Book Review: The Lottery

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

Source: Amazon.com

From the book’s cover:

The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery:" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jack son's remarkable range--from the hilarious to the truly horrible--and power as a storyteller.
 (this text refers to a collection of short stories by Jackson which included The Lottery).

The review: 

It is always hard to review a classic, and I suppose The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, falls into that category by dint of its long and well-trod history.  But sadly for me, The Lottery lost some of its punch simply by knowing ahead of time what the tale was really about.  However, the book itself (can something this short be called a book?  I suppose "short story" is a better description) was quite well done.  There were allusions to it being post-apocalyptic in nature, but nothing that really grounded it as sci-fi.  Further, there was nothing that made it too locked to any particular time or place, which I'd say makes the story timeless.  

The author, Shirley Jacson. / Source: shirleyjackson.org

The Lottery has a vivid use of words, which was nice.  The reaction of Tessie, and her suggestion that her married daughters get a chance to be part of the drawing, is telling on human nature.   Some people just break down when faced with something awful, and will do awful things to get out of their potential fate.

The end is just right.  The falling upon the character by the townspeople, without going into gory detail, leaves the reader feeling cold in just the right way.  Overall, I can see why this is Jackson's most remembered work.  And it is also interesting that it was written in the late 1940s.  Shows the influence of the time on the writer.  Can't think of anything really bad to say about The Lottery.  The only thing - and this isn't the book's fault in and of itself - is that the foreshadowing it used was obviously foreshadowing, when you knew how the story would end.  Otherwise, for me, that ending would have been a real eye-opener.

In the olden days, they didn't need no stinkin' tributes and there were no platitudes about the odds being ever in your favor.  No, when you got the black spot, it was straight up on. / Source: kinnareads.files.wordpress.com

All this is especially funny, because I didn't particularly like The Haunting of Hill House, which is also by Ms. Jackson.  I suppose that one was just too subtle for me.  But in my opinion, there is nothing particularly subtle about the results of The Lottery.

Learn more about The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, on Amazon.com

The parting comment:

Someone's class project, I think, doing a spoof of The Lottery.  Even though the camera work is clunky and the accents are nearly unintelligible (enunciate please), I actually got a kick out of the idea.  And when the young lady who draws the black spot the first time starts complaining, they do the lottery over again.  But it's all rigged, and she gets picked again the second time too.  Though this is amateur work without question, it's still a funny idea for a short.  Good job, folks.  Worth the quick watch, if you are familiar with the original story.