McCarthy, Mary (Vol. 1) - McCarthy, Mary 1912–
McCarthy, Mary 1912–
American novelist, short story writer, and critic, Miss McCarthy is the author of The Group. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)
[Good] people, helpless or otherwise, are not in Mary McCarthy's line. Neither, for that matter, are bad ones; she seems to me quite indifferent to the ordinary moral categories. Like any good satirist, she creates her own heaven and hell. In the world of Mary McCarthy all activities are equally absurd, all people equally ridiculous…. At first glance, nothing distinguishes the saint from the sinner. There is, however, one traditional virtue which never stimulates Miss McCarthy to suspicion and ridicule—and that is honesty, the will to face the truth about oneself, the desire and ability to be critical of one's own motives. This kind of honesty is, of course, an "intellectual" virtue, presupposing as it does an unusual degree of analytic power. Which is precisely the...
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