Life Among the Savages - Softcover

Jackson, Shirley

3.98

8,172 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 089733342X ISBN 13: 9780897333429

Publisher: Academy Chicago Pub, 1990

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

The author offers a humorous account of her experiences as she, her husband, and their four young children moved from an apartment in the city to a big house in rural Vermont

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Can this be the author of such chilling tales as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House? An ordinary housewife stuck in a big, shabby house with three marvelous, demanding children and a charming husband who takes detached interest in the chaos they generate? Yes, it's Shirley Jackson all right: the precision of her observations and prose is familiar, even if her humor is something of a surprise. Not until Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions in 1993 would another woman write with such honesty about the maddening multitude of trivial, essential chores that constitute a mother's life. But Jackson nailed it first, 40 years earlier, in her hilarious chronicle of life in a small Vermont town, where getting the kids to school on time requires the combined gifts of a drill sergeant and a lady's maid. The saga of her son's bumpy adjustment to kindergarten, frequently anthologized as Charles, is justly famous, but Jackson's account of the Department Store Trip from Hell (two kids, two toy guns, one doll carriage and doll, mayhem in revolving doors and escalators) is even funnier. Although her memoirs are as merciless as her ghost stories, you may not notice because you're laughing so hard. --Wendy Smith

About the Author:

Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) first rose to fame with her short story 'The Lottery.' Her six novels and many short stories confirmed her as an essential voice in twentieth century American fiction.

Lesa Lockford is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University. She teaches courses in voice for the actor, dialects, acting, and performance studies. She is also a writer and performer. Before becoming a teacher, she was a professional actor in Great Britain where she appeared in a variety of roles in television, film, and on the stage. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.