Mary McCarthy has so far written five novels, as well as eight books of other kinds, and though all the novels are not equally successful, each has so much life and truth, and is written in a prose so spare, vigorous, and natural, and yet at the same time so witty, graceful, and, in a certain way, poetic, that it becomes a matter for wonder that she is not generally named among the finest American novelists of her period. She is much admired, of course, and has achieved a best seller, but that is not the same thing. The reason,...