Review of 'The Lottery and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
Honestly, I didn’t get it.
The Lottery and Other Stories is a 1949 short story collection by American author Shirley Jackson. Published by Farrar, Straus, it includes "The Lottery" and 24 other stories. This was the only collection of her stories to appear during her lifetime. Her later posthumous collections were Come Along with Me (Viking, 1968), edited by Stanley Edgar Hyman, and Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995) and Let Me Tell You (Random House, 2015), edited by her children Laurence Jackson Hyman and Sarah Hyman Stewart. Jackson's original title for this collection was The Lottery or, The Adventures of James Harris. Characters named James Harris appear in the stories "The Daemon Lover," "Like Mother Used to Make," "Elizabeth" and "Of Course." Other characters with the surname Harris appear or are referenced in "The Villager," "The Renegade," "Flower Garden," "A Fine Old Firm" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity." The collection also contains a short …
The Lottery and Other Stories is a 1949 short story collection by American author Shirley Jackson. Published by Farrar, Straus, it includes "The Lottery" and 24 other stories. This was the only collection of her stories to appear during her lifetime. Her later posthumous collections were Come Along with Me (Viking, 1968), edited by Stanley Edgar Hyman, and Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995) and Let Me Tell You (Random House, 2015), edited by her children Laurence Jackson Hyman and Sarah Hyman Stewart. Jackson's original title for this collection was The Lottery or, The Adventures of James Harris. Characters named James Harris appear in the stories "The Daemon Lover," "Like Mother Used to Make," "Elizabeth" and "Of Course." Other characters with the surname Harris appear or are referenced in "The Villager," "The Renegade," "Flower Garden," "A Fine Old Firm" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity." The collection also contains a short excerpt from the traditional ballad "The Daemon Lover," in which the title character's name is James Harris. The book bears the dedication "For my mother and father".
Honestly, I didn’t get it.
So much more versatile and observant than I expected; I love that I picked this up for some Halloween chills and got some good doses of actual life along with it.
This is a collection of short stories that run the spectrum of emotions for me, but this review is about "The Lottery". I have read this 3 different times in my life, and knowing the ending doesn't make it any easier to read. This story is about tradition, and what can happen when people blindly follow what has been done in the past without stopping to question why we do the things we do. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I feel this story is an absolute "must read" for everyone. It will spark deep discussion, and it will change your perspective.
I need to go cry in a corner now and be depressed for the remainder of the day. Well played, Ms. Jackson, well played. This story left an imprint on my psyche and I will be thinking about it for days.