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The Lottery and Other Stories (FSG Classics) by Shirley Jackson

17 reviews

snailslowreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I bought The Lottery and Other Stories, I was expecting a collection of horror short stories. After all, that’s how Google had classified it. But even though Shirley Jackson is known for her horror (see The Haunting of Hill House), that’s not quite the label I would have chosen. There’s no blood, no serial killers, and only the occasional supernatural element.

Contemporary critics of Jackson dismissed her, using the casual term “domestic fiction” to describe her work without giving it any higher “literary” status. Jackson was the unconventional breadwinner of her family, but also took great joy in being a mother, and often wrote stories about housewives or working women. These were the types of women who felt like their dreams had fallen flat, who constantly envied their neighbors, and who were determined to preserve an image of success to others around them. When Jackson wasn’t writing about women, she wrote about young people—for example, children: the ideas they absorb or don’t from adults and how they are perceived by adults. Within The Lottery and Other Stories, I tended to gravitate towards these stories, because in addition to being a little humorous, they revealed pettiness, jealousy, fear, and condescending natures so clearly. Jackson’s use of characterization was clever and refreshing, a nice break from other books I have read, where I thought the main characters’ positive qualities were unrealistic.

The writing itself is unembellished, which turned out to be beneficial for the book. Jackson zeros in on carefully worded dialogue and the small gestures of her characters. Here, we can observe the greatest strength of these stories: readers are left to figure out the characters for themselves in the span of a few pages. It’s when the characters choose to laugh or how they greet a stranger that reveals key parts of their personalities. While reading the book, it was easy to get caught up in Jackson’s precision, as I sometimes had to flip back and reanalyze each detail if I felt like I missed the “purpose” of the story.

The quality of the collection varies; there’s something to gain from each story, though I can’t say the themes are exactly revolutionary. But the collection is cohesive and—when well executed—satisfying and admirable. Sometimes, the ideas that Jackson had in mind were too subtle. Or I found myself thinking, “Have I read about this situation before in an earlier story?” However, there was another reason for this feeling of repetition, apart from Jackson’s actual concepts. All of the stories are set either in a village, a city, or on a mode of transportation between a village and a city. Each atmosphere felt drearily familiar by the time I was in the middle of the collection. That could’ve been Jackson’s intention, but nonetheless it didn’t make for the most enjoyable reading experience.

Apart from their subject matters, most of the stories had another similarity: the curious recurrence of a character named James Harris, a reference to the Scottish ballad “The Daemon Lover.” The ballad is about a disguised Devil luring a married woman out to sea, promising her treasure, but in the end sinking the ship she’s on. James Harris appeared similarly as an elusive man who seems to slip through the fabric of existence as he brings out the insecurities and dissatisfaction from the women he encounters. The original title of this book, The Adventures of James Harris, is in this sense more fitting than The Lottery and Other Stories, what the title was changed to for marketing purposes. Ultimately, Jackson shows us, it’s your own desires that are your greatest weaknesses.

Perhaps the lingering dissatisfaction readers may feel after finishing the book stem from their expectations of its title. “The Lottery”—Jackson’s brilliant and most famous work—explored the power of a mob mentality. The only other story that had a comparable theme is the excellent “Flower Garden,” which is about narrow-minded racism in a small town. “Flower Garden” didn’t have the same dark ending as “The Lottery,” yet the subtle elements of Jackson’s writing were fully present in “Flower Garden.” The story centered around a young single mother, Mrs. MacLane, who moves into a town and fascinates her neighbor, Mrs. Winning. I appreciated how though the readers were explicitly introduced to some of Mrs. Winning’s aspirations at the beginning, the rest of her motivations weren’t as clearly stated, while still permeating the story and becoming apparent towards the end. This type of longer story that focused on character relationships is rarer in the collection, but offered the advantage of matured themes and recurring motifs, unlike shorter, hit-or-miss stories that focus on a few moments. “Trial By Combat,” for example, a story about the parallel lives of multiple women, could’ve been even more powerful if it was just a little longer.

RECOMMENDED STORIES (in order of appearance): “The Daemon Lover,” “The Renegade,” “Flower Garden,” “Elizabeth,” “Men With Their Big Shoes,” “The Lottery”

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sheriffrockyraccoon's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Since I have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, I thought it was appropriate to return to how I knew Shirley Jackson- for scaring the shit out of me in 7th grade.

This collection was, as always, a fantastic read. I love Jackson’s dark humor and was genuinely surprised at how well some of her stories have aged. Many of the ideologies and circumstances the characters find themselves in felt very relatable to my own experience as a young woman. Some of the stories did feel a little confusing and abrupt, hence why I only rated it 4 stars, but to sit down and read The Lottery again made it so worth it.

I would recommend this collection to anyone interested in Shirley Jackson’s writing as it provides a much wider berth of her genius that her books may have not captured. It’s also just a great spooky, feminist read, ironically written before the second wave.

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jinmichae's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Horror in the mundane:

Reading this in digital was useful to check on whether names had been used in earlier stories, because there's a feeling of interconnectedness throughout the whole book. Still unsure what all the connections are though: maybe I need to think on it. Or Google it haha. (My searching points out that the song at the end is important on understanding who J Harris is, and helped me realize that his appearances throughout the books are part of the strange "horror behind your shoulder" feeling while reading. Very nicely done.)

This is what anxiety feels like. The actual horror in so many of these stories is being different, being judged by everyone around you as if you're always doing things wrong. The antagonists are traffic, crowds, aging, moving, etc: basically the existing in society we all have to do. And that's what makes it scary, because it's real.

Not every story worked for me, but reading several in a row always gave me that awkward anxious feeling of being judged and found wanting.

But I'm a bum and gave it four stars because it's hard to enjoy a book that's so bent on driving you a bit insane. It's better taken in bits, but don't wait too long in between or you might not pick it up again.

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e_r_q's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

"I bought her a rocking-horse and a doll and a million lollipops, [...] and then I took her and I put my hands around her neck and I pinched her and I pinched her until she was dead."

In The Lottery and other stories, Shirley Jackson presents a series of stories, that tell tales of mundane or domestic settings, characters and concepts, that become nightmarishly twisted. Nothing is more illustrative of this distortion of normality than the ominous recurring character of James Harris, who travels between short stories like some sort of spectre.

This is my first time properly reading through a short story collection, and I must confess it was surprisingly exhausting at times. And of course, the stories were of varying degrees of quality, which comes with the territory. When the short stories are good, they're really good, and when they're not good, they're just forgettable and inoffensive. But regardless, the quality of Jackson's writing is still consistently great throughout.

So here are some short reviews I wrote for each story as I went along:

1) The Intoxicated (3/5)
A well written exchange between two people, divided by outlook, age, gender and sobriety. It also addressed some similar apocalyptic themes to Shirley Jackson's novel The Sundial. Aside from that, this story didn't really offer much.
2) The Daemon Lover (4/5)
For such a short story, Jackson is able to craft characters so intricately, especially the jilted bride protagonist. Through her distinctive writing, Jackson immerses us into the bride's anxious, desperate, restless and isolated perspective. My only gripe is that the narrative structure feels a little repetitive, although that structure does successfully heighten the feelings of insanity.
3) Like Mother Used To Make (3/5)
Every time I start a new short story, I am always immediately impressed by Jackson's ability to efficiently craft fleshed out characters in such a short space of time. The ending of this one is also satisfying funny and also somewhat nightmarish. It's also interesting that the elusive and slightly sinister character of James (Jamie) Harris, from the previous story, makes a reappearance here. I do wish this entry was a little longer so the story, and the twist, had more room to breathe.
4) Trial by Combat (2/5)
An intriguing (but then again, rather generic) concept, and a cool character dynamic, that unfortunately doesn't really go anywhere.
5) The Villager (3/5)
Again, I really really loved the protagonist in this, and I'm impressed with how well Jackson crafted her in such a short period of time. I liked the themes surrounding the strains of performing and giving up all of your ambitions to fit in. It's also interesting that Mr. Harris makes another appearance here. However, not much else of note really happened in this short.
6) My Life with R. H. Macy (4/5)
I love how Jackson's frantic and overwhelming writing makes the world of retail feel like some dystopian and dehumanising society.
7) The Witch (5/5)
Such a simple and macarbe story, that can surprisingly be interpreted in so many different ways. I loved the central childlike perspective, and also the childish but disturbingly sadistic and violent tale at the centre of the story.
8) The Renegade (5/5)
Mrs Walpole, a domestic house wife from the city, struggles to adapt to life in the country, which is underpinned with cruelty and violence. The dog is of course a metaphor for Mrs Walpole.
9) After You, My Dear Alphonse (3/5)
A surprisingly nuanced exploration of underlying racist preconceptions and stereotypes in domestic settings. The difference between how Mrs Wilson and her son Johnny interact with Boyd demonstrates how prejudice is gradually taught by racist society.
10) Charles (4/5)
Jackson crafts an incredibly believable family dynamic, as well as a very cool (although very predictable) twist. I love it when Jackson writes about truly wicked and evil children.
11) Afternoon in Linen (2/5)
A rather sad story about how people often use children as status symbols to compete with eachother, often without any regard for its impact on the children in question. There's also a nice poem in the middle. Aside from that, this story was a little underwhelming.
12) Flower Garden (5/5)
A chilling portrait of small-town racism. The central character, Mrs. Winning, paradoxically views those below her as inferior, whilst simultaneously envying them. Jackson's writing is beautiful and atmospheric, and the longer length of this story gives the narrative the perfect pace, allowing for a gradual build in the intensity of the town's racist micro-agressions.
13) Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors (1/5)
A tale of extreme androphobia, with a well described setting. Unfortunately, I actually found this story to be very boring, even despite its short length. I'm not really a fan of this one.
14) Colloquy (1/5)
Mrs. Arnold's dialogue is written well by Jackson, and it effectively conveys feelings of confusion, dissociation and "insanity". But really this story is just too short to leave any lasting impact.
15) Elizabeth (3/5)
An extremely well-crafted character study of a bitter woman, whose life is stuck in stagnation, and all of her ambitions have been whithered and squandered. However, where Flower Garden benefitted from its longer length, Elizabeth actually suffers. This unfortunately dragged quite a bit.
16) A Fine Old Firm (1/5)
It's safe to say, I didn't really get what this story was trying to say. It just feels quite inconsequential.
17) The Dummy (3/5)
A darkly absurd concept, that explores themes of public performance, impulsivity and the brokenness of the self.
18) Seven Types of Ambiguity (3/5)
I LOVE the book shop setting of this short story, and Jackson describes it so wonderfully. I just want to be there. The conclusion of this is also effectively unjust. I feel Jackson is exploring the pettiness of humans. This story also tackles the idea of how some people consume art and literature because they are genuinely passionate about it, wheras others materialistically view it as nothing but a status symbol.
19) Come Dance with Me in Ireland (2/5)
I guess the way this escalated was pretty funny, but overall this felt kind of pointless.
20) Of Course (3/5)
A subtly disquieting tale of feigned polite acceptance in the face of an almost fascist and dictatorial patriarchal control, which is embodied by the return of the foreboding character James Harris.
21) Pillar of Salt (5/5)
Powerfully and maddeningly written. Jackson expertly captures a suburban house wife who increasingly unravels under the frantic pressures of life in New York City. Her descent into "madness" feels somewhat reminiscent of Eleanor's gradual detachment from reality in The Haunting of Hill House. I loved this story.
22) Men with Their Big Shoes (3/5)
You can really tell how much Shirley Jackson hated her husband while reading this, and I for one like it! A pretty well written exchange between two well crafted characters, that explores themes of status, marriage, class, reputation and gossip.
23) The Tooth (5/5)
This is probably Jackson's best writing out of all the short stories here. She powerfully conjures a feverish, delirious and nightmarish atmosphere.
24) Got a Letter from Jimmy (3/5)
I love the narrator's bitter and homicidal internal thoughts in this one. But once again this is just too short to leave a lasting impression.
25) The Lottery (5/5)
The Lottery is so highly regarded for good reason. In this tense, shocking and somewhat darkly funny short story, Jackson pairs casual suburban traditions, and hegemonic gender/family roles, with disturbingly dystopian ritualistic group violence. The resulting surreal incongruity is magnificent.

OVERALL AVERAGE SCORE: 3.24/5

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