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 Shirley Jackson methodically peels it away as she chronicles small town America in 1936.

The Pepper Street children are typical but often disturbing. Helen Williams takes advantage of schoolgirl crushes by daring insecure girls like Harriet Merriam to write love letters to boys. Tod Donald, who lives in his older brother’s shadow, sneaks into the Desmond house on a whim while no one is home.  There, he sits in a closet and speaks ugly words aloud. George Martin fantasizes about running over people with a tractor. Others reflect their parents’ antisemitism by shunning a Jewish family.

Some of the adults are peculiar. Mrs. Mack lectures her dog from the Bible and sets it in her late husband’s place at the dinner table. A Chinese man offers hospitality to Harriet Merriam and Virginia Donald, suggesting sinister intentions. A family of new arrivals has a mother who sleeps constantly, forcing her teenage daughter to take charge.

Cruelty infests the Pepper Street children. It’s the kind of spontaneous behavior kids usually outgrow but which leaves lasting scars on their victims. The author allows the characters to indict themselves, leaving the reader to pass judgement.

A brick wall separates Pepper Street from the community’s less savory areas, giving the residents a false sense of security. In reality, the wall serves to contain a festering sickness that culminates in a neighborhood tragedy.

What makes the novel work is its sense of familiarity. The characters think, and sometimes act, in socially unacceptable ways that most of us have learned to suppress. They leave the reader with an uneasy ambivalence about our feelings for them.

Jackson is often characterized as a horror writer. The Road Through the Wall shows her to be a keen observer of human nature. She does it without offensive language, sex, or explicit violence. This is a five-star book that invites us to look at ourselves. I recommend it enthusiastically.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.