The Summer People (Shirley Jackson)

Today is Labor Day and, at least it is on the other side of the Atlantic. And I associate Labor Day with one horror story of Shirley Jackson. I first read it in the anthology of her short stories Dark Tales. Since then, it is part of my early countdown to the countdown to Halloween, a staple I try to read every Labor Day. It's called The Summer People, about an elderly couple from New York, the Allisons, who spend every summer in their lakeside cottage in the country, always leaving on Labor Day. Except one year, when they decide to stay longer because of warm weather. And this is where their nightmare starts. The locals start getting passive-aggressive, warning them in vague terms that no "summer people" ever remained there after Labor Day. They stop providing the couple with kerosene and groceries, then their phone line is cut and their car won't start. I don't want to give more away, but it's a brilliant and subtle (well, it's Shirley Jackson after all) tale of eerie unease. You can read it here. As for my take on the story, it's this: never think it's still summer when September starts. Also: autumn comes faster than you think and you should respect that. You're welcome.

Dark Tales

For today's countdown to Halloween's reading suggestion, Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson. Because you can't go wrong with Shirley Jackson on Halloween, although you might want to read this book fairly early in the countdown. I say this because not all these tales have supernatural elements (although many do), but they are all very dark indeed. In The Possibility of Evil, a seemingly harmless old lady sends poison pen letters, in Paranoia the commute of an ordinary man turns into a nightmarish pursuit where literally everyone he sees seems to be scheming against him, in What a Thought a wife suddenly harbours murderous thoughts against her husband, in The Summer People a couple is punished in a passive-agressive way by villagers for wanting to stay in their summer cottage after Labor Day, for reasons that remain unknown. And there are more. Shirley Jackson is a master of terror born out of alienation.