Read Women discussion

Has anyone read Mary McCarthy? I keep seeing her in the book deals, where it's usually more contemporary authors there. This morning I saw her likened to John Cheever, so I think I might like her. Recommendations?

I only know The Group by her, which I read in the early '80s and again in the early '90s. I liked it, but not enough to keep it.

I think that is her most famous, but I might not be so interested in women who went to Vassar, which is why I haven't dipped my toe in the McCarthy water. One of the reviews for this morning's book deals, A Charmed Life said "only for McCarthy fans" so I thought maybe I should start there. ;-)

I read The Group this year and I LOVED it! I just thought it was fascinating - I believe someone described "Sex and the City" as "The Group" of its time, or vice versa, and I know what they meant: the descriptions of sex, contraception, working mothers, etc are so graphic for the time it was written. I don't even have kids and I found the chapter which talks about breastfeeding almost physically painful. By which I don't mean it's old-fashioned chick lit - it's got a really open, wide-eyed description of the world. Yeah, it's based around a Group of more or less privileged women, but it manages to encompass a lot within that premise. I'd really recommend it.

I read her autobiography of her youth, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, in a college class on 20th century women writers and I find myself remembering things from it many years later. (I didn't link the book because the edition here includes other memoirs as well.)