The Bird's Nest
Ratings14
Average rating4.1
Shirley Jackson's third novel, a chilling descent into multiple personalities Elizabeth is a demure twenty-three-year-old wiling her life away at a dull museum job, living with her neurotic aunt, and subsisting off her dead mother’s inheritance. When Elizabeth begins to suffer terrible migraines and backaches, her aunt takes her to the doctor, then to a psychiatrist. But slowly, and with Jackson’s characteristic chill, we learn that Elizabeth is not just one girl—but four separate, self-destructive personalities. The Bird’s Nest, Jackson’s third novel, develops hallmarks of the horror master’s most unsettling work: tormented heroines, riveting familial mysteries, and a disquieting vision inside the human mind. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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“With my own hands, wearing my own face, walking on my own feet, using my own head [...]”.. of course I was reminded of ‘the tooth' here..! now i get why SJ didn't care for haas' adaptation but i still love it dearly.
Two truths: I don't give 5 stars out willy-nilly and Shirley Jackson was a goddess.
How I missed The Bird's Nest, I don't know. Maybe because it is not one of her “horror” novels?
I managed to borrow a copy from the library, printed in 1954 and complete with dusty smells and pages so thick it feels like you are turning parchment.
Elizabeth has multiple personalities. Jackson does an amazing job making those personalities so different from one another a reader can tell who is who clearly. I appreciate that. We have a unusual spirit in an aunt, who raised Elizabeth after the death of her mother. Morgan is no fool, but possibly self-deluded and a bit of a drunk?
Then, Dr. Wright, who could very easily been the villain here is not. Besides being pompous, he's harmless.
Things get out of hand, quickly.
This is not a thriller. This is a psychological study of a woman being torn into 4 parts.
What remained my driving factor in reading this was to get at the heart of what was causing this. Most certainly is had something to do with the mother. I picked up hints of possible sexual abuse from the mother's boyfriend, Robin (Betsy's pure fear of him is some kind of proof of something). It is never directly addressed.
Jackson's eye is unparalleled. She also expects a lot from her readers, throwing in art and literature as if she is positive you already know (and remember) your Thackery. Sure! Why wouldn't we? LOL!
This:
“Elizabeth Richmond was twenty-three years old. She had no friends, no parents, no associates, and no plans beyond that of enduring the necessary interval before her departure with as little pain as possible.”
During a fight, Morgan has one of the best monologues I have ever read (I went back and read it twice) in which she (page 237 in the edition I had) puts Elizabeth in her place, tells us how she really feels about her dead sister, insisting that she would use the inheritance to buy swampland only to have it dug up and dumped on Elizabeth's mother's grave. And then she would dig a small enough hole to throw Elizabeth in the same grave, have a “marble bench” constructed, and “come and sit and snicker over the two of you dead”. Shakespeare must be applauding that insult from the grave.
So, in short, I loved it. I also loved The Sundial but have not (for some reason) been able to get all the way through Hangsaman.
As with all of Jackson's work, this was artfully unsettling. I had no idea what the story was about when I began, and as the events unfolded I was more and more surprised. Definitely qualifies as psychological horror, I'd be interested to see this adapted for film. Would recommend.
