Medina

by Mary McCarthy

Bound in publisher's original wrappers with the front cover stamped in red and gilt and the spine stamped in red. Minor waters stains to the bottom edge. Minor browning to endpapers and to the top and fore edges. Richard A. Falk's copy with his name in ink on the front free endpaper, otherwise internally clean and bright.

92 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

People note American writer Mary Therese McCarthy for her sharp literary criticism and satirical fiction, including the novels The Groves of Academe (1952) and The Group (1963).

McCarthy studied at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated in 1933. McCarthy moved to city of New York and incisively wrote as a known contributor to publications such as the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps (1942), initiated her ascent to the most celebrated writers of her generation; the publication of her autobiography Memories of a Catholic Girlhood in 1957 bolstered this reputation.

This literary critic authored more than two dozen books, including the now-classic novel The Group , the New York Times bestseller in 1963.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McC...

Reviews

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Medina by Mary McCarthy (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc. New York 1972)(343.73).  This book is a record of and commentary on the court-martial trial of Captain Ernest Medina of the U.S. Army arising from the My Lai incident in Vietnam. Capt. Medina was the direct superior of Lieutenant William Calley and was on the ground with him at My Lai when approximately 400 unarmed Vietnamese men, women and children were rounded up and then butchered. Lieutenant Calley asserted that though the killings took place with his knowledge and under his command, he was only following a direct order from his superior officer Captain Medina. Medina denied giving such an order or having any knowledge of the event as it was occurring. Calley was convicted of murder at his court martial, but Medina was acquitted of any major crime. Was that justice? Was it fair? It was probably just as fair as anything else that occurred during the Vietnam conflict. My rating: 7/10, finished 2001.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry, concise reportage pervades this narrative of a court martial. McCarthy is close to rigid in her formal style, on which thrives the stark sense of the inevitability of impunity, but from which comes too a certain austerity that chafes with it. Brief and biting all the same.