lunabee34

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Shirley Jackson, you have written all the beautiful words and left none for the rest of us.

This novel is deeply and blackly humorous. It consists almost entirely of dialogue which is snappy and character revealing, conversation had among wretched and self-serving and just nigh evil people that is a scream to read.

The plot of the novel is that a group of people come to believe that the world is ending and that they must prepare to become those chosen to survive and populate a new Eden. To say more would definitely spoil what is an extremely well written story.



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( SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL )

Highly, highly, recommended as is all of her work.

Y'all, I am having so much fun doing the research to revise my Haunting of Hill House paper for publication. If I ever write anything so fine as HH, I can expire of sheer delight.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I adore this book. It is the quintessential horror story to me. It's one of those wonderful tales of ambiguity. Is anything otherworldly really happening, or are the characters just ascribing supernatural origins to natural phenomena? It's also a wonderful delve into the psyche of the POV character Eleanor "Nell" Vance. Themes include reality, self-hood and identity, and storytelling among others. Another character, Theo, is coded as queer, and Theo's relationship with Eleanor has decidedly queer undertones. I could see spending a lifetime writing about this book because there's so much to mine.

It's genuinely creepy and disturbing without being gory or over the top (I just can't read/watch much horror anymore), and it's utterly fascinating. Every time I've read it, I've been unable to put it down. Highly, highly recommended.

There's a movie adaptation with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theo that I thoroughly enjoyed even though it is an abysmal adaptation of the novel.



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( more spoilery thoughts about HH )

Question: do any of you have the collection of Shirley Jackson with the Joyce Carol Oates introduction? If you do, could you be persuaded to scan the intro and email it to me? I would love you forever and ever.