Writing on the Wall and Other Literary Essays

by Mary McCarthy

Literary criticism that ranges from Shakespeare to Salinger.

Genres: Literary Criticism, Essays, Nonfiction, American, 20th Century, Books About Books

213 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 1971

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

[Natalie Baer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her essay on "Eichman in Jerusalem" inveigles me to read it.

[Wendy Liu]

a literary giant! i don't know if i agree with her take on madame bovary but i loved reading her perspective nonetheless.

[Paul Hoehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 60s tend to be an aesthetic off-putting decade for me, sloshy, interstitial. Luckily, Mary McCarthy, an author capable of producing interesting pieces of writing on just about anything, could not help but look around when she was in the middle of them and recording what she saw. If there is a red thread here, it is the paradoxical knot of averageness and exceptionality that animates nearly every essay. If mass culture has produced a kind of dreary common ground, is it praiseworthy to wish to distinguish oneself from the masses? Or is this precisely what singles out what Twitter haters today call “midwits?” And if we succeed at this dubious task, where does that leave in relation to a humanity that was once considered the measure of all things? Cleverly, McCarthy clusters similar readings together, so that the book itself becomes a kind of crowd of unique faces in the same ready-to-wear clothes, allowing both sameness and difference to shine forth.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired Nov 2006
Gift from Jenn