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    Life Among the Savages
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    Life Among the Savages
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    Life Among the Savages
    Audiobook6 hours

    Life Among the Savages

    Written by Shirley Jackson

    Narrated by Lesa Lockford

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateJul 21, 2015
    ISBN9781681411156
    Unavailable
    Life Among the Savages
    Author

    Shirley Jackson

    Shirley Jackson was an American author who is best known for the short story “The Lottery” and the horror novel The Haunting of Hill House. Married to the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, Jackson cultivated a literary lifestyle, writing full time and developing relationships with literary colleagues. A gifted writer, Jackson frequently took inspiration from the events and locales of rural Vermont, where she and her family resided, and from the exploits of her children, which were chronicled in Life Among the Savages. Jackson died of heart failure in 1965.

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    Reviews for Life Among the Savages

    4/5

    240 ratings26 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson recounts her life with her husband and three children when they move from New York City to rural Vermont. No, it's not "The Lottery," it is funny and homespun and just sardonic enough. Originally published in 1953, it is a compilation of pieces published in women's magazines such as Good Housekeeping. Writing for that market, Jackson is careful to present herself as a "housewife" rather than as a serious writer who was the family's main breadwinner. I didn't find this as uproariously funny as some readers do, but I liked Jackson's unsentimental yet loving account of her kids, and I was amused and sometimes aghast at some of the seriously dated aspects: a cigarette smoking mom who leaves sugary juice by her children's bedside table, for example, her cheerfully throwing her kids in the car, sans sea tbelts, when she has just learned to drive, and her husband's distance from most aspects of child rearing (well, maybe that last is not so dated).
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining, tho I still prefer Jackson's fiction to her non-fiction (a reverse of the usual for me). This book covers 7 yrs of her family life, going from an apt in NYC and 2 children to a large house in rural Vermont with 4 children. I would have rated it higher than 4 stars if it hadn't reminded me so vividly why I chose not to have children.
    • 3/5
      If you want real insight into the amazing life of Shirley Jackson - which is like something from one of her own novels - then read the biography 'Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson' by Judy Oppenheimer. The anecdotal autobiographies Ms Jackson penned, 'Life Among the Savages' and 'Raising Demons' are humorous snapshots of her life and her family, which I believe she sold like a serial to a magazine or newspaper. They lack the darkness investigated by Oppenheimer, and make out that the Jackson household was filled with more sweetness and light than perhaps was the case, but both books are written with wit and style, so worth a read simply for that.
    • 3/5
      A fun read. Tales of her obstreperous children and a husband who resembles a piece of furniture and her adventure in a small town in Vermont. Enjoyable and it made me feel how much the 1950s were truly a different era.
    • 4/5
      Wow, I have a hard time relating this light hearted memoir to the Shirley Jackson who wrote The Lottery. Also comparing to the recent movie about her also. But it was a delightful book and a nice snapshot of raising children in those simpler times.
    • 5/5
      Shirley's charm and wit shine through the pages. She paints a picture of a homemaker-writer who has to take care of her stoic husband, smart-mouthed children, multitude of pets, endless housework, and neighbors, among many, many other things.

      She takes everyday experiences and transforms them into something delightful and meaningful. Her children are the stars of the show, with each having a clear, solid personality that draws you in. Her writing is chock-full of her trademark wit and humor. I especially loved the part where the family - both children and husband - respond nonchalantly to her pregnancy, as if it's something that happens from time to time.

      What I'm more surprised by is how she had managed all of it. Raising multiple children and pets, handling an emotionally distant husband, housework that never ends, and her prolific writing career - I would've gone crazy, but she handles it like it's nothing!

      Long live Shirley Jackson! Can't wait to read the sequel.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      not my favorite by Shirley Jackson - I think I'll stick to her fiction
    • 4/5
      Delightful.
    • 4/5
      So this is a book that is bitter sweet - Shirley has a way of describing the day to day absurdity that comes with being a stay at home mom in the 50's with children and and a husband. This book is funny, Incredibly funny. Her observations about her children, her husband, and her neighbors is spot on, but also with a sarcastic undertone that makes this book incredibly sad.The narrator (never named, but assumed to be a fictional Shirley Jackson), typical for a 1950's woman, does everything home related. From shopping for clothes to making sure the house is clean. In stories where she is juggling multiple tasks and her husband is reading the newspaper on the couch, without helping, makes me incredibly angry. When the narrator goes to the hospital to give birth, the receptionist changes her occupation from writer, to housewife.Of course, its a different time, and I shouldn't be so critical, but assuming the narrator is a fictionalized version of the author, imagine what stories could have been written, if she just had a bit of help.
    • 5/5
      A hilarious-but-delightful account of motherhood, small-town life, and more. As expected, my favorite part was the writing about birth at the time. It took me a good few minutes to realize the bit about walls rushing past was her being moved from a labor room to a delivery room; it's still such an odd thing to do.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite books of all time. I have read this three times and probably will again. Shirley Jackson's accounting of her life when her children were young is funny, interesting, and relatable.
    • 3/5
      Um.... I guess I've decided I'm not really a short story person. "Savages" has a bit of a narrative thread running through, which saves it from boring me to death like most short story collections, but I guess I really want my reading to have an arc from beginning to end, and not just little ones throughout with no real purpose or denouement. I found some portions of this book extraordinarily funny, and others were just...there. But there wasn't a point to the "there," because it wasn't explication for any central plot or--see what I mean? I guess I just don't love short stories.

      Overall, Jackson is witty and observant and extremely clever. I was lost, at times, trying to figure out what her children's nonsense meant--I could have used a little more help/realization that she didn't know, either and we were on the same page--but generally, as a middle-aged parent, most things were relateable and funny.
    • 4/5
      Shirley Jackson's humorous 1953 memoir about raising children in a large, old house in Vermont. Very light and fluffy, but entertaining, with writing that ranges from mildly amusing to downright delightful. Jackson has a remarkable talent for capturing the way young children actually talk and act, which is very different from the portrayals you usually see in fiction. Although my main reaction is to wonder, once again, how people with children do it. It seems damaging enough to one's life, sleep, and sanity today, never mind in an era with fewer modern conveniences and practically no expectation that a man will do anything to help. Honestly, there were times I felt exhausted just reading it.
    • 2/5
      First published in 1953, Life Among the Savages is a memoir of sorts by a woman who was known at the time for writing thrillers. She tells tales about her three young children, who are just too precocious for words. Of course, the dynamics of marriage were more than a little difference in 1953 than they are today. Although the author must have been busy at the time with her writing, not a word about her career shows up – and dad is, to a large extent, absent. I chose Life Among the Savages because I read somewhere that it was a wonderfully funny memoir. If it is funny, I don’t get the humor. I think the kids were horrible brats and just way too adult. And I wouldn’t count it as a memoir – which, to my mind, contains more introspection. Little of that here, just a series of anecdotes I believe are more fiction than fact. Before I read Life Among the Savages, I had suggested it for my non-fiction book group and it is included on the list we will vote on for next year’s books. I’m taking that recommendation back. It is too lightweight, too un-revealing, and I can’t imagine what we’d discuss.
    • 3/5
      I browsed this book, rather than read it from start to finish. It was entertaining, elegantly written, but not profound or even very interesting. Jackson spent too much time poking fun at her own mothering skills and the crazy chaos of family life. It turned very predictable about a third in--which is why I decided to skim!
      Still, she is a lovely writer and some of the stories were funny.
    • 4/5
      This book was hilarious. Haven't thought of it in ages, glad one of my friends commented on someone else's review. I'm moving it to my re-read pile. It will be fun to read as a mother!
    • 3/5
      I was really shocked to find that this book (as well as Raising Demons) was really more of a slice of life collection of stories where Shirley relates the motherhood side of raising 4 children. It is witty and interesting in an Erma Bombeck sort of way but nowhere near the brilliance of other Shirley Jackson works. Still, if you like her style, it's probably still worth reading in order to get a sense of her more normal day to day life and what it was like raising kids in the 1950s on America's east coast.
    • 5/5
      A lovely way to spend an afternoon. Ms. Jackson portrayed her family in a loving, humorous way. While I know how it all ended up in real life, it was still a fun read, a loving tribute from a mom to her loud and loving family. Evocative of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and other such movies/books of the time.
    • 5/5
      A lovely way to spend an afternoon. Ms. Jackson portrayed her family in a loving, humorous way. While I know how it all ended up in real life, it was still a fun read, a loving tribute from a mom to her loud and loving family. Evocative of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" and other such movies/books of the time.
    • 3/5
      thisis a what-the-kiddies-and-i-did- in-New Hmpshire-last-summer book. f ackson hadn'g saved it with her ironic houmor, it probably wojldn't have been printed./she wrote in in one lon gstream of newsprin t it seems, and let the editors do as they will. nfortuantely, the editors erfe too scaref of hirley's holy name that they just ledt it flowing like suet down a trash chute/ made it through but ovefr a period of a few days and that is not good for me, or other reading people.
    • 4/5
      I haven't read this book in 35 years and I thought that it held up well. As Jackson recounted the vicissitudes of parenting…all with a clear, self deprecating sense of her own questionable skills in that arena…I found the same blend of affection and humor I had remembered. Despite the differences between the America of the 1950s and the America of today, the situations are timeless and it's clear why this book has remains such a charmer.
    • 5/5
      Imagine the very, very best "mommy blog," only written in the late 1940's and early 1950's, and you being to have an inkling of what Jackson's Life Among the Savages is. It is simultaneously of its time and timeless all at once.Jackson writes very well, as anyone who has read The Haunting of Hill House and/or We Have Always Lived in the Castle knows. This book is something different though, as it deals with the daily life of this fairly average middle class family.
    • 4/5
      Funny, quirky, and maybe better as a long magazine piece than a book, I still very much enjoyed Jackson's description of the everyday chaos of life with small children.
    • 4/5
      A very sweet and funny book, not at all what one would expect from Jackson given her fiction writing. Close in type to The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald.
    • 5/5
      Jackson relates the perils of raising children and delivers some of her best writing in the process. She is an unusual combination of average, stay-at-home mother and nationally celebrated author of horror and mystery books. The result is an interesting blend that may have been produced by Erma Bombeck, Jean Kerr and Edgar A. Poe. This is an under-appreciated work.