Ms. Hen reviews The Company She Keeps

 

The Company She Keeps

Mary McCarthy

Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc

1942

Ms. Hen picked this book up at a used bookstore recently because she liked the author's name, and she has a memory of seeing her memoir, MEMOIRS OF A CATHOLIC GIRLHOOD somewhere around, possibly in her house. She thinks that book is one that her aunt would have brought to her family's house, because it's a title she would have liked.

This is a novel in stories, about a young bohemian woman in the 1930s who lives in New York, and works at various jobs, and has a few husbands and lovers. In the story, "Cruel and Barbarous Treatment," the woman, yet unnamed, has an affair on her husband, and she fears spinsterhood if she leaves him and her lover does not marry her. In "Rogue's Gallery," Margaret works for an art gallery, whose owner is stingy, and manages money badly, and makes most of his money from miniature portraits of dogs.

In "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt," Meg is on her way to Portland, Oregon, and she gets drunk, and has a regrettable affair with an older man. In "The Genial Host," Meg describes the host of a party, who conducts his events like an artist, but tries to control her. "Portrait of the Intellectual as a Yale Man," is about a young man who has an affair with Meg, told through his point of view. "Ghostly Father, I Confess," is about Meg at her analyst reliving her family history and where it has brought her.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of a couple of books, LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER, which was a scandal in its day, similar to this one, and LOLITA, because it is risque, but droll and descriptive. Ms. Hen read that when this novel came out, an alarm went out, because in the story, "The Man in the Brooks Brother Shirt," is about a young woman having sex with a man she does not know, which was outrageous at the time, especially written by a woman. 

Ms. Hen liked this book because she thinks it's a window to the past, to the way the world used to be, especially relations between men and women. Ms. Hen thought the first story, "Cruel and Barbarous Treatment," was ridiculous because the young woman thought that she would end up alone if she left her husband, and her lover did not marry her. She liked the next story better, and they got better after that.

Ms. Hen understands that this novel is semi-autobiographical, and the writer said she did have an affair with a man on a train going west. Ms. Hen thinks this is interesting that she would expose herself like that, and brave. Women didn't do those things back then.

Ms. Hen recommends this novel if you want to be angry about the way women used to be treated, but want to learn about it. The last story, "Ghostly Father, I Confess," is about the woman being treated badly by her husband and her analyst, and they tell her that she is hysterical. This would not happen these days, thankfully, because Ms. Hen likes to think women are treated with more respect by therapists. We have come a long way, but not long enough.