This is an omnibus collecting “The Lottery and Other Stories”, “The Haunting of Hill House, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” and a number of other stories selected by the editor. I will be happily repurposing my reviews of the first three books, followed by discussion of some of the individual stories at the end.
“The Lottery and Other Stories” is a book jam-packed with misanthropes. And yet, I believe the underlying thesis is that most of society is populated with misanthropes and monsters.
This collection is broken into five sections, seemingly thematically. The first section seems to be largely introspective on identity and gender roles. Some feel rather thin on story, but frequently deliver a sense of discomfort. “Like Mother Used to Make” is probably the most representative of this section, as it includes an inversion of traditional gender roles followed by a slow displacement of our protagonist from their relationships and their home. If this is through the lens of unreliable narration, this could lend itself to even more interpretation.
The second section seems to deal with deals with prejudices and bigotry. “The Witch” is a delightfully misanthropic story where a stranger punishes a mother for having an uncontrolled and generally terrible child by encouraging him to greater depths of savagery. “The Renegade” is the strongest story in this collection after “The Lottery”. The social manipulation rife throughout this collection is needle point precision in the ostracism of outsiders and the destruction of the spirit of those deemed weakest in the pack. “After You, My Dear Alphonse” effectively sticks with pins, mounts, and frames the soft bigotry of low expectations while leaving the protagonist blithely unaware.
The third section seems to be firmly rooted in showing how terrible humans are to each other, frequently through oppressive politeness. “Colloquy” documents one woman’s unraveling with her doctor prescribing platitudes. “The Dummy” not only shows a ventriloquist living through his dummy, but an outsider being so upset by the behavior that they lash out. Yet they curiously lash out at the dummy rather than the ventriloquist.
The fourth section seems to be where despair wins. “The Lottery” remains an incredible masterpiece where the pieces slowly come together into the horrific crescendo asking us to question blind adherence to tradition. The next most fascinating piece from this section was “The Tooth” which follows a surreal journey of a woman in a broken physical and mental state to have an extraction. Part of me wonders whether this was an oblique story about abortion rather than about dental work. It seemed an absurd amount of effort for dental work, and the destruction of self and sanity would seem better suited for a different kind of extraction.
The fifth section is a grim epilogue. This collection merits further consideration and a spot on the future schedule for a re-read.
“The Haunting of Hill House”
Gosh I loved this novel a lot. While We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a subtler and more masterful tale, this one is significantly more fun and has had a much greater impact on the horror genre and popular culture.
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
This book made me seek out the 1963 film adaptation, and I was stunned at how faithful an adaptation it was (while making the necessary changes for translation of medium) and also at how amazingly well it held up. Even with a less than impressive streaming experience, the tension, pacing, characters, and visuals were amazing. For example, when this line from the novel was used “I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.” The shot had Eleanor framed by bed canopy that resembled an open maw waiting to consume her. Also, there are so many shots from this film that Sam Raimi has made an homage to, particularly in the Evil Dead series.
I couldn’t help but think about how this novel is the cornerstone of the American Gothic tradition. The house is monstrous and “born bad” with its wrong angles creating a sense of disorientation and unease, and preventing the doors from remaining open or shut when you want them. The European castle has been replaced by the country manor built by an eccentric, and the characters are distinctly of the New World.
We can also draw some straight lines between this novel and King’s Carrie. I know King has cited Jackson as an inspiration, but I was unaware that Eleanor is the mold from which Carrie sprang. The oppressive mother and rain of rocks are straight homage.
I also couldn’t help but think about Cabin in the Woods. We have our archetypes of the virgin, the whore, the scholar, and the fool. They have been warned multiple times and been provided opportunities to turn around. This novel sets up everything that Cabin in the Woods deconstructs, and yet still comes out all the smarter and surprises with the layers and the conclusion.
“We Have Always Lived in the Castle”
One of the things most difficult for a book to do is to deliver a sense of unease[1]. This book managed to provide that. The characters are strangely compelling, provoking sympathy and antipathy simultaneously. Throughout the story, there's the sense of waiting for more awful things to happen to the characters, some of which is of their own creation. The terrible and pitiable relationships in this family are well drawn.
I was not expecting this to be a book about the creation of a haunted house. The witch house on the edge of town that inhabits the nightmares of all the townsfolk. That rather blew me away. I will be coming back to this book.
[1] Hierarchy of horror writing per Lovecraft: At its purest, horror writing delivers a sense of unease, dread, and tension. Below this is fear-literature, followed by the literature of mere physical fear and the mundanely gruesome (e.g. jump scares and gore).
Or per Stephen King, “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.”
The final section is “Other Stories” which is interesting, but less cohesive than The Lottery and Other Stories. There’s a lot of unease in these additional stories, most of which are full of misanthropes. And some of the best misanthropes who write feedback letters about “The Lottery,” compiled in “Biography of a Story.” “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” is a nice fantasy story that shows off her biting wit.
“A Visit; or, The Lovely House” while not entirely satisfying on its own, was a fascinating look at the themes and the core of the protagonist who would later return in the masterpiece The Haunting of Hill House.
“Louisa, Please Come Home” is a delightfully grim tale about a runaway and how her family changes after that. “The Beautiful Stranger” follows one housewife’s disassociation with her life, and her acknowledgement of her new utopian experience which never quite banishes her fear that it will all be snatched away. “The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith” takes the theme of this last and ratchets it up leaving us wonder at whether it is the self-destructive acceptance of the patriarchy or masochistic nihilistic dreams.
Probably my favorite of this section is “The Summer People,” which is excellent work that touches on both the insularity of small towns and the rural poor as the monstrous other. And the tension is meticulously cranked up, as the invaders of this bucolic setting are slowly cut off from the outside world up to the ominous ending.
This omnibus is rewarding and worth including in your library. As of the time of this review, I have gifted this book at least four times.
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
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Good edition
It came nicely wraped. The dust jacket is a bit damaged like almost all the books I have ordered from Amazon. The pages are super thin but the font is great.
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Foloni
Imperdível para os amantes da boa literatura.
Reviewed in Brazil on November 12, 2018
Robin Alan
Classic and Instructive and Creepy as hell
Reviewed in Canada on May 9, 2017Babsyboo
Beautiful volume - want them all now.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2014