Hangsaman

by Shirley Jackson

She’s an elegant prose stylist who expands and compresses language into complex, cadenced sentences, occasionally reminiscent of Henry James, of whom Jackson was apparently a fan. She uses words in new and unexpected ways that seem precisely right—the “asthmatic” buses wheezing at the bus stand. And she’s acutely observant of how the world looks through Natalie’s eyes.

Francine Prose’s thoughts on Jackson. She worded this exactly how I feel, and how I FELT when I read “asthmatic bus” for one example. Such a genius and I’ll forever gush about Jackson!!

“It’s just that—well, look, Natalie. This is the only life I’ve got—you understand? I mean, this is all. And look what’s happening to me. I spend most of my time just thinking about how nice things used to be and wondering if they’ll ever be nice again. If I should go on and on and die someday and nothing was ever nice again—wouldn’t that be a fine thing? Wouldn’t I have been cheated, don’t you think? I get to feeling like that and then I think I’ll make things be nice, and make him behave, and just make everything all happy and exciting again the way it used to be—but I’m too tired.”

Mustn’t violate the sacred rules of magic, Natalie thought sleepily. Never wish for anything until it’s ready for you. Never try to make anything happen until it’s on its way. The formal way is best, after all; no short cuts allowed in this passage.

Interesting now that I’ve finished to realize the heavy Tarot influence in the book. Her father’s name is actually based on an influential Tarot card deck creator.

It seemed that perhaps her father was trying to cure his failures in Natalie, and her mother was perhaps trying to avoid, through Natalie, doing over again those things she now believed to have been mistaken.