The novel begins with many of the same stylistic choices I'm used to seeing in older literature. Given its publication date of 1959, this isn't really very surprising. Nonetheless as a modern reader it took a chapter or two to get used to the sort of details Jackson notes and social standards of the time and where her characters fit into their world.
Once the reader manages to get a good grasp on the setting and characters, they are thrust into a foreign situation that plays upon their preexisting discomforts. The reader is all too ready to dismiss the nervousness or fidgeting as a facet of the main characters and purely isolated to individuals. It becomes apparent however, as the novel goes on, that what was once dismissed as a stylistic choice or character flaw becomes a driving force of the plot. Without going into too many details, this book gently plays on common discomfort and awkwardness until it is no longer common and has surely become something more akin to fear.
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Crystal CarneyAs I engage with material, whether reading, writing, or revising, I strive for clarity and immersion. Archives
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