Darlings, You Can't Beat Shirley Jackson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      There were only two stories in this collection I recall reading--"The Summer People," and "A Visit," which I am convinced influenced Robert Marasco in the writing of his novel, "Burnt Offerings.

                                        My favorite story was "The Possibility Of Evil, " featuring Miss Strangeworth, one of the greatest spinster bitches since Almira Gulch.  You could just see Margaret Hamilton, or even Mary Grace Canfield, playing her part. I could have seen this taking place in Highland Park, NJ, back in the day.  And who's to say it did not?

                                         Other favorites were "Louisa, Please Come Home," dealing with an issue dramatized on the 'SVu' episode, "Stranger," and "Home," a variation on teenage death songs and helpful hitchhikers.

                                         Many of the elements in these stories can be recognized. But it is the way Jackson tells them, the language she uses, that makes them uncommon, so what is actually reality can be more macabre than the macabre itself.

                                           A must for Shirley's fans, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!