The Lottery and Seven Other Stories

By: Shirley Jackson

Narrated by: Carol Jordan Stewart

Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

It's just townspeople picking numbers for the annual lottery...why, then, is there an ominous feeling to "The Lottery"? Find out just what this lottery is for, and listen to seven other unique stories. The collection reveals Jackson's remarkable range, from hilarious to horrifying, dealing with modern issues of alienation, empowerment, racism, and economic class. The stories are "The Lottery", "Flower Garden", "Come Dance with Me in Ireland", "Men with Their Big Shoes", "Trial by Combat", "Pillar of Salt", "Like Mother Used to Make", and "Colloquy".

©2010 The Estate of Shirley Jackson (P)2010 BBC Audiobooks America

No Pauses Between Stories

This recording has no pauses between the stories. They run right into each other.

Three of the eight were memorable.

This is going to require me to listen to again at some point. It is obvious that it's a very old narration. It was ripped from a book on tape because at times a man will interject and say to turn the tape over. Also, there is no obvious break between stories. Otherwise, Carol Jordan Stewart's performance was good.

I can see how "The Lottery" influenced The Hunger Games. That town had some archaic ideas.

The other two most memorable short stories were "Flower Garden" and "Pillar of Salt" because they were the most developed. "Flower Garden" was about racism and "Pillar of Salt" was about anxiety.

I would have to listen again and really pay attention the second time to have more to say about the other stories, because they didn't leave the same impression the three stories mentioned above did.

4 out of 5 Stones.

Needs to be re-edited

Editing is odd, the chapters don’t really match up with the beginning/end of a story. In fact, I believe chapter nine has the end of one and the beginning of another.

Loved this collection

Pillar of salt gave me a panic attack haha. Loved each story in this collection though! Horror is humanity.

I didn’t get it

As a black autistic person I found the second story socially confusing and racially upsetting. The “N” bomb gets dropped repeatedly and the narrator seems to have no qualms about it. I suppose one must commit. Not the best stories and I gave up halfway through the third story.

Just Wonderful

I’m not going to criticize the technical issues. Just be aware that this was originally a record or cassette recording and there will be a few hitches.

The stories themselves are priceless — a delightful commentary on various aspects of modern life. Jackson had the ability to break down ordinary experiences into their parts and show you why they were bizarre, peculiar, ironic, even terrifying. The Lottery - a famous classic - isn’t even the best or most interesting of these stories. They are especially fascinating if you grew up in the time Jackson was writing or if you’re curious to know what life was like in the 1950s or 1960s. There are so many aspects of the stories that seem almost quaint today yet were common features of life in those times: the exceptionally polite and tactful manners, having a maid in your home, glorying over a collection of silverware or the careful decoration of a tiny home or apartment. These details are practically characters in her stories and serve to move the drama along. For an older person they are also a trip into the past that is at least as gratifying as the craft of the stories themselves.

The second story in the group accurately describes the strange way race prejudice could interrupt our lives - how it was there on one level and yet be completely denied by those who practiced it. Like a dirty secret. I especially enjoyed the second to last story, where a bachelor describes and celebrates his immaculate apartment in minute detail — only to have a less fastidious female guest hijack it for romantic pretense. The final story is a gem. Few writers are capable of saying so much in so few words. Jackson catches her characters on the crux of the crisis, mid 20th century, when life was being completely transformed. It’s magic.

Just ok

I had always heard The Lottery was very well done, so I had high expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wished it was a full length novel! Unfortunately, I expected the rest of the stories to be on the same level and they weren’t. I found them to be boring after listening to The Lottery. Should have saved the best for last!

Interesting collection

This is worth having just for The Lottery. There are a couple other gems in here but some of the stories are weird

wasn't edited for digital upload, but...

the narrator is great, and the short stories are intriguing and thought-provoking.
TW
one of the stories has some kids yelling the N word.

Brilliant

A collection of disturbing, revelatory short stories about societal dysfunction, Shirley Jackson really seems to “see” beyond the surface of what “ails us.”