Hangsaman

Rating:
Summary: an uneven account of a college coed's decent into madness
Review: 'Hangsaman' is not one of Shirley Jackson's renowned spooky stories. It's a very personal, perhaps autobiographical?, account of a young woman who completely loses touch with reality as she endures loneliness and alienation as a freshman in college. Other than having emotionally deficient parents the cause of her despair and madness is not clear. And so despite being well-written and evoking a strong sense of intimacy Ms Jackson left this reader somewhat bewildered and non-plussed with 'Hangsaman'.


Bottom line: a strange yet unaffecting piece by the horror master. For loyal Jackson fans only.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting yet confusing novel that I could not put down
Review: I am giving this book 5 stars even though I did not understand the ending at all; only Shirley Jackson is capable of winning my praises in spite of my confusion over her work. This book is quite difficult to review; I cannot give voice to my questions without potentially giving something away to the reader (if it is even possible for me to give away something I never really "got"). Natalie is an unusual young lady. Her mother is unable to express her love to her, and her father spends his time training her for a life of writing and affable intellectualism. He daily meets with Natalie to review things she has written and to converse on an adult, though instructional, level. He is a writer of sorts and has frequent parties; Natalie is allowed if not encouraged to engage in adult conversation, drink, and smoke. Natalie lives in two worlds at once; she is constantly imagining vivid exchanges between herself and others--particularly a cop trying to make her confess to a murder. At one party, she is led off into the woods by an older man, and something important and probably not good happens to her--she constantly pretends that nothing happened, but an important change in her begins at that point. As she goes to college, she changes drastically. She is unhappy at school; the other girls are silly, conniving, vain, deceitful, etc. She becomes friends with her English teacher and his wife, both of whom are dysfunctional human beings; the teacher is especially bad and spends way too much time drinking and meeting his young female students outside of class. Although she seems to adapt to college and make some friends, her personal struggles take a turn for the worse; this process is accelerated when she meets a strange girl named Tony, endures the laughter her classmates direct toward her, and isolates herself more and more from those around her. Tony's influence helps set the stage for the conclusion of the story.

I imagine that loners like myself will strongly sympathize with Natalie and her struggles. I was amazed to see her expressing thoughts I myself have at times: Am I really here? Am I really alive or just dreaming that I am alive? Are the people around me real or are they just "actors" in the performance that is my life? Are they all conspiring against me and plotting my downfall? If I think of something today that I have not thought of in a long time, will I not encounter (and thus have created by my thoughts) that thing tomorrow? Natalie clearly deteriorates mentally as the story progresses, but I (like her) am left with questions about the events described--What was real and what was not real? What really happened with the man in the woods? Was Tony real? To what does the title Hangsaman really refer? There are many questions I am left to ponder after finishing this book. I can't say that the ending was bad; my expectations were proven wrong, which is always a good thing about a book's conclusion. If the whole story had been explained in detail, I realize that its effects on me would have been minimal, whereas my questions will keep the story in my mind for some time to come and will probably compel me to re-read the novel at some point in the future. Shirley Jackson tells a gripping story and makes Natalie a character I strongly liked, sympathized with, cheered for, and worried about. The writing is really quite magical and unlike anything else I have read from other writers. As weird as the story and characters sometimes are, you still feel a close, emotional connection with both. The writing is so powerful that it is quite capable of bringing on anxiety attacks of a sort for this reader. Jackson's writing is equivalent to a roadside accident--although you may see something unpleasant, you have to look, and then it is all but impossible to ever look away. In its own way, Hangsaman is as good a read as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting yet confusing novel that I could not put down
Review: I am giving this book 5 stars even though I did not understand the ending at all; only Shirley Jackson is capable of winning my praises in spite of my confusion over her work. This book is quite difficult to review; I cannot give voice to my questions without potentially giving something away to the reader (if it is even possible for me to give away something I never really "got"). Natalie is an unusual young lady. Her mother is unable to express her love to her, and her father spends his time training her for a life of writing and affable intellectualism. He daily meets with Natalie to review things she has written and to converse on an adult, though instructional, level. He is a writer of sorts and has frequent parties; Natalie is allowed if not encouraged to engage in adult conversation, drink, and smoke. Natalie lives in two worlds at once; she is constantly imagining vivid exchanges between herself and others--particularly a cop trying to make her confess to a murder. At one party, she is led off into the woods by an older man, and something important and probably not good happens to her--she constantly pretends that nothing happened, but an important change in her begins at that point. As she goes to college, she changes drastically. She is unhappy at school; the other girls are silly, conniving, vain, deceitful, etc. She becomes friends with her English teacher and his wife, both of whom are dysfunctional human beings; the teacher is especially bad and spends way too much time drinking and meeting his young female students outside of class. Although she seems to adapt to college and make some friends, her personal struggles take a turn for the worse; this process is accelerated when she meets a strange girl named Tony, endures the laughter her classmates direct toward her, and isolates herself more and more from those around her. Tony's influence helps set the stage for the conclusion of the story.

I imagine that loners like myself will strongly sympathize with Natalie and her struggles. I was amazed to see her expressing thoughts I myself have at times: Am I really here? Am I really alive or just dreaming that I am alive? Are the people around me real or are they just "actors" in the performance that is my life? Are they all conspiring against me and plotting my downfall? If I think of something today that I have not thought of in a long time, will I not encounter (and thus have created by my thoughts) that thing tomorrow? Natalie clearly deteriorates mentally as the story progresses, but I (like her) am left with questions about the events described--What was real and what was not real? What really happened with the man in the woods? Was Tony real? To what does the title Hangsaman really refer? There are many questions I am left to ponder after finishing this book. I can't say that the ending was bad; my expectations were proven wrong, which is always a good thing about a book's conclusion. If the whole story had been explained in detail, I realize that its effects on me would have been minimal, whereas my questions will keep the story in my mind for some time to come and will probably compel me to re-read the novel at some point in the future. Shirley Jackson tells a gripping story and makes Natalie a character I strongly liked, sympathized with, cheered for, and worried about. The writing is really quite magical and unlike anything else I have read from other writers. As weird as the story and characters sometimes are, you still feel a close, emotional connection with both. The writing is so powerful that it is quite capable of bringing on anxiety attacks of a sort for this reader. Jackson's writing is equivalent to a roadside accident--although you may see something unpleasant, you have to look, and then it is all but impossible to ever look away. In its own way, Hangsaman is as good a read as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Rating:
Summary: Beg, borrow, or steal, get this book!
Review: I don't know how to temper my emotions for this review! I love this book. There are already some fantastic reviews here, so I guess I'll just try to add what I can.

Jackson's Hangsaman struck me, crawled under my skin, in a way no other book has. Forget Joyce and Woolf-- Shirley Jackson captures the minutiae of everyday life, the fleeting thoughts, the persistent insecurities, in a way no one else can. This novel is her masterpiece.

Natalie Waite is among the most fully-realized characters I've ever read. Every little thought, from solipsistic imaginings to petty jealousies, is recorded with psychological acuity by Jackson, who is very nearly a medium. I suspect the novel is deeply autobiographical.

It's a rather difficult book to summarize: it's more or less a story of an introverted, highly creative young woman who goes off to college, slips gradually into some sort of mental crisis, enters into a near-erotic close friendship with a strange phantomlike girl, and so on. The book works on a number of levels: it's a portrait of the artist as a young woman, an unconventional lesbian-gothic horror novel, a deconstruction of narrative voice (is that too pretentious?)

The other characters are wonderfully developed also. Particularly there's Natalie's parents. Her mother appears briefly, as a sad portrait of an unhappy, emotionally battered housewife. Her father is a wickedly satirical creation: a cold-blooded academic who is a brilliant critic but not that great at anything else. (Is he really a slyly insulting portrait of Jackson's husband, Hyman? Guess we'll never know.)

Why hasn't the book been given the appreciation it so deserves?
Natalie is such a decidedly /female/ character, I wonder whether the book is as accessible to men. So much of Natalie's thoughts and feelings are universal to young women in particular. The book ought rightly to be considered a classic, for simply capturing the experiences of a young introvert so clearly and exquisitely.


Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and frightening
Review: This was a great book I think about a girl going insane. The small vignettes of reality are intertwined with a seemingly lesbian like nightmare. I wish this author had been more prolific, however she had a lot of problems of her own. Her biography is fantastic and sad.

Rating:
Summary: Puzzeling, troubleing and captivating
Review: [...] I have to admit out front that the reading experience was not totally enjoyable. On the contrary, although the book is very readable I found myself sitting on edge wondering what will happen next. What horrible things are now to happen? You expect the worst.
It is not that anything horrible or sickening does happen. This is not a "horror" book in this sense - the horror is more inside your brain and your uncomfortable feelings. You feel uncomfortable because something wrong is happening and you do not always know how to point it out.
Do you know the feeling you get when you are having a conversation with someone and only after you end the talk you say to yourself that he said or hinted things you should not have tolerated and that you should have reacted differently... or maybe that the message delivered was not what you initially had in mind and then you are very upset at yourself for not crying out and saying this or that...? Well this is my attempt to describe some of the emotions this book has evoked in me.
However, having said this, I think that the uncomfortable feeling is exactly what the writer has tried and succeeded in creating and thus the reading is worthwhile. It is like being in another mind which is both similar and different from your own. So many things are familiar and so many thoughts are thoughts you have thought before; and yet, so many actions and reflections are so totally unusual....so defying .
Natalie, the main character is not someone I like (why? because I cannot understand her; because she upsets me. I kept thinking "Can't you see this is dangerous; why aren't you more careful of the other girls... " ). However, she seems so troubled you do not want anything bad to happen to her. You also share Natalie's confusion - the theme of "did THIS happen or not" and "am I really here" is very strong throughout the book and the reader is a true participant in this sense. You are not sure if the things described did happen or not? If the characters did exist (the girl Tony - is she real or is she an imaginative friend? A close soul mate everyone wishes for, someone who can read your brain, even the hideous things in your mind ) and what are their motives? You can only guess. And maybe nothing really happened? The terror is really subdued and is sometimes conveyed in seemingly innocent (women) conversations. These polite dialogues can be very cruel and someone is sure to be stabbed in the back.
I despised Natalie's father. This person sees everything as a life experience you must endure in order to grow up and be a "better person/writer/critic" and thus although he can see Natalie has problems in college his only words are that this is a good experience for her. He has no empathy. He is a person which is so self centered he has no time for sympathy / real emotions or real communication. I think that he sees Natalie as his creation and this self centered feeling he confuses with love. I see the father as the true villain of this book and I blame him for most of the bad things Natalie has to endure.
Natalie is alone in the world (at least this is how she feels).
I am tempted to write "aren't we all... " - we all spend our lives in trying not to be and this is why Hangsaman is such a troubling story.
Bottom line of this depressing review is that I do reccomend the book. Its a book that stays with you.