Life Among the Savages
Ratings13
Average rating4.1
A hilariously charming memoir of Shirley Jackson and her family's life in rural Vermont: children who won't behave, cars that won't start, furnaces that break down, a pugnacious corner bully, household help that never stays, and a patient, capable husband who remains lovingly oblivious to the many thousands of things mothers and wives accomplish every single day.
Series
Featured Series
2 primary books#1 in Jacksons
Jacksons is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 1953 with contributions by Shirley Jackson and Lisa Lockford.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Re-read: just as delightful the second time ‘round. Highly recommended as a refreshing antidote to perfect-mommy books and blogs, for Jackson admits to mistakes, fears, annoyances, anger, and the desire, to paraphrase my grandmother, to throw up her hands and run out the back door.
Grandma's full saying bears documentation in this context, for Jackson could have said it herself. When the family would have her at wits' end, Grandma would threaten to throw up her hands and run out the back door, and not stop until she reached Dix Hill.
Dix Hill was local slang for the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Hospital.
Bits were amazing, the whole was less than...
It was a bit muddled, and sometimes the humor wasn't to my taste, but I'm reading the sequel.
