Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American writer known for novels such as The Haunting of Hill House and short stories such “The Lottery,” which has horrified readers since 1948. To this day I am haunted by the short film version of “The Lottery” (with Ed Begley, Jr.!) which Sr. Mary Cabrini showed in my American Studies course in high school. The 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle is not exactly scary like Jackson’s other works, but it is disturbing and feels like […]
Women Can Be Scary Part I: Agatha Christie
At some point in my young reading life, I think when I was in junior high, I read quite a few Agatha Christie mysteries. I still fondly remember the plots of Murder on the Orient Express and The Mirror Crack’d, but I’m pretty sure I never read And Then There Were None, considered Christie’s masterpiece. Unlike most of Christie’s novels, this mystery does not feature a detective like Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple sleuthing a path to the final revelation of the murderer’s identity. Instead, […]
On Passion
My hand is a human hand. My heart a human heart. My feet walk the earth to which our bones return. Directed by His voice, His hand, by the prompting and guidance of His spirit, what else was I to do? ~ Father Damien in a letter to the Pope The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. I’ve reviewed two of Erdrich’s other novels — The Plague of Doves, which won a […]
Why should a woman be more like a man?
The Greeks knew that the mask in the theater was not a disguise but a means of revelation. This is a mind blowing novel about a woman who decides to have three men exhibit her art as their own creations as part of a larger art project she calls “Maskings.” Our protagonist Harriet “Harry” Burden wants to expose how perceptions influence the way the public views art. She believes that, had she shown her works as herself, as artist Harriet Burden, she would have been […]
Cold in Iceland
Burial Rites is Hannah Kent’s first novel and an auspicious start to her career. Set in 1828-1830, the plot is based on real people and factual events surrounding the last execution of a criminal in Iceland. For those who prefer their fiction historical and who have enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s Alias, Grace or the novels of Geraldine Brooks (who is thanked in the author’s note), this is a book you will want to read. In 1828, a well known herbalist and healer (some said sorcerer) named […]
A Feminist Post-Colonial Coming of Age Story
Set in the US in 1969, Lucy is the story of a 19-year-old who has just moved from the British West Indies for work and school. She becomes an au pere for an affluent family with 4 daughters and attends school briefly for nursing. This novel is her reflection on that year and on herself. One could read it as a sort of coming of age story, about growing up. Lucy is trying to break from her old life and especially from her mother with […]