book by Shirley Jackson
annotation by Terri Spiers
Before the Mommy Blogger there was Shirley Jackson, the Mother of Horror
Life Among the Savages is s sweet mommy-memoir by Shirley Jackson, the same author who wrote a short story horror masterpiece that has terrified me since 6th grade, “The Lottery.” As I read Life Among the Savages I couldn’t help but to wonder how her real life experience of raising kids in a small town informed her writing of a small town ritual of human sacrifice, as written in her famous short story. Even the title begs the question, who does she mean when she refers to the “savages?” The kids? The townspeople? The parents? And what kind of writer includes the word “savage” in a sweet mommy-memoir? But then again she titled her second nonfiction sweet mommy memoir “Raising Demons” so there you go.
The book is full of stories of how it is to raise children. The tender, the frustrating, the funny, and the futile. As one who likes to write about the chaos of my own children, I could easily relate to her setting. She opens by describing their house:
Our house is old, and noisy, and full. When we moved into it we had two children and about five thousand books; I expect that when we finally overflow and move out again we will have perhaps twenty children and easily a half million books; we also own assorted beds and tables and chairs and rocking horses and lamps and doll dresses and ship models and paint brushes and literally thousands of socks. (1)
She uses the word “and” over and over instead of inserting commas, a stylistic choice that emphasizes the chaos. As the book unfolds she often refers to the white house, its rooms, its pillars, its characteristics; almost as if it were an entity unto its own. Focusing on the house itself is an effective way to tell the story of the people who live inside it, and it inspired me to consider writing my own mommy memoir centered around our big white house, a source of great joy and incredible frustration. Think money pit meets the American dream.
But the other consideration in Jackson’s choice in lifting up the house as a character is knowing that she also wrote a famously frightening book, The Haunting of Hill House, a psychological thriller that suggests a big old house has a soul, a vengeful one. This Jackson book was made into a movie in 1963, and remade in 1999, both times starring Hollywood A-listers. Go Shirley.
While funny and sweet, Life Among the Savages seems to hint at that part of Jackson’s brain that can concoct the scariest tales ever. For example, she describes her search for a paid mother’s helper, recounting all the reasons why this or that high school girl didn’t work out for the job. The mother’s helper, Amelia, who baked a batch of almost evil cookies helps show Jackson’s skill at blending funny and sweet with the slightly eerie:
“Amelia had but one major failing. The second day she was with us – which turned out, coincidently, to be the last – she made cookies, spending all one joyous afternoon in the kitchen, droning happily to herself, fidgeting, cluttering, measuring.
“At dinner, dessert arrived with Amelia’s giggle and a flourish. She set the plate of cookies down in front of my husband, and my husband, who is a nervous man, glanced down at them and dropped his coffee cup. ‘Sinner,” the cookies announced in bold pink icing, “Sinner, repent.” (98-99)
In this short passage alone, Jackson manages to artfully join words like cookies, joyous, pink, nervous, sinner, and repent.
I count her as one of my key influences.
Annotation Nation CNF 
Great annotation of one of my favorite books. I, too, count Jackson as a key influence. I also count her as one of the many overlooked writers who should be part of the American canon, along with Cather, Wharton and Ferber – all of whom just happen to be women. Cather and Wharton are allowed to hang around the edges, with Hurston and Emily Dickinson. But Ferber and Jackson?