there is something so SCARY about this story...i am rattled. count me rattled. i need a hug and a kiss on the forehead and also to give the main character of this a hug and a kiss on the forehead. The Lottery is one of my favorite short stories. I read it when I was an impressionable girl in grammar school, and it froze my soul. I have read it many times since then, and it never fails to chill me again.

A kindergartner tells his parents tales of his hellion classmate, Charles, who becomes a sort of legend in their household. His mother goes to a school meeting with hopes of meeting Charles’ mother. The Lottery’ is often analysed as a story about mob mentality and blind tradition, where people perform seemingly irrational rituals simply because ‘they’ve always done so’ for as long as they can remember. Old Man Warner, the old man of the village, quotes an old saying, ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon’, indicating that the annual lottery is thought to bring about favourable crops and a good harvest. Come Dance with Me in Ireland”: A poor-looking man appears at a home where three women are spending time. They tend to judge him negatively but ultimately show some hospitality. After he is frank about his feelings and ideas instead of appropriately polite and grateful, the women feel that their negative judgments are confirmed. Like Mother Used to Make”: David maintains an apartment meticulously because it expresses his identity, but this stasis is challenged in his relationship with Marcia. Silence follows the slammed door and only then does husband Stanley emerge from his bedroom, freshly shaven and dressed in a suit, ready to start his day. He walks down the stairs, humming, and sails up to the disheveled Shirley, who has lit a new cigarette with the old one and is now staring out the window above the sink. He walks up behind her, greeting her by placing one hand on her hip and reaching his other hand, playfully, up under her shirt, to paw at one of her breasts.

Where to Start with Shirley Jackson Books of Short Stories

Grace Paley once described the male-female writer phenomenon to me by saying,’Women have always done men the favor of reading their work, but the men have not returned the favor.’” There's another story about a dancer become secretary who tries to buy secondhand furniture and pretends for a bit she's the one selling it to another customer. it is honestly and truly the scariest thing in the world that this story was written in the 1940s, when it not only could have been written now but believably happened today.

Each story is narrated very well, the collection of narrators bring the right level of light and dark into the story. They deliver various accents and genders without them sounding corny or contrived. Seven Types of Ambiguity”: A man is excited about buying a book and has the owner promise to sell it to him later. He shows another couple around the store, then leaves, but the owner sells the very book to the couple instead, violating the agreement. I was aware going in that this was not a collection of horror tales, though certainly, some of them are horrific. Even so, I didn't find a point to a lot of these tales. I liken them to someone peeking into the window of a normal American family-it's mostly boring. One or two of them (The Tooth, for sure), were just plain weird.Men with Their Big Shoes”: Mrs. Anderson, who works in Mrs. Hart’s home, engineers a conversation where she leads Mrs. Hart to believe that the neighborhood is gossiping about her relationship with her husband, and that to protect herself from further gossip she needs to let Mrs. Anderson live in her home. This one is weird and disturbing and worth a trip to the library. Content warning for an implied sexual assault. (It is very vaguely implied, and has been the subject of much discussion and debate for the last 70 years.) The Bird’s Nest (1954)—Borrow. really it's still day 11, but i skipped two days earlier and was in the mood to keep reading and...i don't have to justify myself to you, person i'm imagining reading this!