Hangsaman (Penguin Classics)

I have never read anything like HANGSAMAN. It is chilling, hyper-surreal, and told with a mind-altering narrative voice. HANGSAMAN is like shooting a cocktail of vodka and meth: it's weird, burns like hell, and you don't come down from those fever dreams the same person you were before the experience.The most amazing thing about HANGSAMAN is that, on the surface, nothing happens. A girl, Natalie, attends a dinner party where she is possibly assaulted, starts college, drinks a lot of martinis with professors, and goes on long, thought-addled walks. This doesn't even sound like a story worth reading, and that's where Jackson works some voodoo. She manages to create a dense atmosphere of isolation that permeates the spaces between the non-events. Even the trauma that triggers Natalie's increasingly strange psychological break doesn't "happen" in the usual sense of events unfolding on a page. Instead, Jackson gives the reader access to only the reverberations of the event. This is either a masterful literary technique, or dark magic, and I'm placing bets on the latter.The story received through the twisted and unreliable narrator who recites Natalie's thoughts is fascinating, in the way a fish hook piercing flesh is sickly fascinating. Natalie doesn't fit in, and the details of life in an all-girls dorm is unimpeachable, including the strange spate of random thefts. Several girls report being slapped awake in the middle of the night, but are too startled to identify the culprit. Is it Natalie, slapping and stealing? There are plenty of clues it probably, maybe is - but HANGSAMAN is not a novel of absolutes. Jackson litters the work with half-hints I read with the excitement of discovering something amazingly rare in a pile of moldering leaves. For example, Natalie writes gut-wrenching letters home to her father, but the missives may or may not have been intercepted by her mother. Natalie may or may not be in a sexual relationship with a girl in the dorm, or Natalie may or may not "simply" have an alternate personality brought on by the trauma that we never see directly.The narrator is a wily one, and it is unclear where Natalie ends and the narrator begins. The two bleed into one another until you cannot distinguish your vantage within the story. This is part of Jackson's dark magic: she gives you direct access to the experience of a deeply disturbed mind, but without the gimmicky feel of first person. Indeed, having an "I" in HANGSAMAN would change the texture of the work, damage it irreparably. Natalie's entire problem is she has no idea who she is, and just as she was on the cusp of discovery, trauma knocked her from being a bit overly imaginative into being batshit crazy. Natalie has no "I," and Jackson wisely steers clear of trying to force one. Jackson leverages the strange, blended narrative persona to excellent effect right from the opening scenes. A detective "interrogates" Natalie… in her mind. It is only on a second (or third) read that it sinks in that the exchange between Natalie and her imaginary detective is so very, very strange because the detective is prescient. His questions can be applied to multiple situations that arise throughout the novel, and it is illuminating that at the time the questions are shared with the reader, they are entirely out of context. In some sense, it feels like Natalie's future self (the narrator?) is interjecting thoughts back into the past. It exacerbates the disorientation HANGSAMAN inspires, and it resonates with the strange psychology in us all.HANGSAMAN is a bizarre, nightmare trance. I came up from reading it feeling deeply affected, infected. The prose warped my mind. I found myself thinking like the narrator reporting Natalie's musings; it was disturbing. HANGSAMAN is not a book for anyone on the brink of a mental breakdown. It is a dangerous beast. It will swallow you whole. It is frightfully unique, and one of the most masterful novels I've experienced.

Hangsaman is a coming of age story about Natalie Waite. At the beginning of the book we see Natalie and her family. A mother who is deeply depressed with life, a younger brother whom Natalie has little to do with and her "loving" father who basically has her write all of the time and has daily meetings with Natalie to show her what she is doing wrong and tell her how great he is at everything. The family then has a party and it is implied that Natalie is raped by a friend of her father's and the next morning even though she has bruises on her face, none of the family acknowledges it. Then she goes to college....Then we are drawn into her college life and from that point on it is hard to figure out what and who is real. The only thing the reader is sure of is that her father & her keep up their "meetings" by sending letters.Jackson has a way with her writing to make you think and wonder. She will leave you confused and wondering. It's a great book club book because Jackson leaves you going to your internet searching for answers....

Jackson once again proves her rare talent. Unlike many so-called writers of horror, only Jackson consistently creates unique narratives that are heavy, "off", and loaded with an atmosphere of impending doom. On many an occasion in Natalie Waite's intense journey, it's hard not to cringe and hunker down while reading.Beyond the strong psychological elements that pervade the tale, Natalie herself is as intriguing as she is a mystery. She's such a strong and compelling persona of existential thought, which is enough to fire the senses of the reader.Unlike "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and "The Haunting of Hill House", "Hangsaman" is even more intimate and claustrophobic in its own way. For those who love Jackson and horror, they will not be disappointed.

Hangsaman can mostly be called soft dark academia Divided into three sections, the first concerns Natalie's summer before she goes to college. The second is set at college and she finds an odd friend in the third. It's also a coming-of-age story for the seventeen-year-old.I enjoyed this a lot. There was always something hanging in the air that something would happen. Often called horror it is very subtle like her other books I've read. I found Natalie to be an annoying creature and yet I was compelled to find out what she'd do next. My second favourite by the author. (First is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle.)

amo i trhiller

This is one of the author's best. Her analysis of the main character is both subtle and leaves a great sense of mystery, as does the whole book. At the end one is totally absorbed by Ms Jackson's strange world view and the intriguing characters that appear. For me her most sensitive book.

This is a novel that only Shirley Jackson could have written, with an utterly Shirley Jackson ending, the type of ending that only she could make work -- and it works brilliantly. There are one or two places in the middle that drag a bit, but nothing that spoils the utter horror of the conclusion, a quiet sketch more haunting than any dungeon or torture chamber. You don't want to think of why it stays with you -- but you will.

As the foreword indicates, this is a "strange" book but a great read. Writing is very engaging, as is the story. Some of the scenes and activities (lots of cigarettes!) reflect the fact that it was published decades ago (1951), but you'll recognize the characterizations, feelings and overall story as highly pertinent in today's world.