Customer Reviews

The Birds of America

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Mary McCarthy has never gotten her due as a prose writer and this -- her best novel -- seems to have been overlooked. This is the story of a young man 's emancipation from his very much loved mother (with whom he has an almost romantic relationship based on her attractiveness and their shared sensibility). They construct an ideal life together in which they eschew all "modern" conveniences for the niceties of the past. She remarries and he is launched as an adult, going to Paris to school, where he attempts to apply his interpretation of Kant's moral imperative to the various experiences he has (including one very funny-painful episode in which he invites a urine-soaked clochard to share his quarters). It is a completely delightful book and can be reread with pleasure. She is a master story teller.

I was so incredibly inspired by someone that truly understands Kantian ethics, and how to apply them. Mary McCarthy was obviously very well educated and intelligent, this book was so good that I was wondering why she was not a part of the literature classes that I took in college. Her very endearing and intimate writing style has me in awe. I really want to send this book to my former philosophy professor and see what he thinks. If you like a good novel and philosophy both, read this book.