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Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
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Brief Description
Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the 1920s, when she was orphaned into a world of relations as colourful, potent, and mysterious as the Catholic religion. There was her Catholic grandmother who combined piousness with pugnacity, and her veiled Jewish grandmother...
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Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
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Mary McCarthy, one of the leading American intellectuals of the twentieth century, skewers her strict Catholic upbringing in this witty and compelling memoir, one of her major works.
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Description
Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the 1920s, when she was orphaned into a world of relations as colourful, potent, and mysterious as the Catholic religion. There was her Catholic grandmother who combined piousness with pugnacity, and her veiled Jewish grandmother who mourned the disastrous effects of a face-lift; there was wicked Uncle Myers who beat her for the good of her soul, and Aunt Margaret who laced her orange juice with castor oil, and taped her lips at night to prevent unhealthy 'mouth-breathing'.
Many a time in the course of doing these memoirs,' Mary McCarthy says, 'I have wished that I were writing fiction. But these were the people, along with the Ladies of the Sacred Heart convent school, who inspired her engaging perception, her devastating sense of the sublime and ridiculous, and her witty, novelist's imagination.
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood is a major work by one of the leading American intellectuals of the twentieth century β witty, scathing, piercingly insightful and stylishly written.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781804271650
Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 13 March 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Contributors:
- Introduction by Colm TΓ³ibΓn
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 121.0mm
Height: 197.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 264
Collections
About the Author
Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) was a novelist, essayist and critic. Her political and social commentary, literary essays and theatre criticism appeared in magazines such as Partisan Review, the New Yorker, Harper's and the New York Review of Books. She was the author of numerous novels, including The Group (1963),three works of autobiography and two travel books about Italy.
Colm TΓ³ibΓn was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of several novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. TΓ³ibΓn was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.
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