Thursday, September 24, 2015

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

Book Discussion Date and Time: Tuesday, October 13, 2015, at 11:00 A.M.

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
So begins the story of two eccentric sisters, "Merricat" and Constance Blackwood, and their frail, daft Uncle Julian, who live on a grand  old family estate, isolated from their hostile, curious  neighbors. This gothic masterpiece was written by Shirley Jackson, who first received wide critical acclaim for her short story, The Lottery.