Imaginary Friends

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.

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