that solves that

[aphrodite_mine]

- Movies: 15/15 - None new.
- TV Seasons: 15/10 - None new.
- Puzzles: 12/12 - None new.
- Crafts: 5/1 - None new.
- Writing: 4/3-5 - No new progress.
- Albums: 3/? - I won't officially tally "Red (Taylor's Version)" because I ended up skipping most of it, but Phoebe Bridgers' track is solid. 
- Books: 1/2 - Novellas count, okay! Finished The Road Through the Wall which is Shirley Jackson's first. Zero plot until the end, lots of threads that don't really bind, but I liked it.

Comments

[lunabee34]

I will have you know that that book is classified as a novel, not a novella, so you go ahead an upgrade that achievement.

I love Jackson, and it's on my to-do list to read all of her works, but I'm going to have to skip that one because I just cannot with the child harm.

While I haven't read the novel, I've read all about it in the context of researching Jackson, so I know what happens and that Jackson leaves the murderer ambiguous. Who do you think killed the toddler? Is it the guy who commits suicide or someone else?

[aphrodite_mine]

Thank you for asking!

The violence itself is relegated to two or three paragraphs in the final chapter only, and it doesn't really seem like the point of the story, but I could be wrong there.

I do not think anyone killed the toddler, or if she was killed, it was an accident.

The boy who kills himself, doesn't seem capable. In fact two of the characters who have their lives the most together, remark that it doesn't seem like he could have lifted the rock (the rock has blood on it). His suspicious behavior around the death doesn't seem like the behavior of someone who has done this particular bad thing. He's done other bad things, but so has everyone in the little neighborhood. I actually had to re-read the paragraph where he dies like three times, and I'm still not certain he kills himself. The same characters who don't think he could have killed the toddler suspect that it is odd he was able to kill himself.

Such an odd book. Lots of different threads set up, but most of them not really tied up. Much more realistic than dramatic. But it all paints a picture of class, and insularity.

[lunabee34]

Oh that's so interesting. All the articles I've read about Jackson describe the toddler as being bludgeoned to death with the ambiguity being who murdered her and not whether she was even murdered at all. But you think there's a possibility she died accidentally. This got so much more fascinating.

I'm glad to know the child harm is all at the very, very end. Knowing what it is and that it's coming--myabe I will read it after all.

Also, what a fabulous title (on a literal and metaphorical level) for a book about a neighborhood that is opening up classwise.

[aphrodite_mine]

How funny! I wonder if I misread a detail, but honestly, it all happens "off screen." There's a few lines describing the way she's found, and then a single line describing the boy who hangs. Someone skimming would probably miss it completely, aside from the discussions after. I'm finding the "off screen" rape in Hangsaman much, much more terrible. I also found the mistreatment of the children by one another, and some of the parents' casual dismissal, worse than the dead toddler. I wonder, too, if it is something of the literary canon going, well, yes, all of the scholars agree she was bludgeoned, therefore she was bludgeoned. If I'd read that detail before, I would probably assume it was true.

As someone who also (tries to) writes, and it being Jackson's first novel, I wonder if she was trying to gear up for something much longer and involved, because all of the 'action' at the end--the bludgeoning, the titular road through the wall, it doesn't happen until the end.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods nods*

Your assessment makes a lot of sense. I definitely don't think you missed anything.

Length is not her forte. I've only read The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Sundial (and, of course, some of the short stories). Brevity really works for her in those, but those are later works and I'd expect them to be the most polished of the bunch.

[aphrodite_mine]

I'm really looking forward to the later works! I dove right in to the early work because Hangsaman is only available in my library inside the collection. I'd previously only read The Lottery, and who actually knows how long ago that was. My kiddo just read it for school, so I may have been a high school freshman too!

The length limitation is definitely an area where I feel affinity. Short and punchy vs. (over)long.

[lunabee34]

Oh man, me too. I am the soul of wit. LOL

She is clearly interested in identity (and its dissolution) and ambiguity. From the novels I've read and what I've read about the ones I haven't, those themes come up in them all.

Maybe my project for the early part of the year will be to finally read the early novels I'm missing; you're making me hanker to read them. :)

[aphrodite_mine]

<3

I'm planning to do at least the first four novels before branching off for awhile, but definitely want to do Haunting and Castle.

[lunabee34]

Can't wait to see what you think of them!