When I’m asked about my favourite book I think of “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson.
There is a Shirley Jackson award for fiction writers. She wrote more than fiction. She was an early Erma Bombeck, writing about herself and her family life with four children.
“[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .”
“It is only with the eyes open that a corporeal form returns, and assembles itself firmly around the hard core of sight.”
“I delight in what I fear.”
“I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.”
Have you read any of Shirley Jackson’s books or short stories?