Preview of The Group Summary:

Against this background of changing mores McCarthy posits her themes — the eternal standards of right and reason, straightforwardness, goodheartedness, and natural responses in a world increasingly uncertain and affected.

These are not to be confused with mere undisciplined indulgence, as those who try too assiduously to be natural and "open," such as Norine Blake, whose affair with Harald parallels the breakup of his marriage, and whose left politics and then Margaret Mead-type...