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Life Among The Savages by Shirley Jackson (May 2010)
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None of the books shops near me have this. I had this trouble with a couple of the other selections too! It's hard living in a small city some times. I'll check out the libaries tomorrow
My local store didn't have it either and I had to order it. I am still waiting for delivery. Probably early next week.
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Does anyone want to fill me in on the background to this book - I've not read any of the descriptions...where was she and who were the savages (...I'm assuming this is a biography???).
Ally
She is the mother of said savages. :-)
From Wikipedia:Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916, San Francisco, California - August 8, 1965, Bennington, Vermont) was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Nigel Kneale and Richard Matheson.
She is best known for the short story "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests a secret, sinister underside to bucolic small-town America. In her critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when "The Lottery" was published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."
In 1965, Shirley Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep at the age of 48. Shirley suffered throughout her life from various neuroses and psychosomatic illnesses. These ailments, along with the various prescription drugs used to treat them, may have contributed to her declining health and early death. However, at the time of her death, Jackson was overweight and a heavy smoker.
In a series of short stories, later collected in the books "Life Among the Savages" and "Raising Demons," she presented a fictionalized version of her marriage and the experience of bringing up four children. These stories pioneered the "true-to-life funny-housewife stories" of the type later popularized by such writers as Jean Kerr and Erma Bombeck during the 1950s and 1960s.
Her other novels include "Hangsaman" (1951), "The Bird's Nest" (1954), "The Sundial" (1958) and "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959), regarded by many, including Stephen King, as one of the important horror novels of the 20th Century. This contemporary updating of the classic ghost story has a vivid and powerful opening paragraph:
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
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Ally
I've changed my avatar to a trubadour because I'm currently reading A Search for the King a novel by Gore Vidal about Blondel and his search for Richard Coeur de Lion. Thus far it's fascinating. I've got to hurry through it in order to start the Jackson book.
I've just come home from the library with a copy of our book and am looking forward to starting it. Will probably put Gone With the Wind aside, since I am not very good at reading 2 books at the same time. Anyone else have that problem?
Absolutely!OK, I've started "Savages..." So far it's quite humorous - as they are looking for a house to rent in a town filled with eccentrics.
No, I am usually reading at least 4-5 books at the same time. In college I had to learn how to focus on multiple books at the same time. And so I still do it.
I love old books and so felt lucky to find a beautiful old hardcover copy of Life Among the Savages for only $4.00 at the first bookstore I checked. So far I'm finding it quite amusing. I can definitely relate to Jackson, even though I don't have kids. I'm curious about one thing. Today thousands (perhaps millions) of mom blogs allow glimpses into the lives of harried mothers around the world. Was admitting to not liking housekeeping and being annoyed by ones children unusual during this book's era of publication?
i grew up in the 50s and 60s and most of the mothers i knew hated housework. most of the ones i knew were also educated and bored. thus they engaged in volunteer work or got some sort of job, whether they needed to or not. it saved the life and sanity of both children and mothers.
This one is just not holding my interest. I find that I just don't care about the trials and tribulations she's documenting. I think I'll stick with her fiction.
Jan wrote: "i grew up in the 50s and 60s and most of the mothers i knew hated housework. most of the ones i knew were also educated and bored. thus they engaged in volunteer work or got some sort of job, wheth..."Thanks, Jan. One of the things I like about this book group is getting insight from people of different backgrounds and from different parts of the world. In her online bio it says Jackson paved the way for later writers such as Erma Bombeck, and I was wondering if Jackson's written expressions of angst were common at the time. Does anyone know how far back the tradition of 'weary mom' literature dates?
Another thing I find interesting about this book is how Jackson's relatively sunny writing contrasts with her much darker fiction and the little I know about her life (evidently some psychological issues and a relatively early death).
i know i read erma's column in the mid 60s and then there was peg bracken and her i hate housework books.
I like Jackson's POV in this book, that of a bemused and often harassed observer. I laughed out loud at the "oscillating chipmunk" story. I grinned at her telling how the house and older furniture outmaneuvered her and her husband. I sympathize with the gritted teeth behind the humour in the story of Sally's birth: "Writer." "Housewife." "Writer." "I'll just put 'housewife'." And later, many repetitions of "How are we doing?"
Peregrine wrote: "I like Jackson's POV in this book, that of a bemused and often harassed observer. I laughed out loud at the "oscillating chipmunk" story. I grinned at her telling how the house and older furniture ..."The 'housewife/writer' interaction was a favorite of mine as well.
The book comes across as pure fluff, but the later chapters are laced with eeriness: "'In my river,' Sally remarked once, chillingly, 'we sleep in wet beds, and we hear our mothers calling us,"-giving me a sudden terrifying picture of my own face, leaning over the water, wavering, and my voice far away and echoing;"The title is apt. One gets the impression that, despite the cutsiness of some of the anecdotes, Jackson really does see life as something savage and strange, rolling on despite her.
Thanks for the link to the article. It explained a lot for me. Both about her and her writings.I may be able to go back and re-read "The Lottery" again now. And the other items mentioned in the article.
While this is not one of my favorites, I did start out enjoying her stories about family life, but eventually just wanted the book to be done. I thought her long, long sentences conveyed the busy distracted lifestyle of the author, but also felt she disliked her domestic duties.
I finally finished this book tonight. Only a few months late.I found it pretty funny. Although I think there was a section in the middle that kind of dragged for me. Probably the reason that I put it down for a while.
A couple of sections I really liked were when she was learning how to drive, Jannie goes to school and Laurie and Dad get a coin collection.
I went through some of that coin stuff myself after my father died and someone had to try and straighten out my dad's coins. I got them catalogued once and then someone told me I needed more information so I had to go back through all of them again. I got bogged in the pennies and my mother finally told me that she just wanted them back. So I took them back on my last trip in July.
But I did enjoy the book more than I didn't.
I saw today that there is a new biography of Shirley Jackson - Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin. In addition, her grandson has a graphic novel out based on her most anthologized story, The lottery. Miles Hyman - Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation.
Bright Young Things
Books mentioned in this topic
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (other topics)Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation (other topics)
Gone with the Wind (other topics)
A Search for the King (other topics)
Life Among the Savages (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ruth Franklin (other topics)Miles Hyman (other topics)
Gore Vidal (other topics)
Shirley Jackson (other topics)
Happy Reading - make sure to tell us what you think!
Ally