Let's catch up, y'all.

So what did I read this past summer?

Well, I think we should start from the beginning (as Maria von Trapp would sing: "a very good place to start"). In early June I had a little health issue* that preoccupied me for a while, and that sort of thing always makes it hard to read. (At least it does for me.) Shortly before that I was reading a fantastically hilarious little book titled Life among the Savages by Shirley Jackson. You may know Ms. Jackson better as the author of the infamous short story "The Lottery," which was required reading for most high schoolers for many, many years. She is primarily known as a horror author, as she also wrote the book The Haunting of Hill House, which was a popular book that got made into a movie (several times).

Life Among the Savages is not a horror book, unless you consider the idea of raising four young children horrifying (and many people do, and no one can blame them). It is in fact a nonfiction memoir, published back in the days before they called them memoirs, about Jackson's life raising her kids, which she did in between writing, taking ridiculously good care of her husband (more on this later), and trying to function as a regular member of their community. It's somewhat similar in tone and writing style (and era) to Jean Kerr's also very popular parenting memoir, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, as well as Erma Bombeck's books. (I'm guessing that all of these books, when they were published, were maybe considered Humor? I don't think publishing categories were as prevalent or important back then.)

The important thing is: it's hilarious. At least it was to me. Jackson's voice is wonderfully pragmatic, and she seems to have a knack for really describing her children's experiences and lives without making them sound too twee. At the point when I read this book, I wasn't keeping notes or marking pages, so I don't have any exact quotes for you. But I can tell you one of the huge reasons I loved this book: it was such a product of its time (the 1950s). When describing how it came time to have her third child (I think; it could have been her fourth), Jackson was living in a house in a small town in Vermont with no car. (Can you imagine that today?) So on the morning she gave birth, she heated up some coffee from the night before, then called a cab to take her to the hospital, and in the back of the cab she had a cigarette. Oh my God. I just sat in pure wonderment at the difference between childbearing then and childbearing now. (Oh, and after all that, and having the baby, she got to stay in the hospital for more than a week, resting, while others looked after the other kids. Not because she had a c-section or anything, just because that's how they did it.) When I finished that chapter I thought, hey, even I might have been able to have four babies in THAT kind of childbearing environment.**

So I'd really, really suggest you look into this book. It's fascinating on its own and as a little window into the fifties (it was first published in 1952, and considered a fictional grouping of stories based on her real life). More on all of this tomorrow.

*I'm fine now, no worries.

**Of course: no I couldn't have. Even with a mug of coffee and a cigarette to bolster me I could never handle four kids. Four kids and a really needy husband.

Comments

[Venta]

was this book in the news recently (like within the last six months)? I remember reading another favorable review of it. As a kid I read Erma Bombeck's columns and books. I wonder if they would have the same appeal today? Great first recommendation of the school year!

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
Yes, I know I heard about it somewhere too, definitely within the last six months, but I can't remember where...

I used to LOVE Erma Bombeck. I read all of hers when I was about ten (I know I was pre-teen, at least), so how much of her books I was understanding I don't know, but for some reason I did find her funny. Maybe I'll look her up again--I know I always enjoy a good Jean Kerr re-read too.

[Donna]

Sounds hilarious. No husband and nonchalantly going off to have her fourth kid! I need some humor...this will go on the list. Welcome back.

[Ruthiella]

Simon at http://www.stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com/ enthusiastically blogged about Life Among the Savages a while back, so maybe that is where Venta and CR heard about it previously. I have only read We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jackson, which is fantastic. I have The Haunting of Hill House on my list and my shelves...some day. I was kind of aiming towards a Halloween read but oops, it is already October.

[laura]

I have a friend whose mother *walked* to the hospital while in labor--like hey, no big deal. I myself rode kneeling on the front seat and hanging on for dear life while trying to breathe.

[Citizen Reader]

Ruthiella,
I just went and checked out Simon's review. Enjoyed it a lot--but it didn't seem familiar. (And we always joke around this house--I can't remember phone numbers, math, appointments, or birthdays, but I ALWAYS remember nonfiction titles and the names of BBC movie/film stars--my two main interests in life--so I think looking at David's review would have rung a bell if I'd seen it before.) I wonder where I DID hear about this book.

But thanks for passing the link. I've got to add that blog to my sidebar. And OMG, how could I forget about the very creepy "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"? Another Jackson horror classic. I've never read THOHH myself, so maybe, as you suggest, this Halloween...

Laura,
Let's face it, no matter how they get the job done, all mothers (and women in general) are real troupers. I calmly rode to the hospital for a planned c-section...but then spent the next several months getting my ass kicked by sleep deprivation.

[laura]

Oh, the sleep deprivation. I am still there, eight months in, but I figure one day he'll be old enough to get his own midnight snacks. Or he'll move out.

[Citizen Reader]

Laura,
Everyone's experience is different, but I found getting past the year mark meant better everything: better sleep, better schedule, etc. You can do it--and kudos to you for getting him to eight months! It's an achievement, taking care of these tiny little people.

Ha on moving out. Every time I tell CRjr "no" on something, I usually add, "or at least not until you're 18" (and move out is the unspoken part of that. My boy's going to have a lot of living to do when he gets out from under my thumb, but hopefully he'll enjoy it!

[bybee]

The cigarette while in labor on the way to the hospital makes me think of Mad Men. Remember Ralph Ellison's recollection of when Barry was born in Private Demons? Something about just depositing Shirley in the hospital with a box of maple cream chocolates and a quart of whiskey and crowding into the room with her. Ellison said that "We sat up drinking and eating all night. The next morning Barry was in this world." I'm positive that Shirley ate the chocolate, and I bet she had a wee drop as well!

[Citizen Reader]

Bybee,
Their friendship with Ralph Ellison in general (and with other writers and intellectuals) was fascinating stuff.

I'll bet old Shirl had more than a wee drop of that whiskey! (And good on her, I say. Probably just as good as the labor induction drugs and narcotics they feed to laboring women these days.)