Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret
Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.
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I was on the fence for how to rate this. There were moments I was left wanting more — Charles’ introduction and then departure with the house burning felt rushed to me, the Rochester house us briefly mentioned as a lost inheritance — but I think Jackson keeps her focus laser-tight and gives us enough to draw conclusions. Like understanding Merricat to be the murderer long before Constance reveals it, by showing us her childlike yet intuitive, sociopathic perspective. There’s so many ideas I’m still mulling over — like the class warfare of the villagers versus the Blackwoods — we find ourselves sympathizing with the sisters, despite their wealth and elitism, while the villagers are cruel, uneducated, superstitious, and eager to destroy them ...
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22 April, 2021:
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22 April, 2021:
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