Life Among the Savages

By: Shirley Jackson

Narrated by: Lesa Lockford

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

In her celebrated fiction, Shirley Jackson explored the darkness lurking beneath the surface of small-town America. But in Life Among the Savages, she takes on the lighter side of small-town life. In this witty and warm memoir of her family's life in rural Vermont, she delightfully exposes a domestic side in cheerful contrast to her quietly terrifying fiction. With a novelist's gift for character, an unfailing maternal instinct, and her signature humor, Jackson turns everyday family experiences into brilliant adventures.

©1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953; renewed 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981 Shirley Jackson; renewed Laurence Hyman, Joan Schnurer, Barry Hyman, and Sarah Webster (P)2015 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic Reviews

"At a moment when helicopter parenting is the norm, 'free-range' parents are chastised for letting their children wander a few blocks alone, and the pressure feels greater than ever not only to 'have it all' but to 'be it all' - to manage both to pursue a successful career and to produce homemade cupcakes for every birthday - Jackson’s relaxed approach to child-rearing feels refreshingly sane. Children, she tells us, are essentially savages and demons, and ought to be treated as such: at a cautious distance, without losing sight of one’s own way of life." ( The New York Times)

Stories From A Quirky Family

These eccentric stories of family life during the 1940's are centered in an old rambling house in very rural Vermont. This semi autobiographical collection of scattered memories loosely organized is funny, unusual and engaging. Jackson gives her children the freedom to express themselves and explore life in a very different world from the one in which we now live. I found a thread of subtle fear and spookiness running just under the surface of many of these stories. A hint I guess of the other, darker writing that Jackson is best known for. In the end this was an enjoyable look back in time.

35 of 38 people found this review helpful

Before Erma Bombeck There Was Shirley Jackson

Known primarily for her chilling short story, "The Lottery" and her novel The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson wrote a lot of other things. I think it's safe to say that she pioneered the satirical housewife memoir genre of literature. This is a humorous and yet compelling book about the ups and downs of being a housewife (while she was still working a s a writer) and the bitter-sweet transformation of children into adulthood. I loved this book and highly recommend it for someone who wants something funny and yet touching. Although a series of anecdotes, the book reads likes a novel and is linear--unlike more contemporary writers like David Sedaris--and I liked that a great deal about it. If you're looking for creepy, ironic stories, this isn't one of those--but this is excellent light reading fair for someone who wants to relax and listen to a good book. I am a Bombeck fan, and I think it's safe to say that if you are a Bombeck fan as well you can't go wrong with this book--although I don't know if Bombeck had read this book--it seems as if it was influential.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

1950s domestic comedy is NOT Father Knows Best

Before Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) and the internet and the plague of mommy bloggers (no offense--most of them are wonderful), Shirley Jackson wrote about her family for various women's magazines, which actually paid money. If you only know Shirley Jackson from "The Lottery" and "The Haunting of Hill House," this book & its sequel, RAISING DEMONS, are a revelation of understated humor, satire, and even spookiness. My family used to laugh out loud reading these (okay, maybe we were a little weird, too). Narrator Lesa Lockford is appropriately deadpan and gets it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An Unexpected Comedy Gem

Believe it or not, I first read this in 5th grade from my Weekly Reader Book Selection. It is NOT a 5th-grade book. I was just a voracious reader. But I "got" the book. I enjoyed it from the "savage child" part, not the harried mother, but it was just as funny then as it is now.

This book has become a cult classic, in the Erma Bombeck mold, by one of the very greatest of writers. It was originally published in multiple short story form by one of the great short story writers of America. I say unexpected because the writer is Shirley Jackson - yes "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson, "We Have Always Lived In the Castle" Shirley Jackson - but this book is uproariously funny, with a preoccupied professor husband who chases bats through the living room with his rifle, a daughter who "magics" the refrigerator door to unstick it, a son who comes home every day telling stories of a non-existant classmate, and a fairy child, Sally.

There is no horror in it unless you are horrified when she robs her child's piggy bank to pay the furnace man in pennies.

I loved this book. The narrator is just right. I loved Shirley's telling of how she learned to drive, of how she walked into the house she would learn to love in Vermont with the great columns that no one else wanted because it was too old, of her adventures trying to take her imaginative children shopping, of her trying to deal with her hunting cats. I have to tell you, the story of the cats and chipmunk and the tall plant and the hunting rifle had me laughing out loud in the car. For sensitive souls, I'll spoil it by saying here the husband is a terrible shot.

This is a true life story so the four kids really existed, as of course did Shirley and the house in Vermont where people go to see it on a Jackson pilgrimage. It is set in the 50's so it is filled with chocolate pudding, stick shifts, kids playing cowboys (pardner) and ashtrays. I enjoyed this in 5th grade, I loved it when I read it when I was older, and when it came out in Audible I laughed my face off. And best of all, if you like it, there IS a sequel, and it is GOOD, Raising Demons. After all, Shirley Jackson IS considered one of the great American authors.