Customer Reviews

Hangsaman

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

[...] 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.

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.

Shirley Jackson is a master of enticing readers into a world that is creepy and off-putting while magical at the same time. The premise for "Hangsaman" is immediately intriguing, as it follows a college freshman through her descent into schizophrenia. Yet for all of Jackson's expertise at crafting vividly strange and disturbing worlds, "Hangsaman" falls short because it depends too much on the concept rather than the narrative.

Readers first meet Natalie Waite, a shy introverted seventeen-year-old, while she is about to embark on her first year of college. Her parents have anything but a loving relationship, the family gathering around the dinner table as a formality, with stilted communication. Natalie meets daily with her father to discuss her thoughts and writing. Their relationship is that of teacher to pupil, rather than father to daughter, and readers can clearly see the father trying to press his views and ideas onto his impressionable daughter. Natalie is almost without boundaries in her father's eyes, free to experiment with cigarettes and alcohol, and to play hostess at his various parties. Right before she enters college, something happens to her at one of these parties that drastically affects Natalie, who tries to suppress the fact that 'anything' happened.

Yet while the world sees one Natalie, there is another world going on inside the main character's head. While she is having conversations with other people, imaginary conversations are going on in her mind. In the most frequent one, she is being questioned by a detective about a murder. There is no break beteween the 'real' conversation and Natalie's 'imagined' conversation, which can make reading these passages difficult. As Natalie settles into college life, she finds that she is unliked and alone; the other girls make fun of her. Yet she manages to find one friend, a girl named Tony, who gives her strength; however, readers must figure out if Tony is real, or just a figment of Natalie's fractured mind.

And author Shirley Jackson doesn't necessarily give answers to these questions. While the premise of following a character through a descent into schizophrenia is intriguing, the fact that the lines are blurred for the reader and not just the character makes reading "Hangsaman" confusing. While the novel maintained my interest, I found myself reading it more slowly than others of Jackson's works, and that I needed time away from it to sort out the story before I could read further. "Hangsaman" is still a compelling read, full of Jackson's incredible eye for detail with a setting so evocative that the lines between every world are hard to distinguish.

This short story is haunting and terrorrific, which itself is captivating beyond anything contemporary that can be written or imagined.

The frightening experiences of this young woman are "normal," banal, routine occurances with the slant of distorted perception. But whose perception is not distorted? The laugh track that follows her father's words is espeically creepy and wonderful. Jackson expertly and originally captured the normalcy of madness and madness of normalcy.

Experimental narratives and character-driven works are often harshly criticized by audiences that prefer to be spoon-fed too many details that sum up and regergitate and leave nothing to be personally experienced and interpreted. It is amazing and delightful that Jackson's work was published at all because most people are not sophisticated enough to do the work of internalizing and processing art. But once you become exposed to this concept and practice the skill, you'll never go back, except for some cheap thrills, Hershey bar entertainment, which is fun, too.

So what happened to this young woman? What was real? What was imagined? Do we ever really know what is real and what is unreal? What is fiction and what is creative non-fiction? These are trick questions: Real is unreal is real as fiction is creative non-ficiton is fiction. Imagination is experience is imagined. Read some Salman Rushdie and try Jackson's work again if you're still unsure.

This novel still haunts me years after reading it.

'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.