“Mary McCarthy:
R.I.P.”
In memoriam of Mary McCarthy who, Leonard reminds us, Time magazine called, “quite possibly
the cleverest America has ever produced.” Leonard calls writes, “…she had the
sharpest teeth at the tea party,” and this was before “tea party” meant what it
does in the politics of the now. He writes “If her novels lack the generosity
of great literature, they are full of everything else that counts…she read everything,
and was indignant about everything, and, yes, clever about everything.”
Great quote from McCarthy about drawing on real people for
characters in her novels, “What I do is take real plums and put them in an
imaginary cake.” I’ve never had plum cake, but the analogy works all the same.
Never read McCarthy either. Will have to correct that sin of omission. Maybe I'll make A Bolt from the Blue my next project?
New word: Lycanthrope = werewolf
New
learning: Leonard writes, “You must understand that I grew up reading The Nation, The New Republic and,
especially, Partisan Review. (In this
Southern California boyhood, I also subscribed to the Congressional Record so I’d have someone to talk to each afternoon
when I came home from school).”…explains a lot.
Good article about McCarthy in the NYTs on the centennial of her birth (also a great picture, seems to capture the spirit Leonard was describing):
No comments:
Post a Comment