Details
Synopsis
Brightman collects an astounding set of letters sent between McCarthy and Arendt that amount to nothing less than an intense epistolary friendship maintained over 25 years, beginning in 1949 and ending with Arendt's death. Both writers describe their American literary milieu in great detail and provide an informal history of the period, from an extremely private point of view. The letters not only record an intense friendship between the two very different women, but also outline the major events that come about during their lives: their books, marriages, divorces, and moves. Candid and revealing.
| Size | | Length: | 448 pages | | Height: | 9.3 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 19.2 oz |
Industry Reviews
"The bond between Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt spanned two continents, divorce, remarriage, widowhood and illness, as well as some of the most tumultuous events of the century: the Eichmann trial, the Kennedy assassinations, the Vietnam War, Watergate....Though their mutual influence has long been acknowledged (and drawn upon in biographies of both women), the collected correspondence offers the first full portrait of their enduring friendship: its emotional ballast and its intellectual range, each quality almost certainly bolstering and enhancing the other."
Boston Globe - Gail Caldwell (01/29/1995)
"Their correspondence, like their friendship, sparkles with wit, politics, intimate domestic details and glorious, sometimes shocking gossip about everybody else in their extended, argumentative circle. However caustic, neither Arendt nor McCarthy was ever merely petty....Ultimately, the correspondence of these two cultural warriors is a testimony to a great and moving friendship; a brief and heartening journey around the most enduring and important issues of our century; a diverting and inspiring read on a stormy evening in the new age of mean."
Los Angeles Times Book Review (03/12/1995)
"[There is an] overall tenor of the correspondence, which continued until a few weeks before Arendt's death from a heart attack on December 4, 1975. McCarthy is fervent, searching, emotional. Arendt is succinct and philosophical. The major drama McCarthy enacts in these pages is romantic...with Arendt always playing the shrewd psychological advisor."
New York Times - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (07/10/1995)
"Marvelous...What makes 'Between Friends' such a pleasurable, sometimes even thrilling book...is its constant mixture of the abstract and concrete, of world politics and personal foibles."
"The letters of these canny women are enlivened by their almost romantic regard for
each other, and by gossipy reportage about post-war intellectual life....Surprisingly readable."
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