Reviews for To the Life of the Silver Harbor: Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod

The average rating for To the Life of the Silver Harbor: Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-14 00:00:00 James Schweitzer Reuel Wilson focuses more on his relationship with and feelings about his father (Edmund Wilson) than his mother (Mary McCarthy), which is disappointing to me, but he still manages to include things about her that I had not known about from reading her books and biographies. The best quality of this book is the rather breathless recapitulation of Cape Cod life, especially in the 40s and 50s when Wilson was a child there. He provides gossipy background of local characters and regular visitors to the Cape, laments the passing of its days as a bohemian enclave (nude pond swimming!) and glorifies its abundant natural beauties. He also includes a sharp analysis on how the Cape influenced his parents writing -- especially his father. The biggest criticism is his tendency to repeat himself throughout the book, as if he wrote it in parts, cobbled it together, and then neglected to edit out the repetitions; but that is a minor flaw in his poignant eulogy to not only the memory of his parents, but also the memory of a long-lost Cape.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-02-08 00:00:00 Pete Taylor A personal and rather tpuching account of these two individuals in their roles as parents and as members of a community of friends, lovers, and intellectual sparring partners. Ruel not only brings back to life the social setting in which they lived while in Cape Cod, but also pictures the physical environment that surrounded them, with heavy reliance on the words of Ed Wilson himself. Ed Wilson fans also get to see snippets of his writings (letters, bits of unfinished novels and some poetry) that have not been published before. For me the book had added emotional significance because I belong to much the same generation as Reuel and even knew some of the characters -- it was like re-seeing certain episodes of my own youth.