1916: Jackson: Come Along with Me

I'm a Shirley Jackson fan, so I was happy to find this volume which includes her unfinished last novel, as well as otherwise uncollected stories chosen by her husband, and a couple of essays/lectures. The unfinished novel, "Come Along with Me," featured an intriguing and completely unreliable and possibly deluded protagonist who, after her husband dies, moves to an unidentified city/town, decides her name is Angela Motorman, and starts to hold seances. I was sorry it was unfinished. The stories vary in quality; I liked the later, creepier ones better, in which Jackson so deftly illustrates the terrible effects of conformity and the powers of the human mind to deceive. I particularly enjoyed "The Beautiful Stranger," "The Summer People," "A Visit" (I think this was my favorite), "Louisa, Please Come Home" (which was anthologized in Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives), and "The Little House." Missing from these stories was the skewering of racism that was highlighted in several of the stories in The Lottery and Other Stories which I read several years ago. I also enjoyed the essays/lectures on experience and fiction (followed by an illustrative story, "The Night We All Had Grippe"), reactions to "The Lottery" (followed by the story itself), and advice to a young writer.