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We Have Always Lived in the Castle Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Shirley Jackson Thomas Ott Jonathan Lethem Books

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Shirley Jackson Thomas Ott Jonathan Lethem Books

DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION!!
I would give this story 5 stars, but the introduction ruined the story by spoiling every secret on the first page, so I have to rate this book a 4 star.
The story was gripping, unique, and quite dreamy. I had to know what would happen on each page. I will admit that I was rather upset with having read part of the introduction, because unfortunately, everything the author intended to be a twist had already been revealed to me.


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We Have Always Lived in the Castle Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Shirley Jackson Thomas Ott Jonathan Lethem Books Reviews

Read from May 04 to 06, 2014

The remainder of the Blackwood family is odd, no doubt about it.

Insular, hermit-like, sisters Constance and Mary Katherine and their elderly uncle Julian have withdrawn from society, with good reason, after the shocking death by poisoning of the rest of the family six years ago. Constance was acquitted of the murder, but the townsfolk still blame her, and she no longer leaves the house except to go into her garden. Mary Catherine (or Merricat, as she's known within the family) runs the errands, reluctantly, but out of necessity and the desire to protect her sister. Whispers and stares follow Merricat when she comes into the village twice a week for necessities; children taunt her with a cruel nursery rhyme; certain bullying adults make a point of taunting her more directly. Merricat has her own way of dealing with this unpleasantness she imagines virtually everyone she encounters as dead and takes pleasure in this internal vision of bodies strewn about the village or across her doorstep. Mary spends a lot of time alone and in her head, creating magical charms and engaging in secret rituals to protect herself and her sister from the world.

One day, despite all Mary's efforts, their cousin Charles appears at their doorstep. He is a disruption and a threat to their future peace, and Mary resolves to make him go away. Her attempts to rid them and their house of Charles' presence end in catastrophe and set the stage for the disquieting and eerie finale.

I imagines volume can be (and have been) written about this short book's themes, subtext and symbolism; Mary Catherine's and Constance's respective pathologies; and the archetypes represented by each character, major and minor. I have no intention of delving into that morass of scholarship and analysis. All I want to say is this Shirley Jackson has never failed to astonish me with the quiet terror and creeping unease she imbues in every page, every paragraph, of everything she wrote. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is no different.
I now want to read everything Shirley Jackson has ever written. Her last novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (published in 1962), is a dark and cool period mystery, following the wealthy Blackwood family in what seems like a century old New England. It’s hard to tell how old the narrator, Merricat Blackwood, is, or what her mental state reveals. She’s odd for sure, mad maybe, with a sharp eye for detail, and a shocking family tragedy in her past. The other main characters are her beautiful and mild elder sister, Constance, an elderly ill uncle Julian, and a motley cast of villagers and other high born. I was surprised and disturbed by each turn of events, and so I won’t say much more except that WHALitC is a short thrilling read and well worth your time. Ms. Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, garnered bags and bags of hate mail, when it came out in the New Yorker in 1948. You can bet that’s next on my list.
It’s amazing how Shirley Jackson can take the everyday and twist it somehow into a subtle and creepy tale. There’s an element of Gothic in her last book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. What I also believe Jackson can accomplish so impeccably in her writing---and through her characters and their situations—is leaving an element of subjectivity and the “unknown” within. The reader is often left seeing various pieces of characters and context, but often must make their own conclusions and put some pieces together. To me, that makes for a remarkable reading experience.

The basis for this novel is a family, the Blackwoods, whose remaining family members have been ostracized by a small community. We learn why a terrible tragedy years before—poisoning, it seems—took the lives of everyone of the Blackwood clan excerpt three, Uncle Julian, Constance, and the narrator, Mary Katherine(aka “Merricat”). Constance was suspected, but ultimately acquitted of the poisoning. Living a life mainly of alienation away from the whispers of this town, the Blackwoods are able to manage. Merricat believes in such things as omens, and is vastly different compared to her sister, Constance. Uncle Julian is an invalid because he did have a bit of the poison that claimed the other Blackwoods’ lives, but not enough to kill him. This is a book that is difficult to reveal too much about plot without spoiling, but, when a certain cousin Charles suddenly arrives to the Blackwood home, the plot thickens.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is very reminiscent of Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” in its themes of mob mentality. As the remaining family members by to go about their lives, they are often the subject of subtle and not so subtle taunts and threats.

There is a brilliantly atmospheric vibe to this novel. My feeling is that Shirley Jackson is incredibly underrated as an author, not being given quite the accolades she deserves. This book is one such example of her genius, an expertly crafted eerie tale with brilliant prose. It is a perfect book for a Halloween night.
DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION!!
I would give this story 5 stars, but the introduction ruined the story by spoiling every secret on the first page, so I have to rate this book a 4 star.
The story was gripping, unique, and quite dreamy. I had to know what would happen on each page. I will admit that I was rather upset with having read part of the introduction, because unfortunately, everything the author intended to be a twist had already been revealed to me.