A review by sam_bizar_wilcox
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

5.0

With time, I think, Hangsaman has become my favorite Jackson novel. What allures about this novel is its rich sense of atmosphere, its psychological acuteness, and the endearing narrative lens of Natalie Waite. Natalie is such a complex protagonistic force, a young woman on the verge of adulthood, a young woman overcoming very serious trauma, and a young woman unsure of what it means to even have an identity, let alone recognize hers as her own. Her voice is intellectually rich--perhaps with wisdom beyond her years--but with a meandering sense of selfhood that so effectively resonates with adolescence. The book that encases her is a jewel-box of evocative symbols: a clique of beautiful girls at the women's college, dark corridors and the uncanny spaces of home when no one is home, tarot cards, the forest. Hangsaman is, at heart, a character study: it zooms in on the threshold life of its protagonist on the brink of collapse. But it asks its readers to understand her. To be her. And to take her fantasies and fabrications seriously, because these are as serious as the work itself. For this, I am stunned by Hangsaman. It is a marvel.