The Lottery and Other Stories (FSG Classics)

Read this book for one reaction: gasping "whaaaaaat!" or perhaps "whaaaaat?" (punctuation varies) after reading the final sentence of every story. Shirley Jackson is the indisputable master of the "whaaaaaat!/?" Some stories end ambiguously, leaving you scrambling back through the pages searching for a clue or alternately racing to open Google to read others' wise analyses. Other stories end completely and absolutely unambiguously, leaving you to question not what actually happened but to wonder how such a terrible ending could come to pass. ("The Lottery," Jackson's most famous tale, falls in the second type.) But no matter if the ending is ambiguous or unambiguous, what I want to emphasize is that Shirley Jackson knows how to end. I have now read dozens of her short stories and one of her novels and I am convinced that I know of no author who finishes every piece with such decisive flourish. It's an incredible skill, knowing how to end something. I often find short stories forgettable. Any novel of 300 pages will indubitably engrave itself in my mind by mere virtue of the hours required to read it. A story of less than 20 pages, however, is at a clear disadvantage. A short story must shock to be memorable. Luckily for us, Jackson has one setting: shock the reader. On the last page, or more often, the last sentence. But her shocking endings are of the mild, ungratuitous variety. Two of my favorite stories--"The Daemon Lover" and "Like Mother Used to Make"--finish with the protagonists questioning their sanity and autonomy. They don't run screaming to mental hospitals; rather, they stay quietly and desperately in their homes, wondering who they are and if this is--if this truly can be--their life, and to me, such an ending is much more powerful than any louder alternative. There is something so mundane to Jackson's writing, which makes the fact that most of the stories are categorized in the horror genre more, well, horrifying. Because it suggests that the quotidian is horror. Jackson is wonderfully aware of the fact that the everyday lives of the normalest of the normal are the most frightening things in the world. No need for ghosts or murderers, everything you need is right there inside of us. For Jackson, horror is the casual racism of a small New England town, the irrepressible distress of a 30 year old unmarried woman searching for a husband, the monotonous daily routine of a department store salesperson, a badly misbehaving child and his oblivious parents, the terrifying anonymity of an individual in a metropolis of millions. In short, horror is real life. These stories have a rare rereadable quality. I know that I will reread this collection for the rest of my life, and at the end of every story for the rest of my life, I will say "whaaaaat!/?"

This is such a formidable collection of short stories with such an imaginative and well-constructed universe of creeping figures and bizarre, complex but at the same time silent and subtle situations that I felt totally compelled to read more of Shirley Jackson's (have just started We Have Always Lived in the Castle). To be completely honest, I only came to her name because she ranks nicely in the list of books under 100 pages in GoodReads with "The Lottery", and that was the first story I read and didn't really ring the bell (maybe, for today's standards, too obvious?). But there are much more on Jackson's writing, and I really found it intriguing how skillfully she builds tension in her stories and how conflict emerges dramatically, typically at their final third: "The Dummy" does that pretty well, changing the focus from Mrs Wilkins all of sudden to the ventroliquist and his partner. Her writing is crystal clear, linear and free of any crutches, and still she envelops the reader in a mist of discomfort and restlessness. "Something is always fuzzy, a little off," I saw someone describe her, and that is exactly it. Some stories are very subtle and elegant in their way to express hidden prejudice or morally-reprehensible behavior: "After You My Dear Alphonse", "The Flower Garden", "A Fine Old Firm" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity" (a favorite!) or even "The Renegade". But I guess what really makes her shine are the most bizarre and emotionally complex stories, which escalate in a very creepy way (and I guess Neil Gaiman and Stephen King had them as influence): "Pillar of Salt" and "The Tooth" are chilling fantastic.

Shirley Jackson’s short stories are gems, reflecting facets of society and humanity. Each story included captures a snapshot in time reflected in familiar circumstances with credible characters reaching some expected unexpected conclusions. Unforgettable!

I bought this because of the movie The Lottery which I had seen years ago. To be honest, the movie was better. I doubt that I will read any more of her books, because she always seems to end her stories in the middle of the story. The endings are just not satisfactory to me.

Do you like words? Do you like reading them? If so - this book is for you! It's got thousands of words! And if that was not enough dear reader, well - you are not going to believe it -- they are put together in sentences, which then become paragraphs. That's right - these words are put together so that they express ideas and concepts, which tell a story. This book in fact contains MANY STORIES. What a value! In all seriousness, this book is full of great stories that you will just zip through. It's that true marvel - entertaining, engaging writing that expresses real ideas - with empathy for its characters and revulsion at the traps they find themselves in.

I’ve always loved Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery” has stuck with me since I first read it. As relevant today as ever, maybe even more so.

interesting stories

Shirley Jackson is a marvellous writer! Not out right horror, but it makes you very uneasy!

Gran libro de historias cortas con una perspectiva diferente, Shirley Jackson logra una tensión tan identificable del día a día que es fácil relacionarse con sus personajes

I enjoyed reading this book.