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A review by erboe501
Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson
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.