyed The Group and would definitely recommend it.

I liked this, I think? A solid three stars at least? Maybe more?

This was very long and quite slow and sprawling, and most of what I found remarkable (meaning “worth marking” rather than “striking” or “extraordinary”) was specifically how the varied portraits of 1930s East Coast upper-class, educated womanhood were written about from the perspective of the early 1960s. The cultural critiques were interesting, often biting, and frequently sad, and they were alternately dated and extremely relevant. And yet, the farther I went along, the more it felt as if as the author were serving up these women on a sort of reverse assembly line, on which the subjects are not built into something greater than their parts but instead deconstructed and dissected. There was some great commentary here about class, religion, race, the sexes, sexuality, motherhood, infertility, mental health, domestic violence, infidelity, family drama...you name it. By the end, though, the overwhelming attitude I felt coming from the author was contempt. In some cases she outright disapproved of the women’s choices, and other times she left some room for pity, but overall I couldn’t shake the feeling that McCarthy *hated* these women, with the exception of the one who floated above it all by grace of her specific lifestyle (and even the fact of her being “above it all” was tinged with some degree of disapproval).

That said, these women felt real, and they felt to me like products (aha!) of their time in a way that it was interesting to have revealed in this sort of borderline trashy way. I wish I’d read a bit about McCarthy’s own life before starting this, so that’s my recommendation here if you want to dive in. If you like soap operas and poorly behaved society people and a hearty combination of mean girls and pearl clutchers and mommy shamers, this could be the book you’ve been waiting for.

Okay, yes, I guess I did like this after all.

UPDATE: Oh. Oh! The movie is so fitting. (Long, slow, and confusing, but weirdly satisfying.)

Mary McCarthy has a beautiful, natural use of words that makes the reading experience a walk in the park. The high use of details sometimes contribute to the story (like in the excellent Chapter 11 with the Polly & Gus story; with a great twist at the end), but sometimes can be counterproductive (like in Chapter 13, the Polly and Kay story, with waaaay too many details about procedures, details about the hospital etc.). All chapters can be read as short stories by the way, because it's all about the characters.
McCarthy's observations are all splendid, and these are translated in 15 striking little miniatures of Modern Life (with a shocking conclusion: there's no big difference in the way we view and order our life then (1930s) and now).
A nice read; if only she could have fine tuned the balancing between construction and details.

Funny and eventful as any soap opera, The Group is worth reading just to experience the "the more things change, the more they stay the same" factor--as well as to move firsthand through a text that drew harsh criticism from critics and revered authors when it was first published in 1963. Frank representations of sex, contraception, infidelity, politics both personal and public made 1960's audiences clutch their pearls, but not before keeping The Group on the NYT bestseller list for two years. It's an interesting combination of "the bad old days" and... just like today.

“Love and sex can be two separate things. They don't have to be, but they can be. You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex… You have to live without love, learn not to need it, in order to live with it.”

With such modern language and unabashed discussion of taboo themes, no wonder this book was a phenomenon of its age! The style is practically the same as used by contemporary writers and, as other reviewers pointed out, the stories are not too different from what is portrayed in novels about women living in New York, such as Sex & the City.
From politics to sex to finances to psychology, all sorts of themes are tackled by the author unapologetically and without unecessary frills.
On the downside, I felt that some of the characters were left unexplored, which is not surprising considering there are 8 main characters. I must confess, at some point I could not remember much about some of them. It is hard to keep track, as their families and their partners and friends are also introduced. So I feel that the real object of this book was not the characters but what they represented and the themes eack of them explored in the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, it was entertaining. My favourite characters were Polly and her father Mr. Andrews. Polly was perhaps one of the easiest characters to relate to, at least from our modern standards.
A footnote for the Penguin edition I have and didn't make the book easy to read at all. By trying to make this a pocketbook, the lettering is tiny and there are practically no paragraphs, making it quite tiresome to read.

This book was mentioned in one or several books I’d recently read. I had bought it a while ago at a used book sale. The original price in this hardback, published in 1963 (first in 1954), was $5.95. It is a book about a group of eight women in the years immediately after they graduate from Vassar. Though it is set in the 1930’s, it is not that different from a number of other books I’ve read with the same theme. That said, after a slow start, I did enjoy the book and it got me through a long day at the hospital while my mother had surgery. Also, I knew a Mary McCarthy, who died earlier this year and every time I looked at the cover, I thought of her.

The Group was introduced to me as the initial inspiration for Sex and the City and perhaps that's harmed its critical reputation. One might assume that this is a frothy, light, gossipy bit of a novel as a result. It's not. It's densely populated and generous of dialogue. While there may not be much of a straightforward plot, and each scene functions more like a vignette, these vignettes are explored in intense detail, and feel as though they are unfolding in real time, revealing the often terrible truths of these women's lives. Some of these women only receive one or two chapters, and throughout the seven-year timespan, large swaths of these women's lives remain absent from the text. One characters' entire arc revolves around the era's conflicting and often terrible advice on childrearing. Another character has the loss of her virginity and her attempt to acquire birth control described in excruciating detail, and receives little else.

This can be frustrating to read, and hardly fun (truly, some of these women's lives are so subtly horrifying that I had to step away), but the novel unfolds slowly but purposefully. McCarthy's satire is sharp but she has sympathy for these women. Despite the unity implied by the title, and the back cover blurb that promises some sort of defiant reunion for the group, this is not a novel about female friendship conquering all. This is a novel about women being alienated—from their friends, their families, their lovers, and most strikingly, themselves. It's horrifyingly funny while also sharply sad.

mary mccarthy was a pick-me i hate to say it but

edit: was going through in my head of all the books i read this year and remembered all but this one. oops!