Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson


Shirley Jackson has always been one of my favorite authors.  I have read "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" which was my favorite of the two.  When I read about "The Lottery" being the scariest thing probably ever written I had to read it so I obtained a copy.  It is a compilation of short stories by Jackson, the last one being "The Lottery".  Well, I had to read that one first to see if it was the most horrific thing ever written and I have to say -- no.  I don't think so.  In fact, it seemed really familiar to me -- had I read it before or seen a movie or something along these lines?  Can't remember but it wasn't frightening.  In fact, the entire book is a bit of a disappointment -- so much so that I won't be finishing it.  Each short story is vaguely written with a twist.  All that I had read were depressing and extremely "psychological".  Honestly, it was very Twilight Zone-ish.  I was not impressed.

I usually don't give up on books -- I  try to only buy books that I know I will like and since I have always been a fan of Shirley Jackson, it never occurred to me that I  wouldn't like this.   However, I don't and I have a huge stack of books in my library to read so I will be putting this one  aside.  Maybe one day, when I have caught up, I will revisit but not right now. 

2 comments:

JLS Hall said...

You probably remember "The Lottery" from your high school (or maybe jr. hi) English class -- it was in all the textbooks. I think I read it for the first time at Mark Twain, in Mrs. Boultinghouse's (sp?) class. I found it deeply disturbing, but not spooky.

Yes, I've always wondered why they insist on saying Shirley Jackson's stories are so frightening. Many of them are definitely unsettling, but not really scary. Except for "Hill House," of course. Now that's scary.

Yeah, they do sort of remind me of Twilight Zone.

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I agree and I am sure I read it before, maybe in sr. English. I am almost afraid to tackle the one she wrote about raising her kids!

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