Shirley

Name: Shirley
Brand: Dreamscape Media
Availability: InStock
Author: Susan Scarf Merrell
ISBN: 9781629236773

Author: Susan Scarf Merrell

Narrator: Lesa Lockford

Unabridged: 8 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Published: 06/24/2014

Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Two imposing literary figures are at the center of this captivating novel: Shirley Jackson, best known for her short story 'The Lottery,' and her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, a literary critic and professor at Bennington College. When a young graduate student and his pregnant wife - Fred and Rose Nemser - move into Shirley and Stanley's home in the fall of 1964, they are quickly cast under the magnetic spell of their brilliant hosts. While Fred becomes preoccupied with his teaching schedule, Rose forms an unlikely, turbulent friendship with the troubled and unpredictable Shirley. Fascinated by the Hyman's volatile marriage and inexplicable drawn to the darkly enigmatic author, Rose nevertheless senses something amiss - something to do with nightly unanswered phone calls and inscrutable accounts of a long-missing female student.

About Susan Scarf Merrell

Susan Scarf Merrell is the author of a previous novel, A Member of the Family, and a nonfiction work, The Accidental Bond: How Sibling Connections Influence Adult Relationships. She teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook Southampton and is Fiction Editor of TSR: The Southampton Review.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Justin on March 02, 2020

Thoroughly exceeds expectations! Shirley Jackson is an author of legendary talent, and I'll admit to being hesitant about having anyone tread on such sacred ground. Have no fear! This story weaves Jackson's biography into a tale that's nearly as Gothic as one of her novels. Astonishingly, it makes S......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on February 09, 2015

Shirley Jackson is like Jane Austen: she only lived to write six novels and she died in her forties, leaving the tantalizing beginnings of a novel unlike any other she'd written. Both authors have shelves of their very own in my apartment, because I have multiple editions of everything they ever wro......more

Goodreads review by Doug on December 29, 2022

3.5, rounded up. This is a decidedly odd amalgamation of fictionalized biography and psychological thriller that intentionally apes Jackson's own work. It doesn't QUITE work, mainly because of a perhaps too reverent reading of the character of Jackson herself, plus a mystery that doesn't really hold......more

Goodreads review by Miranda on June 28, 2020

Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel Shirley is a fun and new way to explore the world of Shirley Jackson. Merrell’s work is extremely well-written and achieves a vibe very similar to Jackson’s own work. I had not heard much about this book before reading it, but I became intrigued in checking it out before......more

Goodreads review by Lolly K Dandeneau on September 16, 2014

This book was so good I had to keep reminding myself it was a fictional account. I could not put it down. Shirley is a fictional account about a young couple's year living with the author Shirley Jackson, her husband Stanley Hyman and their children.Newly married and pregnant Rose, with her professo......more