Product Description

Although Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: they were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, “including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” The public battle, and the legal squabbling, that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman’s death.

In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a post-mortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #332710 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Released on: 2003-03-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781400034222
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
?A sharp-eyed and even sharper-clawed memory-play. . . . Provides . . . guilty pleasures, keeping the repartee both snappy and snappish.? --The Wall Street Journal

?A feast of wit and language . . . that grows into a hair-pulling duel even Don King could appreciate.? --Los Angeles Times

?Takes the prize for audacity. . . . Two august ladies of letters as you?ve never seen them before. . . . [I]n American theater, everybody loves a bitch with style.? --The New York Times

?A witty, swanky, thoroughly delightful intellectual vaudeville that?s as light as it is sneakily substantial.? --Newsday

?Nora Ephron knows how to refine the passions of Hellman and McCarthy into glittering comedy. . . . [She] also gives her dueling heroines some swipes worthy of Clare Boothe Luce?s long-form catfight, The Women.? ?-The New York Sun
-- Review

Review
“A sharp-eyed and even sharper-clawed memory-play. . . . Provides . . . guilty pleasures, keeping the repartee both snappy and snappish.” --The Wall Street Journal

“A feast of wit and language . . . that grows into a hair-pulling duel even Don King could appreciate.” --Los Angeles Times

“Takes the prize for audacity. . . . Two august ladies of letters as you’ve never seen them before. . . . [I]n American theater, everybody loves a bitch with style.” --The New York Times

“A witty, swanky, thoroughly delightful intellectual vaudeville that’s as light as it is sneakily substantial.” --Newsday

“Nora Ephron knows how to refine the passions of Hellman and McCarthy into glittering comedy. . . . [She] also gives her dueling heroines some swipes worthy of Clare Boothe Luce’s long-form catfight, The Women.” –-The New York Sun

From the Inside Flap
Although Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: they were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, "including ‘and' and ‘the.'" The public battle, and the legal squabbling, that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman's death.

In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a post-mortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.

Customer Reviews

Better when seeing it...
You just don't get the feel of this extraordinary, unusual and unique play of Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman - two rival authors during the communist scare - from reading it. I was given the pleasure of seeing this incredible play starring Cherry Jones and Swoozie Kurts in its Broadway run. When the two authors meet in the afterlife, they tell their audience about their lives, beginning with their cleverly told childhoods and slowly moving forward to McCarthy's accusation of being a Communist and ending with Hellman's death before the trial was set by Hellman and McCarthy to discuss McCarthy's lies about Hellman's so-called memoirs. Still clever and still stunning, Ephron's play is an enjoyable read for McCarthy (THE GROUP) and Hellman (THE CHILDREN'S HOUR) fans.

Imaginary Friends review
This book is disappointing since it has no real message except that women fight and never forget. So, it is a very negative message that is projected.

Nora Efphron - Imaginary Friends
This is a piece of junk. I threw it in the trash because I would not want to subject anyone else to this rubbish.