Helpful Score: 1
non fiction -- the author's story of raising four children in the 50's and early 60's. funny. realistic.
Helpful Score: 1
From back cover:
Although now better known for her haunting fiction, in the 1950s, Shirley Jackson charmed millions with her best-selling domestic reminiscences, Life Among the Savages (1953) and Raising Demons (1957), affectionate, hilarious, and sophisticated tales of dubious parental equilibrium in the face of four children, their friends both real and imaginary, assorted dogs and cats, criminal household help, impudent teachers, and other minutiae of domestic existence. In Shirley Jackson's hands the chaos and crises of 1950s Vermont family life become something else entirely, and the two books give further evidence of Jackson's remarkable insight into people--especially children--and why they behave as they do.
Although now better known for her haunting fiction, in the 1950s, Shirley Jackson charmed millions with her best-selling domestic reminiscences, Life Among the Savages (1953) and Raising Demons (1957), affectionate, hilarious, and sophisticated tales of dubious parental equilibrium in the face of four children, their friends both real and imaginary, assorted dogs and cats, criminal household help, impudent teachers, and other minutiae of domestic existence. In Shirley Jackson's hands the chaos and crises of 1950s Vermont family life become something else entirely, and the two books give further evidence of Jackson's remarkable insight into people--especially children--and why they behave as they do.
This book is actually two in one. Shirley Jackson is usually known for her "darker" novels (The Haunting of Hill House, the Lottery, etc.)and this book as definitely a pleasant surprise. Jackson's wit (and that of her children) are so funny. Her descriptions of the everyday life of a housewife taking care of a huge old house and her three children are a delight. Her account of life in a small Vermont town, where getting the kids to school on time becomes a huge undertaking, and the recounting of The Department Store Trip from Hell are just part of the mayhem and hilarity that occur in the seemingly most trivial aspects of raising small children in a small town.
1950's humerous domestic episodes. May have been an inspiration for Erma Bombeck.
This book is not about white women from wagon trains being kidnapped by Indians.