Shirley Jackson's Daughter Joanne, On Her Mother's Writing About Their Family

I've just finished a binge on Shirley Jackson's stuff. I love both her lighthearted family memoirs and her short stories and novels. She does creepy extraordinarily well -- I do most of my reading in bed, next to the sleeping Sylvie and Luke, and I finally had to restrict The Haunting of Hill House to daylight hours. I was starting to imagine that our house was haunted, especially the other night when I got up at 4am to feed Sylvie and heard disturbing crooning and radio-static noises coming from somewhere downstairs. I roused David and we both crept through the eerie dark looking for the source. It turned out to be a musical birthday candle we'd had on David's birthday cake earlier that day -- it was singing its death throes in the garbage can.

I gather from Jackson's biography that much of her supposed non-fiction writing about her real life was fictionalized. I suppose it's hard for a good storyteller not to embellish. But those who do likewise when they write about their kids should take note of this, from Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson:

   Respect for privacy, in fact, was one of the basic tenets of the Hyman household. The angriest Sally and Joanne ever saw their father was the time they sneaked down during a party to tape-record him doing one of his wilder songs. "It was very dramatic," said Joanne. "He dragged us out, took the tape and flung it. It was a point of honor. The lesson wasn't 'Don't mess with your parents'; it was 'You invaded my civil freedom.'"
   Yet at the same time, Shirley was violating her family's privacy all along, in one way -- by writing about them. Perhaps because she sensed this, she often involved her daughters in the writing process, particularly when she was planning a family story. She would sit on her stool in the corner of the large kitchen, by the stove, her ashtray filled with Pall Mall butts, her giant coffee cup or her glass next to her on the counter, occasionally stirring a pot, and run ideas by them. She listened carefully to their suggestions, often incorporating them. As a result, they have a certain fondness for these stories that is not shared by their brothers. But even Joanne has some ambivalence:
   "Do you have any idea what it's like being nine years old and not knowing what you remember, what you were told, and what you read? I had no trouble disassociating myself from the stuff that wasn't about us. But the stuff about us -- I sort of knew it wasn't the official family version and sort of knew some of that wasn't what I actually remembered. It turned on an automatic narrative voice in my head that I haven't gotten rid of yet."

Comments

[Kate C.]

I have two of those babies. The "never put me down" flavor. I bought a sling, it helped. :)

[Sarah @ Mum In Bloom]

Thanks to your blog, I've read my first Shirley Jackson novel last week on our vacation "We Have Always Lived in the Castle". I loved it. I picked-up "The House on Haunted Hill" from the library yesterday. Both books are in fall apart condition as they're so old (we have a very small old library here) but it puts me back to the time when she originally published them. Very "Alfred Hitchcock" and spooky. After I read a few I'll be writing a review & will link back to you :)

[Steph]

I've been trying the sling, Kate, but she doesn't seem to like being squished into it. I'll keep trying...

I'm thrilled to hear you enjoyed the Jackson, Sarah. I loved We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I bet you'd like her family memoirs a whole lot, too, although they're very different in tone from her novels...

[babelbabe]

Haunting of... scared the crap out of me. But then I am a wuss.

[Sarah @ Mum In Bloom]

Okay, I started The Haunting of Hill House this week and I'm scared to death! They haven't even gone to bed yet on their first night and I'm terrified with what might happen! Eeeek!

[Marilyn Wright]

I love this renewed interest in Shirley Jackson! I have been reading her since she wrote short stories for magazines in the 50's and 60's. I believe The Lottery is the BEST short story ever written. I wrote three fan letters to Ms. Jackson and she answered two of them. They are among my most treasured possessions. Please keep spreading the word about her--she was truly an unrecognized genius and one of America's greatest women writers.

[Sarah @ Mum In Bloom]

I just started "Life Amoung the Savages" and love it. I've suggested it to our MOMS Club book club as well. Love it love it. Thanks so much for bringing this fabulous author to my attention :)

[diane trudeau]

does anyone know where Joanne is now? I went to Camp Kenwood with her in 1958-Sally,too-we called her "Soupy"-Shirley and her husband would take me out to lunch when they came to visit-I still have a love story Joanne wrote about me and a boy at the camp I was seeing. The camp was in North Adams,Ma.