We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson

Expectation: An American gothic ghost story set in a small town with evil both real and imagined.

Reality: More mysterious than supernatural, the author keeps readers engaged but the payoff wasn’t there in the end.

My Take:

My first Shirley Jackson novel wasn’t what I expected it to be — an old-fashioned ghost story — and therefore I was left disappointed in the end.

While well-written with an intriguing premise, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” is a moody, gothic character-driven mystery that left far too many loose ends for me to feel satisfied.

Jackson slowly reveals details that help to keep the reader engaged, but once you reach the last third where the “action” happens, I was scratching my head more than holding my breath.

My primary complaint is that a hugely important character, Cousin Charles, essentially disappears, and the author never circled back to a few ideas she teased: mainly, were the characters dead and living in purgatory, and why the villagers refused to let them be.

Part of my dissatisfaction with the story could have been resolved — or at least my mindset shifted before reading — had I sought out more information about Jackson and what this novel, her last, meant to her.

It was clear the disdain of the villagers toward Merricat and Constance Blackwood was an allegory. Given the time it was published (1962), and the repeated references to colors and whiteness, I assumed Jackson was commenting on Civil Rights. As the story progressed that was clearly not true.

In the afterword essay included in the eBook I read, Jonathan Lethem, outlined how Jackson’s frequent mischaracterization of her writing (guilty), agoraphobia and feeling like an intellectual outcast in the small Vermont town where she lived with her husband, all manifested in the quirks and eccentricities of the Blackwood sisters.

After learning this, it changed my perception of the story, because the subtle references to sexism, feminism and empowerment become much clearer. It still doesn’t change my view of the shortcomings of the novel, but it certainly gives me respect for its author.

Rating (story): 3/5 stars

Rating (narration): N/A

Formats: eBook (personal library)

Dates read: September 17 – September 20, 2022

Multi-tasking: N/A