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cyranoWe Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
This book was particularly affecting because I'm reading it under quarantine. The claustrophobic atmosphere sings isolation and stasis, and after reading the book (staying up all night) it took me hours to shake off the feeling that I was living inside the book. We watch the family through Merricat's slightly feral, brutally honest, and just a touch off kilter viewpoint. Six years ago something awful happened to the Blackwoods, and ever since that day our protagonist Merricat has been using her powers of magical realism to maintain everything as it has always been. Items on shelves or desks may be removed to dust under them, but they must be replaced exactly as they were. Tuesday and Friday were days to go to town, Monday was tidying day, and Wednesday was tea with Mrs. Clarke. And everything is going just fine until CHARLES shows up.
Fuck Charles. Right in the ear. With his creepy cloying politeness covering an avaricious and ever so subtly sexual insinuation into the family as the replacement for the missing patriarchal figure. He's going to fix this family, make them into a normal household who has a proper respect for finances.
But his first mistake is smugly underestimating Merricat.
This book was particularly affecting because I'm reading it under quarantine. The claustrophobic atmosphere sings isolation and stasis, and after reading the book (staying up all night) it took me hours to shake off the feeling that I was living inside the book. We watch the family through Merricat's slightly feral, brutally honest, and just a touch off kilter viewpoint. Six years ago something awful happened to the Blackwoods, and ever since that day our protagonist Merricat has been using her powers of magical realism to maintain everything as it has always been. Items on shelves or desks may be removed to dust under them, but they must be replaced exactly as they were. Tuesday and Friday were days to go to town, Monday was tidying day, and Wednesday was tea with Mrs. Clarke. And everything is going just fine until CHARLES shows up.
Fuck Charles. Right in the ear. With his creepy cloying politeness covering an avaricious and ever so subtly sexual insinuation into the family as the replacement for the missing patriarchal figure. He's going to fix this family, make them into a normal household who has a proper respect for finances.
But his first mistake is smugly underestimating Merricat.