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More About the Author
Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1919. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story 'The Lottery', which was published in 1948. Her novels--which include The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House--are characterised by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A chilling masterpiece,
By
This review is from: Road Through the Wall (Paperback)
Shirley Jackson is often described as a "Horror" writer; however, her power comes not from horrible bloody descriptions but rather from very down tuned, indifferent, every-day descriptions to the most vicious acts. Her descriptions are so mellowed that I felt confused and checked myself over and again to see if I understood correctly and something bad really did happen. This is a story of one street and its inhabitants, but could have easily been any other street in any suburb. In fact, Shirley Jackson herself said that the book was written, at least partly, to get back at her parents, so some of it has to be a life she knew. I believe I am right to guess that the character of Harriet Merriam, a girl in her adolescent years, who is fat and not pretty, has many "bits and pieces" of Shirley Jackson herself, especially in the first pages where Harriet's mother goes through her letters. This act, which according to biographers happened to Shirley herself, is mentioned in "Hangsaman" another of Jackson's first books. The story takes time getting into, the reason being that there are so many (around 20) characters and it takes time to differentiate between them. There is actually no character that is really "loveable" - if someone is described as a successful child or adult, then he has other faults. I guess this is exactly like real life where no one is perfect but it is so different from other literary works where even if a hero is imperfect you can have some sympathy towards several characters. Here the reader's sympathy does not exist although some people are more detestable then others. The merciless description of the characters even caused me some uneasiness at first. You can see down to the person's essence - as if you look at his soul with a magnifying glass and this intimate viewing can be quite uncomfortable. The horrors of this story can mainly be described as the inability of accepting anyone who is different: Jews, Chinese, retarded people. Shirley Jackson gives us a variety of outsiders. The horrors are also the powers of parents, narrow and limited in their world perception to forever change or shape their children world and not for the best. This issue is not new; however has a striking and horrifying appearance in this book. This is a powerful chilling book which, once you get into it (this takes time), cannot be put down. Shirley Jackson has a great knowledge of human nature which is again apparent in this book I do wish I had some people around me I could discuss this book with. I was even disappointed to find only one review of this book as I am really interested in hearing how other people have understood or "felt" this book. I have studied Shirley Jackson's famous short story "the Lottery" at the university and am longing to analyze this book in the same way....I feel there is so much more to this book then what I was able to grasp and so many other nuances connected to the symbolism of the new road, the different family lives portrayed and the relationship and similarities between woman to woman, mother - daughter, father - son relationships to relationships between the kids themselves. I have to add that some of the elements of "the Lottery" are apparent here. What I mean is the seemingly peaceful, lovely atmosphere and the inner turbulence which becomes apparent through the end, when a victim who was introduced and chosen before is pointed out. This is a masterpiece I highly recommend.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jackson's unforgettable first novel,
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Road Through the Wall (Paperback)
Although The Road Through the Wall was her first published novel, it is vintage Shirley Jackson. No one ever viewed and/or described human beings in the way Jackson did. Not surprisingly, this novel is terribly maudlin and disturbing. It is also very complex, and I'm not sure I would perfectly understand it had I read it over and over again. There are no heroes in these pages and only one innocent character. The premise of the story is fairly simple: Jackson paints a portrait of a well-to-do middle class neighborhood, shining her blinding light of truth on everyone. The portrait is not a pretty one. A wall separates the community from the well-to-do section of town, a section most of the men and women hope to eventually move to; in the meantime, they are terribly snobbish to those around them--quietly and secretly or brazenly and openly depending on how poor or ill-bred the inferior citizens are seen to be. Eventually, a section of the wall is removed in order to make way for a new road, a road that will expose their isolated community to the world and basically ruin their neighborhood, community, and lives. Well before the road is built, terrible tragedy does indeed strike at the heart of the community. I was quite shocked by the turn of events toward the end.Some of Jackson's plot points really make little sense to me. While it often seems that Jackson intends to introduce such confusing elements into her fiction, I find it very likely that I am just not understanding the immense subtleties and hidden clues of a masterful writer. This novel is especially hard to comprehend. The cast of characters is quite large, consisting of a number of families. Jackson constantly moves back and forth between the men, women, and children, which makes it hard to really "know" each character. The task of keeping track of who is who is made even more difficult by the fact that many of the girls' names all start with H and that two of the boys have the same initials. There came a point when I just had to stop flipping back through the story trying to exactly remember each character in turn. Perhaps it was a deliberate tactic by Jackson to indicate that all of the characters are basically the same. One family surprisingly moves away right in the middle of the book, much to my surprise, and the family that moves into their rental home seems far less important that the book's back cover led me to expect. The reader should take nothing for granted when reading Shirley Jackson. All in all, this is a wonderful if idiosyncratic read. The plot is amazingly complex for an author's first published novel. I wish I could talk about the ending, if for no other reason than to pose the questions I have about it. Once you permit yourself to enter Shirley Jackson mode, you may well be lured into a level of comfort, expecting the novel to simply end without any climax or conclusion. I can pretty much assure you that the conclusion is one you will not soon forget.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a well-written critique on suburban alienation..,
By lazza (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Road Through the Wall (Paperback)
"Road Through the Wall" is Shirley Jackson's first novel, and as first novels go it has surprisingly good qualities. The prose and characterizations are uniformly excellent. By stealth she decomposes the boredom, loneliness, and suffocating nature of American suburban life. No, this doesn't contain any of the gothic horror goodies found in her later works. And the ending seems a bit disjointed from the overall story. Yet written over fifty years ago, "Road Through the Wall" seems anything but dated.
For a bit more about the story, it is actually a pastiche of daily events surrounding one neighborhood ... specifically one street. The dialogue and behavior of the children are realistically cruel. The parents are portrayed as being status seekers and gossip-mongers. Their insular world is shattered, symbolically and literally, when a new road is built which barrels through their enclave. Bottom line: a subtle and deceptively intricate novel. Recommended.
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