Today’s newsletter continues my review of Shirley Jackson’s less-known novels.

The non-fiction story of Sybil came to mind while I was reading this one. That book and the movie it inspired created a sensation during the mid-1970s and established Sally Field as a great actress. But The Bird's Nest predates Sybil by two decades. It's a fascinating tale and one of the first one to deal with multiple personalities.

Elizabeth Richmond is a colorless, repressed young woman with a meaningless clerical...

Today’s newsletter continues my review of Shirley Jackson’s less-known novels.

Sometimes I wish there was a list of books titled “Read These Before You Die.” They would be books I’d never heard of before, but which spoke directly to my heart. Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman, published in 1951, is one of them.

Though lacking the high profile of The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the desperate emotional journey of Natalie Waite is equally engrossing. She...

Shirley Jackson is famous for her singular use of fiction to comment on the human condition. Her most famous works are The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Over the next four weeks I will review her less prominent novels. Today I begin with the 1948 book that launched her career.

Pepper Street is an ordinary place with ordinary people—ordinary in the sense that its residents are far from perfect. A superficial harmony lies over the neighborhood. Author...