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cyberquartz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
seullywillikers's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Shirley Jackson is my favorite author. Her humor, her ability to see into the dark places of everyday domesticity, her poetic way with language and the ability to turn a phrase are unmatched. This book collects the rare and rarely seen from her collections and paper, and is an excellent addition to anyone's reading list.
meme_too2's review
4.0
Shirley Jackson was an extraordinary writer. You never know where her stories are going. Some end creepy, some end with a strange twist, and some simply end and leave you wondering. She surprises you every time. I will return to these stories again and again.
erboe501's review
5.0
Shirley Jackson has been one of my favorite authors since I discovered her gothic fiction in grad school. I've taken a detour from reading all of her novels with this collection of new and uncollected works.
Jackson's precision of language demands the utmost attention at all times. She immediately transports you to a specific time and place. I loved her stories set in the "real world" and those that are slightly more fantastic. I am still chilled when I think of "The Man in the Woods" and the sinister, unfinished ending. Is this the world of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood? It could be, but what's startling about Jackson is that this could also be a version of our reality, just like "The Lottery" could be real. Equally unsettling, and firmly rooted in the contemporary, is a story like "Company for Dinner," which speaks to the cookie-cutter nature of suburbia. "Bulletin" is a clever piece of utopia/dystopia/future sci-fi. People whom the stories' protagonists approach on their quests are often antagonistic and caustic. The worlds Jackson creates aren't exactly friendly. But the stories welcome the reader to curl up and dig in.
Jackson's nonfiction about herself and her family was also a treat, the first of her nonfiction I've read. I was smitten with how seriously (but also tongue-in-cheek) she takes magic and ghosts and spiritual practices. She has lived in a haunted house herself. She practices what she preaches!
I wouldn't recommend the collection to a Jackson novice. I found this book at the perfect time: with a few of her novels and stories under my belt, so that I recognized the echoes of later novels in early stories, and felt galvanized to read the rest of her work.
Jackson's precision of language demands the utmost attention at all times. She immediately transports you to a specific time and place. I loved her stories set in the "real world" and those that are slightly more fantastic. I am still chilled when I think of "The Man in the Woods" and the sinister, unfinished ending. Is this the world of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood? It could be, but what's startling about Jackson is that this could also be a version of our reality, just like "The Lottery" could be real. Equally unsettling, and firmly rooted in the contemporary, is a story like "Company for Dinner," which speaks to the cookie-cutter nature of suburbia. "Bulletin" is a clever piece of utopia/dystopia/future sci-fi. People whom the stories' protagonists approach on their quests are often antagonistic and caustic. The worlds Jackson creates aren't exactly friendly. But the stories welcome the reader to curl up and dig in.
Jackson's nonfiction about herself and her family was also a treat, the first of her nonfiction I've read. I was smitten with how seriously (but also tongue-in-cheek) she takes magic and ghosts and spiritual practices. She has lived in a haunted house herself. She practices what she preaches!
I wouldn't recommend the collection to a Jackson novice. I found this book at the perfect time: with a few of her novels and stories under my belt, so that I recognized the echoes of later novels in early stories, and felt galvanized to read the rest of her work.
merricatadamtine's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Loving the new (yes new as of 2016) Shirley Jackson. Compiled and edited by her son and daughter from the archives at the LOC, this book features not only short stories but also essays, reviews, lectures on writing and her domestic fiction. As always her style balances the outre and the straight forward, drawing readers in with her familiar settings, which usually get turned on their heads by the end. Of particular interest to me was her WWII stories, featuring women and children left behind, and coming to terms with returning strangers.
mariafernandagama's review
4.0
I can't help but loving everything that Shirley Jackson writes, though I have to admit some of the writings here were a bit repetitive and I suffered through them. Not the short stories, these were all great (even the not-so-great ones), but specifically her chronics about family life, children, etc. I don't think these themes shouldn't have been handled by her, they were a huge part of her life and it makes absolutely sense to me that she'd write about them. But I did get the sense, at some point, that I was reading the same thing over and over.
Anyway, concerning the fictional stories, I had already read "The man in the woods" in the New Yorker and thought it was just fantastic. It's a very strange and interesting plot, filled with symbolism and references to old and eternal things. But "Mrs Spencer and the Oberons" is definitely the story I'm taking away from this and holding close to my heart forever. It just moved me so completely. I'm so grateful to her children for editing this book and making this material available to us! Imagine what we could have lost.
Anyway, concerning the fictional stories, I had already read "The man in the woods" in the New Yorker and thought it was just fantastic. It's a very strange and interesting plot, filled with symbolism and references to old and eternal things. But "Mrs Spencer and the Oberons" is definitely the story I'm taking away from this and holding close to my heart forever. It just moved me so completely. I'm so grateful to her children for editing this book and making this material available to us! Imagine what we could have lost.
auroraleighs's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
Oh Shirley Jackson, my love for you is, as always, boundless. This was a wonderful and bizarre little collection that delighted me at every turn.
krobart's review
4.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/day-783-let-me-tell-you/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/day-783-let-me-tell-you/
dreamgalaxies's review
4.0
I have a booktube channel now! Subscribe here.
Pleasantly surprised how much I liked this one. A bit uneven as posthumous collections tend to be, but not as much as I'd expected. Especially being a mix of short stories and nonfiction essays.
Some of the short stories felt a bit unfinished, but a surprising number of them were remarkable. Jackson first enthralled me in high school with "The Lottery" and then again last fall when I read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." "Haunting at Hill House," which I've been reading concurrently, was good too although not quite at the same level. Because this unconventional writer died so young, I thought I'd never get to be swept away into her spooky not-quite-this-world writing again and so this book was a delight. I especially loved 'The Lie,' 'Mrs. Spencer & the Oberons,' 'Company for Dinner,' 'Showdown,' The Bridge Game,' 'The Man in the Woods,' 'Good Old House,' 'The Ghosts of Loiret,' 'Homecoming' and 'As High As the Sky.'
I was pleased how much I liked the essays as well as the stories, because I got a glimpse at who Jackson really was, and I liked her quite a bit. I can see the strain of being someone brilliant and also a housewife, and though it doesn't strike home quite as much for feeling dated I felt a lot of kinship with the author.
Pleasantly surprised how much I liked this one. A bit uneven as posthumous collections tend to be, but not as much as I'd expected. Especially being a mix of short stories and nonfiction essays.
Some of the short stories felt a bit unfinished, but a surprising number of them were remarkable. Jackson first enthralled me in high school with "The Lottery" and then again last fall when I read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." "Haunting at Hill House," which I've been reading concurrently, was good too although not quite at the same level. Because this unconventional writer died so young, I thought I'd never get to be swept away into her spooky not-quite-this-world writing again and so this book was a delight. I especially loved 'The Lie,' 'Mrs. Spencer & the Oberons,' 'Company for Dinner,' 'Showdown,' The Bridge Game,' 'The Man in the Woods,' 'Good Old House,' 'The Ghosts of Loiret,' 'Homecoming' and 'As High As the Sky.'
I was pleased how much I liked the essays as well as the stories, because I got a glimpse at who Jackson really was, and I liked her quite a bit. I can see the strain of being someone brilliant and also a housewife, and though it doesn't strike home quite as much for feeling dated I felt a lot of kinship with the author.
liketheday's review
4.0
If you had told me before I started this new collection of her work that the pieces I would enjoy most would be the ones about her everyday life as a parent and housewife, I would have thought you'd had the wrong Shirley Jackson.
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