Friday, November 7, 2008

Hill House


For the past couple of years, to get into the spirit of the spooky season, I read something scary around Halloween. Well, more often than not it’s not scary, but weird. Perhaps “macabre” is the best word to describe it. For example, last year I read Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” and “Hop Frog.” The year before last it was more Poe (“The Gold Bug”) and some Lovecraft on the Halloweens prior to that.

This time around I decided to read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, a somewhat tragic authoress most famous for her extremely jarring short story “The Lottery.” The book has been on my radar for some time but only recently I found it in the used book section of an Unnamed Large-Scale Bookseller, and realized it would be perfect for All Hallow’s Eve reading, AD 2008.

I don’t intend to go into a full review here, so suffice it to say it’s a quick read, a short little book bursting with character and dialogue. Exceptionally good character and dialogue. Possibly the most important character is Hill House itself, haunted and insane, and it plays, obviously, a large and important role in the events of the book. But the people truly came alive to me. As I read I forgot my troubles as these people – their actions, their words, their thoughts, their motivations – all came sparkling vividly to life in my mind. I rooted for some, I despised others and eagerly awaited their comeuppance, I read anxiously as I wondered what the House was planning.

And it was planning something nasty. It all happens in the final pages, and I’m not quite sure what exactly happened. Might require a re-read after I have some more distance. I didn’t find the book particularly scary (save for one very unnerving part near the middle that I won’t spoil but it involves handholding). It was highly surreal, I suppose, atmospheric. Claustrophobic inside the House, and ethereal on the grounds outside it. A modern-day gothic novel without all the castles-bats-full moon cliches we associate with the word “gothic.” A defining work according to Stephen King, and I definitely agree. Give it a read and you’ll come out on the other side a better writer. Or at least a little pleasantly unsettled.

No comments: