SOURCE: A review of Cast a Cold Eye, in The New York Times, September 21, 1950, p. 29.

In the following review, Poore judges the stories of Cast a Cold Eye to be brilliant character sketches.

Scott Fitzgerald's memorable observation on writing short stories—"begin with an individual, and before you know it you have created a type; begin with a type, and you find that you have created nothing"—comes frequently to mind as you read Mary McCarthy's new collection of rather remorselessly satiric tales, Cast a Cold Eye. Miss McCarthy will be remembered as that source of the southpaw intellectuals whose Utopian lampoon, The Oasis, drew blood all over the Marx-and-Kafka set, about a year ago. Also as the author of "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Suit," and other aspects of The Company She Keeps.

Also as the author of "Yonder Peasant, Who Is He?" a profoundly moving...