Just an Ordinary Day (Penguin Modern Classics)

New
Paperback
2017
$11.94

A remarkable collection of dark, funny and haunting short stories from the inimitable author of 'The Lottery'. An anxious devil, an elderly writer of poison pen letters and a mid-century Jack the Ripper; a pursuit though a nightmarish city, a small boy's thrilling train ride with a female thief, and a town where the possibility of evil lurks behind perfect rose bushes. This is the world of Shirley Jackson, by turns frightening, funny, strange and unforgettably revealed in this brilliant collection of short stories. 'Jackson at her best: plumbing the extraordinary from the depths of mid-twentieth-century common. [Just an Ordinary Day] is a gift to a new generation' - San Francisco Chronicle 'For Jackson devotees, as well as first-time readers, this is a feast ... A virtuoso collection' - Publishers Weekly

Synopsis

A remarkable collection of dark, funny and haunting short stories from the inimitable author of 'The Lottery'. An anxious devil, an elderly writer of poison pen letters and a mid-century Jack the Ripper; a pursuit though a nightmarish city, a small boy's thrilling train ride with a female thief, and a town where the possibility of evil lurks behind perfect rose bushes. This is the world of Shirley Jackson, by turns frightening, funny, strange and unforgettably revealed in this brilliant collection of short stories. 'Jackson at her best: plumbing the extraordinary from the depths of mid-twentieth-century common. [Just an Ordinary Day] is a gift to a new generation' - San Francisco Chronicle 'For Jackson devotees, as well as first-time readers, this is a feast ... A virtuoso collection' - Publishers Weekly

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 496
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 02 Feb 2017
ISBN 10: 0141983205
ISBN 13: 9780141983202
Book Overview: A remarkable collection of dark, funny and haunting short stories from the inimitable author of 'The Lottery'.

Media Reviews

Jackson at her best: plumbing the extraordinary from the depths of mid-twentieth-century common. [Just an Ordinary Day] is a gift to a new generation * San Francisco Chronicle *
For Jackson devotees, as well as first-time readers, this is a feast ... A virtuoso collection * Publishers Weekly *
One of the great practitioners of the literature of the darker impulses -- Paul Theroux * The New York Times Book Review *
The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable -- A. M. Homes
A dark, disturbing, wonderful treat ... A collection to press on people and demand they read -- Alison Flood * The Bookseller *

Author Bio

Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story The Lottery was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. In addition to her dark, brilliant novels, she wrote lightly fictionalized magazine pieces about family life with her four children and her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Shirley Jackson died in 1965.