- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 25 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0156421852
- ISBN-13: 978-0156421850
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 14.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this autobiographical account of McCarthy's intellectual and emotional development, we meet her as a lonely, frightened 13-year-old and leave her as a sophisticated Vassar graduate, foolishly married at age 21 to a man she doesn't love. This reminiscence will appeal to admirers of her Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Such universal experiences as an adolescent girl's painful awakening to sex, her first love affair, her discovery of books and ideas involve the reader because of the author's near-photographic memory, her relentless candor and graceful style. Brought up by grandparents, McCarthy, "a bright wild girl from Seattle," at 17 was put off by Vassar's "cleverness," but she notes that the school left its stamp on her, making her "brittle, smart and a little empty." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
McCarthy, an important American writer for over 30 years, here offers a fascinating account of her life from ages 13 to 21. In her lively style she relates details of those early yearsthe influences, triumphs, losses, and friends, for friendship, she states, "is essential to intellectuals." Of particular interest is the discussion of her extensive readingsome of it assigned but much pursued on her own. In fact, her purpose in writing this volume is largely to "trace the onset of intellectual interests" that occurred when she was 13, the year she was "born as a mind." (Her 1957 Memories of a Catholic Girlhood approaches her early life from a different perspective.) A candid writer, McCarthy ends this volume with her marriage at 21 to a man she did not love, making us eager to follow her story further in the next installment. Nancy R. Ives, State Univ. of New York at Geneseo
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
I was born as a mind during 1925, my bodily birth having taken place in 1912. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was born as a mind during 1925, my bodily birth having taken place in 1912. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read Memories of a Catholic Girlhood instead,
This review is from: How I Grew (Hardcover)
I love most of Mary McCarthy, but in my opinion, this is her weakest book. It covers basically the same territory as Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, which she wrote in the 1950s. Here, however, there's little trace of her signature, tightly-wrought style. Instead, the style is baggy, with convoluted sentences, chatty asides, digressions within digressions, and endless lists of books she read, names of friends, etc. As a result, I often lost track of the basic story - which, after all, was the exact same story she had already told in Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. I'm rather confused as to why McCarthy wrote this book at all. Given that she had already written a detailed memoir of her formative years, why not just skip ahead to the mid-1930s, the subject of her unfinished "Intellectual Memoirs"?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Portrait of an Amazing Woman as a Young Girl,
By Andrei Sizov (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How I Grew (Paperback)
Each time I reread "How I Grew" I enjoy it more. Mary McCarthy paints a picture of herself coming of age intellectually , alongside engaging and often hilarious descriptions of the people she meets in these formative years between age 13 and 21, the town she grows up in (Seattle), and her early experiences at Vassar. What I love most is her chronicle of the most important and influential books and teachers in her life at this time, and how they shaped and sharpened her already apparent keen intelligence. Witty, self-deprecating, acid-tongued, insightful, and admittedly selective in her memories, in this book Mary McCarthy gives us some clues as to how a young girl with a formidable intellect grew into one of America's literary giants.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Portrait of an Amazing Woman as a Young Girl,
By Andrei Sizov - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How I Grew (Paperback)
Each time I reread "How I Grew" I enjoy it more. Mary McCarthy paints a picture of herself coming of age intellectually , alongside engaging and often hilarious descriptions of the people she meets in these formative years between age 13 and 21, the town she grows up in (Seattle), and her early experiences at Vassar. What I love most is her chronicle of the most important and influential books and teachers in her life at this time, and how they shaped and sharpened her already apparent keen intelligence. Witty, self-deprecating, acid-tongued, insightful, and admittedly selective in her memories, in this book Mary McCarthy gives us some clues as to how a young girl with a formidable intellect grew into one of America's literary giants.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read Memories of a Catholic Girlhood instead,
By Byron the Bulb - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How I Grew (Hardcover)
I love most of Mary McCarthy, but in my opinion, this is her weakest book. It covers basically the same territory as Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, which she wrote in the 1950s. Here, however, there's little trace of her signature, tightly-wrought style. Instead, the style is baggy, with convoluted sentences, chatty asides, digressions within digressions, and endless lists of books she read, names of friends, etc. As a result, I often lost track of the basic story - which, after all, was the exact same story she had already told in Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. I'm rather confused as to why McCarthy wrote this book at all. Given that she had already written a detailed memoir of her formative years, why not just skip ahead to the mid-1930s, the subject of her unfinished "Intellectual Memoirs"?
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
My grandmother was Czerna Wilson, grandfather Carl Wilson,
By MaryAnn F. Kohl "author, educator" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How I Grew: A Memoir Of the Early Years (Paperback)
My grandmother is the "fabled Czerna Wilson" in this book. I could offer some facts that are unknown to the author of this book, if someone is interested.
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