The Lottery and Other Stories
Ratings91
Average rating3.8
I will never understand the mismatch between the cover of this book (“Terrifying and convincing! The most eerie and haunting work of fiction of our time... A gem of Satanic shock” etc.) and the subtle, exquisite stories in this collection. I wouldn't call them horror/macabre at all, not even The Lottery... but what they are is wonderfully evocative – of the experience of anxiety, subtle wrongnesses, the cruelty of cultural norms and the angst of living in the modern world.
I love her for capturing so skillfully the inner worlds of her characters.
My favorite is “Pillar of Salt”, for its pitch-perfect detail of the gradual buildup of anxiety and how that feeling can make small, everyday tasks insurmountable.
Judging as a whole, I much preferred Shirley's Dark Tales collection more. The middle section of this one was a bit of a drag.
Ranked:
The Daemon Lover
The Lottery
The Witch
The Renegade
Like Mother Used to Make
The Tooth
Pillars of Salt
Men with Their Big Shoes
The Villager
My Life with R. H. Macy
Trial by Combat
The Intoxicated
After You My Dear Alphonse
Flower Garden
Seven Kinds of Ambiguity
Charles
Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors
Afternoon in Linen
The Dummy
Of Course
Elizabeth
Colloquy
Got a Letter from Jimmy
A Fine ol Firm
Epilogue
Shocked and disappointed I didn't like this more than I thought I would. I've always loved The Lottery as a short story, so I figured Shirley Jackson's other short stories would also appeal to me. And, some did, but not all.
I did enjoy some of the short stories, but a lot of them fell flat for me which was disappointing.
”The only town lights were the street lights, the lights in the all-night lunchstand across the street, and the one remaining counter lamp in the bus station where the girl sat in the ticket office with her hat and coat on, only waiting for the New York bus to leave before she went home to bed.”
In The Daemon Lover, a woman desperately searches for her fiance only to discover that the entire city has actually seen him getting away from her. In Like Mother Used to Make, the roles are reversed as two strange guests cause a young man to abandon his home. Gladly. In The Witch – one of the most terrifying stories by Jackson- a creepy passenger confesses his crime to a young boy and his mother. Racism and cruelty reign in Flower Garden, as a young mother's decision to hire a black man to work in her garden brands her as an ”abomination” and ostracize her because of a frustrated housewife's jealousy. Housewives in the suburbs. The worst evil that might befall you.
Elizabeth is a superb story of a fierce, ferocious and confident woman that knows what she wants. What she doesn't know is her own heart. In The Dummy, two elderly gossipers get a taste of their own medicine as they book a table in a restaurant to spy on people and get laughed at by a talented ventriloquist. In Pillar of Salt, a classic Jackson story, a young woman is ultimately defeated by the beast that answers to the name ‘New York', and in The Lottery unspeakable horror takes centre stage.
Many refer to New York and its suburbs as the ”beasts” in Shirley Jackson's stories. Nonsense. Our cities are the results of our own actions. We are the true beasts. Shirley Jackson delves into the human heart and soul with outstanding clarity and illustrates every single trait that makes us what we are.
Monsters hiding in the shadows.
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These stories were so subtle and odd. I really appreciated the mundane interactions that Jackson manages to make somehow so creepy. Masterfully written, never too blunt and blatant, always thought provoking and unsettling.
This poor book has been sitting on my shelf since November, when I read the bulk of it. I only had 5 more stories to go, so I sat down last night and finished it. This is probably my favorite Jackson collection. Many of my favorites are in here, and now I have some new favorites.
I loved The Witch, Trial by Combat, Of Course, Got A Letter From Jimmy and Men With Their Big Shoes. Even Jackson's stories that I don't consider “favorites” are still head and shoulders above other short stories. I just love her work.
I really didn't appreciate her writing enough as assigned reading in school. So glad I had a change to revisit it, and realize how much my tastes have grown.
It felt like it took me forever to finish this book. Some stories were interesting but some were just boring. I understand the point, but they just didn't appeal to me. It was like reading a very ordinary, boring person's diary.
The Lottery and Other Stories is an uneven collection. If you've read any of my reviews about a collection of short stories, you've probably heard this before. “Uneven” sums up my feelings for every short story collection I've ever read. There are different levels of uneven, but it's only natural that some stories will resonate powerfully and others will simply be okay. Consistent writing is not an easy task for a writer of short stories, anymore than it is for a novelist. Creative ventures in any medium are going to fluctuate and people will have differing opinions about them (personally, I loved The Casual Vacancy).
The “problem” with this collection is that it's unevenness is on fully display. This is like watching a team of all-stars face off against a team of one superstar and a bunch of novices who barely know the rules of the game. This is like watching a bulky grown man on a teeter-totter with a toddler, adorable, but not carrying her weight. This is a collection of some of Jackson's best stories opposite of some that you could say are lacking (with “The Lottery” thrown in at the end). Keep in mind, that when I say these stories are “lacking,” some are quite alright. It's Shirley Jackson, so there's no such thing as a horrendous story. But her greatest moments of insight, development, and storytelling are there at the beginning to entice the reader. And her most famous story, “The Lottery,” is at the end to keep a reader going. Personally, were I to compile such a collection, I'd mix it up. Otherwise, a reader is given false hopes for an amazing second half and what follows is grueling. Throw in some of the less wonderful stories between great stories and the reader will be more forgiving, if they notice at all. And so this collection ends on a low note (especially if you've already read “The Lottery” several times before).
Jackson is most famous for her paranormal tales that explore dark aspects of human nature. The majority of the tales in The Lottery... contain no elements of horror or oddity, but they do largely explore human nature. I have previously read two of Jackson's more famous novels, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, but what really struck me about this collection is how deeply Jackson delved into the psychology of her characters. She was a wonderful explorer of what drives the human brain and how we react to changes in our environment. Though many of the stories in this collection lack a significant plot, always the story moves because of the actions and reactions of the characters.
Although I do wish The Lottery and Other Stories had been structured differently, it is still a collection of the highest caliber. Readers looking for stories with highly-engaging plots will likely grow bored with Jackson, in general; for those hoping for great characters and character development, Jackson is a treat. Already, I am eager to read more of her great work.
Shirley Jackson is wonderful. Every one of these short stories is so masterfully written, small and medium-sized portraits of big-city and small-town incivility and anxiety and interpersonal slight so mundane but so universal. And a perfectly dark sense of humor. A lot of these stories focus on what life was like for women in the middle of the century, but don't seem at all foreign for it. I've read ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle' and ‘The Haunting of Hill House' and this and I have enjoyed all three a lot. I'm going to read everything of hers I can.