We Have Always Lived In The Castle

we Have Always Lived In The Castle, Shirley Jackson's 1962 Novel, Is Full Of A Macabre And Sinister Humor, And Merricat Herself, Its Amiable Narrator, Is One Of The Great Unhinged Heroines Of Literature. Merricat Has Developed An Idiosyncratic System Of Rules And Protective Magic, Burying Talismanic Objects Beneath The Family Estate, Nailing Them To Trees, And Ritualistically Revisiting Them. She Has Created A Protective Web To Guard Against The Distrust And Hostility Of Neighboring Villagers. Or So She Believes. But At Last The Magic Fails. A Stranger Arrives—cousin Charles, With His Eye On The Blackwood Fortune. He Disturbs The Sisters' Careful Habits, Installing Himself At The Head Of The Family Table, Unearthing Merricat's Treasures, Talking Privately To Constance About Normal Lives And Boy Friends. Unable To Drive Him Away By Either Polite Or Occult Means, Merricat Adopts More Desperate Methods. The Result Is Crisis And Tragedy...

since The Mysterious Death Of Four Family Members, The Superstitious Mary Katherine Merricat Blackwood, Her Ailing Uncle Julian, And Agoraphobic Sister Constance Have Lived In A Bizarre But Contented State Of Isolation. But When Cousin Charles Arrives In Search Of The Blackwood Fortune, A Terrible Family Secret Is Revealed. Bernadette Dunne's Reading Is Flawlessly Paced And Suspenseful. The Voices She Provides The Cast Of Characters Are Spot On: Precocious Merricat Is Haunted And Increasingly Desperate; Constance Is Doting But Detached; Uncle Julian Is Both Pleasantly Dotty And Utterly Unnerving; And Charles Is The Conniving Villain Listeners Will Love To Hate. A Treat For Fans Of Mystery And Suspense. (june)