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A review by selfmythologies
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
5.0
What an absolutely fantastic and fascinating story.
I highly recommend this to anyone who likes psychologically disturbing stories and social critique, because this novel perfectly unites both. It reminded me immensely of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger in its mood and themes, but I like this one even better; it's shorter and more precise, but just as unsettling.
The story itself is actually quite simple. It's about two girls living a secluded life near a village...somewhere. At the beginning we know nothing but a) something terrible happened in the family's past and b) the village people hate them. One day the girls get a visit from a cousin who seems kind of shady, and from this the entire story unfolds. It's very very much a psychological story. The reason the writing is so eerie - even though it's actually quite simple and easy to get through - is because it's written from the perspective of an unreliable narrator with a very... peculiar mindset. The protagonist's idea of having to 'protect' her home against evil forces by using magical objects reminded me - in a very strange parallel - of Jandy Nelson's characters, and I found it incredibly fascinating to get so familiar with her worldview.
Honestly this novel is in general a goldmine when it comes to possible interpretations. There is so much going on. To me the villagers and their attitude towards the Blackwoods represent society's view on anything that is 'other' / different, and it perfectly represents the attitudes that come with it; a sort of morbid curiosity, but never openly; at the same time, repulsion, ridiculing, fear. and the later, guilt, but of course it can only be shown in secret. I LOVED this thought of pretty much all the village people secretly cooking things for the girls because of their guilt, but none of them know it about each other! they know destroying the girls' house was not right, but they don't have the spine to stand for that, to admit it in public. GODDAMN THIS IS ALL SO ACCURATE
It makes Merricate's disturbing psyche and her weird obsessions understandable, actually, and that's what I LOVE - characters who might at first sight or to an outward spectator seem strange and insane, but when you look more closely at their circumstances, they start making sense. Actually, whenever Mary Katherine started talking about her 'secret place on the moon' I always felt incredibly sad for her. I love unreliable narrators for that reason: as a reader your attitude towards them is constantly shifting and questioned. The power dynamics and relationships inside the Blackwood 'household' are also incredibly fascinating to me. MK and her sister genuinely love each other, but they still have a... strange and unusual relationship.
And then there's Charles who represents greed and people who act friendly and understanding only out of selfish motives....and there we are again with the social critique. it's all so ACCURATE. people are horrible, sometimes individually (Charles), but especially people in groups (the villagers). I thought a while about what Helen Clarke and her husband might represent. I think it's a critique of the 'undecided' ones; the kind of people that try to downplay (social) issues and pretend everything is fine, but then won't actually stand up for marginalized people in situations of conflict. They act all nice, but actually they just go with the flow of what the majority does.
I read on Wikipedia that the author's own experiences with living in a small village with her husband where they faced discrimination most likely inspired this and other novels, and like...wow. What she made of that is simply incredible.
The ending also leaves so much room for thought. They seem to be happy, all alone and closed off again like at the beginning. It's so great from a storytelling perspective because at the beginning, I thought a happy ending for them would be going out into the world and being able to live normal lives somewhere, but after Charles comes and Constance actually wants to do that, all of my instincts went 'nnno its gonna end horribly' and then it actually did..so is them closing themselves off actually the only possibly good thing they could have done? is this how you survive in a hostile environment? probably, but it's so sad. so somehow even the happy ending is actually really deep.
oh, one more important thing! the descriptions, especially of the house and the garden, were so great even though the writing is so simple in itself! you really got a sense which rooms in the house represented which feeling to Merricat, what each of the 'safe places' in the garden meant to her. it made her perspective even more....relatable? and deep. ok, im off now.
a most definite 5/5!
I highly recommend this to anyone who likes psychologically disturbing stories and social critique, because this novel perfectly unites both. It reminded me immensely of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger in its mood and themes, but I like this one even better; it's shorter and more precise, but just as unsettling.
The story itself is actually quite simple. It's about two girls living a secluded life near a village...somewhere. At the beginning we know nothing but a) something terrible happened in the family's past and b) the village people hate them. One day the girls get a visit from a cousin who seems kind of shady, and from this the entire story unfolds. It's very very much a psychological story. The reason the writing is so eerie - even though it's actually quite simple and easy to get through - is because it's written from the perspective of an unreliable narrator with a very... peculiar mindset. The protagonist's idea of having to 'protect' her home against evil forces by using magical objects reminded me - in a very strange parallel - of Jandy Nelson's characters, and I found it incredibly fascinating to get so familiar with her worldview.
Honestly this novel is in general a goldmine when it comes to possible interpretations. There is so much going on. To me the villagers and their attitude towards the Blackwoods represent society's view on anything that is 'other' / different, and it perfectly represents the attitudes that come with it; a sort of morbid curiosity, but never openly; at the same time, repulsion, ridiculing, fear.
It makes Merricate's disturbing psyche and her weird obsessions understandable, actually, and that's what I LOVE - characters who might at first sight or to an outward spectator seem strange and insane, but when you look more closely at their circumstances, they start making sense. Actually, whenever Mary Katherine started talking about her 'secret place on the moon' I always felt incredibly sad for her. I love unreliable narrators for that reason: as a reader your attitude towards them is constantly shifting and questioned. The power dynamics and relationships inside the Blackwood 'household' are also incredibly fascinating to me. MK and her sister genuinely love each other, but they still have a... strange and unusual relationship.
And then there's Charles who represents greed and people who act friendly and understanding only out of selfish motives....and there we are again with the social critique. it's all so ACCURATE. people are horrible, sometimes individually (Charles), but especially people in groups (the villagers). I thought a while about what Helen Clarke and her husband might represent. I think it's a critique of the 'undecided' ones; the kind of people that try to downplay (social) issues and pretend everything is fine, but then won't actually stand up for marginalized people in situations of conflict. They act all nice, but actually they just go with the flow of what the majority does.
I read on Wikipedia that the author's own experiences with living in a small village with her husband where they faced discrimination most likely inspired this and other novels, and like...wow. What she made of that is simply incredible.
The ending
oh, one more important thing! the descriptions, especially of the house and the garden, were so great even though the writing is so simple in itself! you really got a sense which rooms in the house represented which feeling to Merricat, what each of the 'safe places' in the garden meant to her. it made her perspective even more....relatable? and deep. ok, im off now.
a most definite 5/5!