Jackson is such merry company in this domestic mode that it feels churlish to complain how little most of the letters in this collection fit the title of Laurence Hyman’s preface: 'Portrait of the Artist at Work.' She does not discuss her writing with most of her correspondents, apart from her agents ... The funny stories about her kids, while as snackable as popcorn, come to feel themselves a bit like currency, or a screen ... Here at least, the inner world that writes gives voice to the outer world that doesn’t.
... the volume is filled with energy, compassion, crudely drawn and often hilarious cartoons and an almost overbearing affection for both the family Jackson loved and the world she didn’t love quite so much ... In propulsive, uncapitalized sentences, Jackson could make even a random trip to the train station or post office sound like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, driving through every tossed-off anecdote with a sort of unstoppable, manic passion that must have been both entrancing and exasperating to live with on a daily basis ... Reading these letters is just as enjoyable as reading Jackson’s fictions — filled with the same intensity that entertained her friends and children as well as recurring glimpses of whatever dark demon was riding her into the ground ... These are remarkably narrative letters, as if Jackson couldn’t bear to waste anybody’s time with words unless they were charged with storytelling ... Too often, the publication of an author’s selected letters turns out to be a fairly dry, humorless event. They help establish (or reinforce) the idea that this writer was important (Jackson definitely was). Or they remind us how much trouble they had making enough money to live (Jackson certainly had it) or how little they were appreciated in their lifetimes. Often they help explain why they wrote the particular types of books they wrote (she is refreshingly quiet on this topic.) But for those who already love Jackson’s fiction, the papers feel like a big, unexpected gift — much as each individual letter must have felt to each original recipient. The woman simply couldn’t write a dull sentence. And however much each day may have exhausted her, she didn’t seem to live a single uninteresting one ... Then again, perhaps it’s all in the telling.
... the letters are startlingly vivacious and emphasize her gift for invention, which she used to transform ordinary people and events into magic ... Hyman comes across as petty and cruel, a man who couldn’t remain faithful and also couldn’t seem to forgive the fact it made Jackson unhappy ... Yet Jackson’s descriptions of his antics in her own letters to friends are cutting. She’s so funny that the misery he causes seems to burn off like mist on a hot lawn ... Jackson’s letters are stuffed with wisecracks and little sketches of Hyman looking stupid ... While she makes light of her obnoxious husband, the letters also show her talent for imbuing the innocuous with malign or mysterious intentions. She seems to have been drawn to the macabre throughout her life, but it was as an adult, ensconced in domesticity, that her feel for the gothic intensified and grew more inventive ... The Letters of Shirley Jackson is a glimpse into one of literature’s most contested personal lives and the bargains she struck in order to live it.
Her fiction, full of misanthropy, madness and murder, tends to be viewed through the lens of her personal torments and, more generally, of the misogyny of the age. What is striking about Jackson’s letters, however, is that while they testify to pretty outrageous domestic double standards (Hyman was a man unwilling to even heat up a bowl of soup for his lunch), they show very little sign of unhappiness. The mood of the missives is buoyant, garrulous and eager to amuse, and while Jackson often seems stressed and exasperated, she’s rarely despairing. The merry anarchy in the world she evokes has a lot in common with the scenes evoked in her hilarious motherhood memoirs ... The labors of domesticity and artistry are fused in these letters in a way that seems to me unique.
... makes some headway into our understanding of what made this one-of-a-kind writer tick ... the letters are never ponderous or myth-building. Indeed, Hyman attests that they perfectly convey his mother’s natural voice, which seems a congenial mix of insouciance, sardonic wit and exasperation ... Of the 500 or so extant letters Hyman could locate, he chose about 300 for this collection, written to some 20 recipients. He has made a bit of a miscalculation, perhaps, by including so many of the early love letters Shirley wrote to her future husband; the kooky, unconventional tone of their courtship could have been equally well captured in fewer pages. Once the Hymans are married and settled into their own brand of domestic and professional chaos, however, the letters become more engaging ... While the letters are largely quotidian in their concerns, her take on life is generally entertaining and occasionally hilarious ... On another, obviously unintentional level, the letters beautifully capture a bygone era when one could make a solid living writing short stories—solid enough to raise four children in a rambling house with a domestic attendant or two in ever-changing rotation ... While one feels suspicious of this collection’s elusiveness around revealing certain difficult truths about her personal life, the rough spontaneity of the letters nonetheless make this view into Jackson’s simultaneously conventional and unconventional life extremely intriguing.
Jackson comes to life in this accessible and revealing collection of letters ... In many ways, her letters are as cleverly crafted as her fiction ... Jackson lays herself bare on almost every page ... Several of Jackson’s hand-drawn cartoons are included throughout, adding an extra layer of charm to this amusing and informative collection ... At turns hysterical and heartbreaking, this collection is an entertaining and intriguing read even for those who are just discovering Jackson’s many literary gifts. Recommended.
It’s an engrossing collection of nearly 300 letters ... Jackson considered letter writing an art as well as a form of communication. In these, her own voice shines through, and, as Laurence adds, 'her natural ways of phrasing, and pausing, her choice of words and inflection' are as indelible. Reading the book is 'like entering a time machine and setting the date on the dial, instantly to be transported to a day in, say, 1939 or 1950, or 1963' ... The long, rambling letters Jackson wrote in place of conversation are glorious additions to her oeuvre. They are intimate, invigorating, essential.
While Jackson labored over her published prose, her massive missives seem to flow effortlessly. Yet, her letters captivate with the same sly, caustic humor, clever attention to detail and inventive phrasing that mark her best writing. At nearly 700 pages, readers are unlikely to find a book that moves with more assured swiftness than The Letters of Shirley Jackson. This is a bountiful offering fans will treasure ... Shirley Jackson's letters are just as compelling and beautifully written as her best novels.
It might come as a surprise to readers of Jackson’s crepuscular fiction that the letters here are mostly breezy and bright, full of droll anecdotes about her four children, driving lessons, many cats, merry overindulgence in cocktails, and endless attempts to lose weight...But tucked among these letters are a tiny handful that are so jarringly sad that they detonate on the page, hinting at the source of Jackson’s dark vision. They belie the jaunty persona she presented to most of her correspondents and illuminate the lengths she went to conceal her unhappiness. That many other American women of Jackson’s generation felt compelled to do the same, gives The Letters of Shirley Jackson deeper resonance ... What do we learn of the genesis of her most brilliant work? Surprisingly little ... The Journals of Shirley Jackson would have been a more painful and intimate book, but perhaps less revealing. The poignancy of Letters comes from the juxtaposition of Jackson’s jaunty social persona and the occasional searing glimpses of a profoundly vulnerable woman.
The life of Shirley Jackson (1916–1965)—as a mother and a writer—emerges in vivid detail ... Her cartoons, one of the most charming elements of the collection, also chronicle a marriage in decline. Full of wit and heartbreak, this volume shines, and Jackson’s singular prose never fails to entertain.
Jackson reveals a warm, witty side in her voluminous correspondence ... There’s still an edge to the hilarious domestic vignettes she sends her parents ... A vivid, engaging, and engrossing collection from one of American literature’s great letter writers.
