Scan barcode
A review by andipants
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
4.0
I'm honestly a pretty casual fan of Shirley Jackson's work; I've read the big three — The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle — but nothing else. I vaguely remembered something about her also writing humor, but had no idea how successful it had been, nor that she'd written multiple books for children. But the cover copy sold me on her as a fascinating individual, and I'm pleased to say this book does not disappoint on that front.
What makes Jackson interesting is not necessarily that she lived an extraordinary life, because her life was, in many ways, very ordinary — a successful writer who still had intermittent money troubles; a wife who loved her husband but often felt trapped in an increasingly unhappy marriage; a devoted mother who worried about her children; a homemaker who often didn't meet society's standards for how a house should be kept, her life in many ways exemplifies the circumscribed lives women in the mid-20th century were expected to live, while at the same time digging below the surface and showing how she embraced some of these expected roles and chafed and rebelled against others, with varying degrees of success.
Where she was extraordinary was in her sharp observation skills and the way she translated what she saw into her work. Franklin skillfully weaves together the facts of Jackson's life and the elements of her writing, providing important context and illustrating how these things interacted and influenced each other. Even for the works I haven't read, Franklin's interpretations were interesting, and for those with which I am familiar, her commentary was illuminating, without overwhelming the biographical aspects of the book.
It wasn't a perfect book; the extended introduction about Jackson's forebears felt rambling, and the author did little to illustrate how this background influenced Jackson's life or work. Some tangents, particularly about Stanley's works, felt like they should have been curtailed a bit sooner. Overall though, it was a very engaging look at the life and times of a complex and compelling woman.
What makes Jackson interesting is not necessarily that she lived an extraordinary life, because her life was, in many ways, very ordinary — a successful writer who still had intermittent money troubles; a wife who loved her husband but often felt trapped in an increasingly unhappy marriage; a devoted mother who worried about her children; a homemaker who often didn't meet society's standards for how a house should be kept, her life in many ways exemplifies the circumscribed lives women in the mid-20th century were expected to live, while at the same time digging below the surface and showing how she embraced some of these expected roles and chafed and rebelled against others, with varying degrees of success.
Where she was extraordinary was in her sharp observation skills and the way she translated what she saw into her work. Franklin skillfully weaves together the facts of Jackson's life and the elements of her writing, providing important context and illustrating how these things interacted and influenced each other. Even for the works I haven't read, Franklin's interpretations were interesting, and for those with which I am familiar, her commentary was illuminating, without overwhelming the biographical aspects of the book.
It wasn't a perfect book; the extended introduction about Jackson's forebears felt rambling, and the author did little to illustrate how this background influenced Jackson's life or work. Some tangents, particularly about Stanley's works, felt like they should have been curtailed a bit sooner. Overall though, it was a very engaging look at the life and times of a complex and compelling woman.