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Summary: Great short stories
Review: I remember the first time I read "The Lottery," years ago in junior high...it haunted me then, it still haunts me now. Shirley Jackson is a genius story-teller. This is a definite must-read.
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Summary: LOTTERY stands the test of time!!!!!!!!
Review: STILL remember the first time I read this 30 years ago. Have reread it numerous times since, and it never disappoints. A Keeper!! Enjoy.
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Summary: A HEART-THUMPING TALE
Review: Stephen King, move over. You can't hold a candle to Shirley Jackson! This incredible tale of horror will have the reader sitting on the edge of his/her seat from beginning to ending - and what an ending! Shocking, heart-breaking, unforgettable! If you are going to be able to read only one more story in your lifetime, read this one!
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Summary: Buy it for "The Lottery," fall in love with the rest as well
Review: If you've never read "The Lottery," you're wasting valuable time reading this review. Go buy the book and read it instead. If you have read "The Lottery," then odds are you already appreciate this dark, brilliant, horrific little story. It's one of the greatest horror stories ever written, and it's one of my favorites of all time to teach, as well. My students were all shocked and horrified by the story (not least by the fact that I would give them something that so offended them), but by the end of the semester, they came to love the story. The set-up is brilliant, and the twist ending is perfect: brutal, shocking, and short. Other reviewers have commented on the story's excellence for teaching things like the evil of tradition; it's also an excellent way to teach how ordinary people could become involved in something like the Nazi death camps.The rest of the stories in the collection are uniformly excellent, as well, although I would recommend saving "The Lottery" for last. It's by far the most horrific in the collection, but Jackson's satire can be just as brutal as her horror, and there is more than a little of the horror of everyday life sprinkled throughout the rest of these tales. A must-buy!
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Summary: still retains its visceral power to shock
Review: Despite writing a handful of excellent gothic horror novels, including The Haunting of Hill House (just made into a film for the second time), Shirley Jackson seems destined to be best remembered for her great short story The Lottery. Originally published in The New Yorker in 1948, and a a staple of High School English classes ever since, it elicited some of the most spirited response in the history of that dowdy weekly. The story is a stunning indictment of something but is sufficiently ambiguous that many different individuals and groups were able to take personal offense at its implications. It would seem to me though, that there is a pretty conventional way of reading it; one that both touches upon a basic human truth and offers fairly little offense to anyone. Take it at relative face value and the Lottery represents any human institution which is allowed to continue unchallenged and unconsidered until it becomes a destructive, rather than a constructive, force in men's lives.. After all, in the story, the reasons for holding the Lottery are long forgotten, other than the platitudinous "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon". And the rituals connected to it, other than the making of participant lists, the use of the old ballot box and the swearing in, have mostly fallen by the wayside. All that really remains is a rigid adherence to a hoary tradition. Now folks can, of course, freight it with specific signifigances--read the whole thing as an attack on capitalism or religion or small town conformity or agrarian culture or any of a number of different things. But it seems to me that the most straightforward reading allows it to impact on all of those things. Simply put, the fact that something has been done a certain way for a really long time does not necessarily justify its continuance. If this powerfully disturbing story seems like too heavy a cudgel to wield to make such a self evident, unnuanced point, let's not underestimate how difficult it is to teach people anything. After all, Plato has maintained the title of world's greatest philosopher for a few thousand years now on the basis of "Know thyself". So, why shouldn't Shirley grab a spot in the limelight for herself with a story that admonishes us to examine our civic rituals, especially since she couched her admonition in a great American gothic horror tale, which still retains its visceral power to shock us. GRADE: A
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Summary: Awesome Thriller!!
Review: You won't want to pass up on this Masterpiece. I first read this in high School 20 years ago and saw the original movie. Jackson has done a wonderful job of keeping the nature of the lottery a mystery until the very end. This is the type of creativity I love and wish to see more of. It promises to keep the reader on the edge of his/her seat until the last page. Makes a great camp fire story. Being a Rod Serling fan, I would have thought he would have done soemthing like this. Treat yourself today to this one of a kind! You'll want to share it with others.
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Summary: Creepy - You MUST also see/read the WICKER MAN:
Review: The lottery was an excllent creepy tale. I was told to read it after I showed my cousin one of my favourite movies of all time: The Wicker Man (also a book). Both tales have similar eery settings - small English towns stuck in a medieval time warp where they still practise bizzare and unsettling rituals. If you've read the Lottery and want to see or read a similar piece see the Wicker Man - I guarentee you wil not be dissapointed.
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Summary: Hallowed Traditions
Review: "The Lottery" is a powerful work of literature and the best short story I ever read. When first published in the "New Yorker" in 1948, it engendered an enormous amount of hate mail; some readers actually canceled their subscriptions. Although now commonly regarded as a masterpiece of short fiction, Jackson's macabre work is still so greatly abhorred by some contemporary readers that they have attempted to get it banned from their local libraries. Indeed, a relacement copy I donatated just quietly disappeared from mine. Why? The few readers I have polled were quick to label the story "terrible" but seemed strangely reluctant to pinpoint their objections; so I can only surmise. I believe the story makes people nervous because they perceive that the community in which the lottery was held is really not all too different from their own. I think Jackson drives home the point that we, too, live in a society rife with superstition and ignorance -- a culture in which ancient traditions are unquestioningly accepted and virtually anyone can suddenly find themselves chosen as a sacrificial offering to an unseen god. When readers see themselves in the role of the ill-fated Mrs. Hutchinson, besieged by a mindless mob of true-believers, they are justifiably terrified. Or could it be that some readers are troubled because they sense in themselves a strong impulse to pick up a stone?
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Summary: The Lottery
Review: This book is a good buy, if only because it contains "The Lottery." This is a short story that will give you chills, with its social commentary nicely masked. Small town America, friendly neighbors but something unpleasant lurking in the background. Nothing with fangs, no vampires or aliens, just the way things have to be in this small town. My suggestion is that if you read this and like it, try "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.
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Summary: Shocking story - still remember 20 years later
Review: I read "The lottery" in Junior high. It shocked me then and when I think about it now, it still gives me chills. It was just such a shocking ending.
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