Let's see, girls. when was it....? Oh, yes, last Saturday eve, while waiting to meet Tom, Mike and Austin in the Village, Monsieur and I stopped at Three Lives Bookstore, where I immediately began perusing the shelves. While scanning, I came across something I read (and always have read) as "Hangman." Except, when I looked closer, it was "Hangsaman." Then, I saw the author's name--Shirley Jackson. Could that be THE Shirley Jackson, I wondered?
Sure enough, it was. Now, from my teen years on, I have been a literary disciple of Shirley Jackson; I practically memorized who;e passages from "The Haunting Of Hill House," and my especial favorite, "We Have Always Lived In The Castle." I can remember where I was the first time I read "The Lottery," and how it absolutely shocked me! I know I read "The Bird's Nest," but my memory of it is rather sketchy. But "Hangsaman," and "The Sundial" were books of hers I thought I might have read, but wasn't sure of, anymore. (Though I do remember reading "Life Among The Savages," which was, for its time, a kind of forerunner to Jean Kerr's "Please Don't Eat The Daisies.")
What got me to buy and read "Hangsaman" was the assertion that Shirley Jackson based the novel on the 1946 disappearance of a Bennington College sophomore girl. That girl was Paula Welden, who, on December 1 of 1946, after finishing her work shift at the cafeteria, decided to take a walk on the famous Long Trail, in the area. She vanished, and has never been found. It was later determined that between 1945 and 1950, four other unexplained disappearances took place, so much so that the area was dubbed "the Bennington Triangle!"
This clinched it for me. I had to read "Hangsaman." And it does not disappoint for a second.
It is typical Shirley Jackson. Natalie Waite, a withdrawn girl from a literary, but psychologically isolating family, comes to college with hope. But she does not fit in, everyone around her seems either mysterious or cruel, until she falls in with this girl named Tony, who becomes her constant companion.
But, remember, this is Shirley Jackson. So, is what happening to Natalie at college real? Does Tony exist, or not? And, I am telling you, darlings, the mysterious amusement park sequence is one of the high points of Shirley Jackson , and demonstrates why this type of location is such a great setting for horror.
Being Shirley Jackson, the story is open to all sorts on interpretation. And that interpretation may change, upon each additional reading. Since this was my initial reading of "Hangsaman," I came away with:''
1. It is a story about a girl going slowly insane, and
takes you inside her mind.
2. The girl, Tony, is the stand in for Paula Welden,
who is either driving Natalie insane, or is a
literal ghost, luring her to death.
3. The couple Natalie meets, who drive
her back to the bridge by the college,
attack and kill her.
4.Natalie commits suicide, by jumping
off the bridge.
Of one thing I am certain of, darlings. By the last sentence, when Natalie is joyfully walking up the road, back to the college, she is already dead!
An understated gem from Shirley Jackson! No one did it better than she! I guess it takes the sweetest among us, to understand the darker aspects of human nature.
"'It isn't fair! It isn't right,' Mrs. Hutchinson screamed,
and then they were upon her."
---The Lottery
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