The Missing Girl

‘'It was one of those spring mornings in March; the sky between the buildings was bright and blue and the city air, warmed by motors and a million breaths, had a freshness and a sense of excitement that can come only from a breeze starting somewhere in the country, far away, and moving into the city while everyone is asleep, to freshen the air for morning.''

In the universe of Shirley Jackson's stories, the reader is thrown into a vertigo of uneasiness that gradually escalates to dread and questions on the subconscious, mental health and a vague hint of the Occult. The atmosphere is always a surreal, mystical, witch and witty scenery where the characters try to balance between Reality and a hallucinatory world, living in a time of instability and uncertainty.

The Missing Girl: A young girl goes missing from a camp. However, as the search unfolds, we gradually realise that the missing girl may have nothing to do with camp. In fact, it questionable whether she exists at all...

Journey With a Lady: A young bow travels alone to visit his grandparents. A young woman comes to sit by him while a policeman is searching for a thief on the train. This is a moving story on the bond of a woman and a child, on recognising your mistakes and taking responsibility for your actions. I read a comment that claimed the story was boring. Question: How much of an idiot are you, actually? I mean, honestly!!

Nightmare: We all have experienced that one dream where we are walking alone and without purpose, somehow knowing that we are lost, trapped even, while crowds of passers-by suffocate us. In this story that reads like a rushing nightmare, a young woman who works in New York is walking in the avenues of the metropolis and realises that there is a strange contest. People need to find ‘'Miss X'' to win unimaginable trophies. The descriptions and clues change by the minute and our protagonist begins to suspect that ‘'Miss X'' might actually be her. The ending is enticing and flawless.

Beyond the uneasiness and the uncertainty lies the issue of the definition of the Modern Woman and her place in society and the big city. Do we succumb or do we use the facade of assimilation as a weapon? And can we actually defeat Fate and its harbingers?

‘'Miss X, find Miss X. She is walking in the city, she is walking alone.''

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The atmosphere and surrealist tone of the stories, especially for The Missing Girl and Nightmare, adds to their creepiness. Love her style, even if, for Nightmare, the ending was abrupt and gave me question marks than answers.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say “Invisibility” was the theme running through the stories. In the first, so little information about the missing girl could be obtained from the people around her including her own room-mate that it's as if no one paid her any attention; in the second, a child lends a woman the cloak of Invisibility she desires; and in the third, no one notices a woman even when a van is blaring her exact description on the streets of New York and escalating rewards (a yatch, $50k, unlimited travel, etc) are offered for her identification.

These stories don't have the shock twist and horror of The Lottery; the sense of dread is present but mild, and in all three, peters off at the end.

Worth a read if you're keen to become more familiar with Shirley Jackson's works.

Shirley Jackson is a very talented writer. I personally had a frustrating reading experience as Jackson's endings are typically very open and ambiguous. However she has a talent for making an ordinary story take on a creepier undertone. The last story Nightmare is by far the strongest story and the one I enjoyed the most. Nightmare has the most similarities to The Lottery in its structure and execution. I am left intrigued more than ever about Jackson's works after reading this book and I am hoping to turn to her novels next, very soon. A 3 star read for me.