Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life - Ruth Franklin

Category: Adults, Autobiography & Biographies, Contemporary
Language: English
Keywords: American gothic Fiction Writer Horror

Written by Ruth Franklin
Read by Bernadette Dunne
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: October 11, 2016
Duration: 19:24:52

Awards: Bram Stoker AwardEdgar Allan Poe AwardNational Book Critics Circle AwardNotable Books for Adults

This historically engaging and relevant biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master.

Still known to millions primarily as the author of the “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) has been curiously absent from the mainstream American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense and psychological horror, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America more deeply than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author of such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Placing Jackson within an American gothic tradition that stretches back to Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on “domestic horror.” Almost two decades before The Feminine Mystique ignited the women’s movement, Jackson’s stories and nonfiction chronicles were already exploring the exploitation and the desperate isolation of women, particularly married women, in American society.

The increasingly prescient Jackson emerges as a ferociously talented, determined, and prodigiously creative writer in a time when it was unusual for a woman to have both a family and a profession. A mother of four and the wife of the prominent New Yorker critic and academic Stanley Edgar Hyman, Jackson lived a seemingly bucolic life in the New England town of North Bennington, Vermont. Yet, much like her stories, which channeled the occult while a darker side haunted exploring the claustrophobia of marriage and motherhood, Jackson’s creative ascent. As her career progressed, her marriage became more tenuous, her anxiety mounted, and she became addicted to amphetamines and tranquilizers.

Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson an exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaging childhood and turbulent marriage becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant.

“Narrator Bernadette Dunne has just the voice to capture the biography’s tenor and subject, and she does a marvelous job creating an interesting audio experience. Dunne’s voice is deep, slightly raspy, and serious enough to support the author’s view that Jackson is an important literary voice that deserves to be heard. She also keeps the audiobook moving, using her range and excellent pacing to maintain our interest throughout this essential critical appraisal. Dunne stays away from character voices, relying on her measured tone and clear diction.”—AudioFile