Exploring the friendship of five middle class women in their forties who met as students at university, Lara Feigel’s The Group is a deliciously funny and poignant read. Moving between first person accounts of each woman, Stella, Kay, Polly, Priss and Helena, we’re treated to intimate ideas and insightful thoughts from each, as well as the relationships between them. Children, marriages, careers, relationships – all are up for exploration. Who has fulfilled their promise? Who is living life in the right way?
As well as their general lives, in a post #MeToo world the novel explores a controversial activity and the difficulties about knowing who is telling the truth. The modern landscape is difficult for both women and men, and the book doesn’t shy away from this.
It’s a little tricky to get into, and confusing at times, but very pointedly written. The women are a bot frustrating, and clearly very privileged – not that that means they can’t have problems.
It’s Lara’s first novel, and the critic and professor at UCL has written extensively about the lives of individuals in history, bringing in their personal lives to their public.
The Group clearly takes its cue from Mary McCarthy’s 1963 frank, absorbing novel about a group of female graduates and is an interesting portrait of contemporary female life and friendship.