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A review by matildazq
The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
4.0
I'm not sure that this is quite four-star for me, but I did like it better than Hangsaman.
The phenomenon of DID is just not all that interesting to me, and although I certainly get the sense that Jackson was enjoying herself in creating the pompous psychologist, things erred a bit too much on the side of the ridiculous for my tastes. The character of Elizabeth's disturbed and controlling Aunt was the closest to injecting the usual sinister note into things, but the three personalities were just too broadly drawn to really capture my interest.
Thinking more fully about this in comparison to Hangsaman, I think I was frustrated by the fact that there were inklings of real brilliance in that novel, early on, but I then found the overt psychological condition to be somewhat heavy-handed and less interesting than when Jackson allows mental disturbances and emotional darkness to play out in the everyday happenings of her well-crafted social settings. This novel is more doggedly middle-of-the-road than Hangsaman, and I may be talking myself out of the higher rating for this one!
The phenomenon of DID is just not all that interesting to me, and although I certainly get the sense that Jackson was enjoying herself in creating the pompous psychologist, things erred a bit too much on the side of the ridiculous for my tastes. The character of Elizabeth's disturbed and controlling Aunt was the closest to injecting the usual sinister note into things, but the three personalities were just too broadly drawn to really capture my interest.
Thinking more fully about this in comparison to Hangsaman, I think I was frustrated by the fact that there were inklings of real brilliance in that novel, early on, but I then found the overt psychological condition to be somewhat heavy-handed and less interesting than when Jackson allows mental disturbances and emotional darkness to play out in the everyday happenings of her well-crafted social settings. This novel is more doggedly middle-of-the-road than Hangsaman, and I may be talking myself out of the higher rating for this one!