THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSONWHAT'S IT'S ABOUT PENGUIN (KINDLE), 2009, FIRST PUBLISHED 1949EXTRACT
320 PAGES WHAT I THOUGHT
In these stories an excellent host finds himself turned out of home by his own guests; a woman spends her wedding day frantically searching for her husband-to-be; and in Shirley Jackson's best-known story, a small farming village comes together for a terrible annual ritual. The creeping unease of lives squandered and the bloody glee of lives lost is chillingly captured in these tales of wasted potential and casual cruelty by a master of the short story.
He was just tight enough and just familiar enough with the house to be able to go out to the kitchen alone, apparently to get ice, but actually do sober up a little; he was not quite enough a friend of the family to pass out on the living room couch.
THE INTOXICATED
The Lottery and Other Stories is a very enjoyable collection of stories from a writer I've been very impressed by. I've only read a very small selection of Shirley Jackson's work but have been very impressed by what I have read. This collection of stories is no exception. For the most part the stories are all excellent or very good and just a few are simply okay. Overall the quality is very high. The stories are quite a mixed bag and are all odd and a bit unsettling. The Lottery is hands down one of the best stories I've ever read. Creepy and unsettling as hell with possibly the best closing sentence ever written they fell on her. My spine curls back inside my body just thinking about it. I also loved The Villager, My Life With R.H Macy, The Intoxicated, The Daemon Lover, Like Mother Used To Make and Trial by Combat. I enjoyed all of the other stories but these stood out a bit more. I plan to read everything Shirley Jackson's written.
Stories included:
- The Intoxicated
- The Daemon Lover
- Like Mother Used To Make
- Trial By Combat
- The Villager
- My Life With R.H. Macy
- The Witch
- The Renegade
- After You, My Dear Alphonse:
- Charles
- Afternoon In Linen
- Flower Garden
- Dorothy And My Grandmother And The Sailors
- Colloquy
- Elizabeth
- A Fine Old Firm
- The Dummy
- Seven Types Of Ambiguity
- Come Dance With Me In Ireland
- Of Course
- Pillar Of Salt
- Men With Their Big Shoes
- The Tooth
- Got A Letter From Jimmy
- The Lottery
