I first read this when I was, I think, in middle school, and was enthralled with the more sensational aspects of the story and its depiction of multiple personality disorder. Reading it now, thirty-plus years later, I was really taken with the skill Jackson shows in sketching out the characters, the individual character voices, the biting social satire, and the unexpected dry humor which had me laughing out loud--surprisingly, because this is not a funny book. The humor comes out of the completely over the top, and yet completely human reactions of the characters one to another.

The writing is tight and precise, and yet there is a mystery at the center that is never quite fully explained: what exactly happened to Elizabeth's mother, and what happened with, or to, Robin? There's suggestion and innuendo, from unreliable narrators, but no clarity. The ending is also ambiguous, when Elizabeth, after all her treatment, is somehow left as something less than the sum of her parts.

There's no heroes or villains in this story, only authentic humans with all their faults and foibles, and Jackson makes us feel sympathy for the most unlikable characters. In my opinion, Shirley Jackson is one of the most sadly overlooked authors in the American canon. ( )

Shirley Jackson is an author with a real talent. I think the first story I ever read of hers was "The Lottery." It's a story that takes you by surprise, whew boy. Well in this story, you keep waiting for something really really bad to happen. It's a story of a young adult who is under the guardianship of her mother's sister, Aunt Morgen, who is quite the curmudgeon. Elizabeth, in order to cope with life with her wild mother, had split into four personalities: Elizabeth, Beth, Bess and Betsy. Aunt Morgen becomes disturbed enough with Elizabeth's behavior, finally, to take her to a doctor, who treats her with hypnotism.

A session with Dr. Wright:
P.137
"At last her eyes closed and she began to breathe evenly and I, hardly daring to speak above a whisper, said, 'what is your name?' Her eyes snapped open, and she scowled at me. 'Monster,' she said, the scratches showing red on her face,' wicked Man.' 'Good afternoon, Betsy. I trust you are rested from the fatigues of your journey?' She turned her face away sullenly, and I repressed great jubilation at seeing her so chastened; here was no wild laughter and tormenting teasing, but only a vicious creature trapped and held fast. 'Betsy,' I said, abandoning my ironic tone, 'I am truly sorry for you. You treated me unfairly, but I am sorry, nevertheless, to see you so miserable, and I still offer to help you in any way I can.' "

P.198
"She [Aunt Morgen] had not materially altered herself in more years than she chose to remember. Her manner of dress, of speech, of doing her hair, spending her time, had not changed since it first became apparent to a far younger Morgen that in all her life to come no one was, in all probability, going to Care in the slightest how she looked, or what she did, and the minor wrench of leaving humanity behind was more than compensated for by her complacent freedom from a thousand small irritations. At first she had found it necessary to remind herself often of the clamours and demands other people made upon one another, the attentions expected, the answers awaited, the gifts and visits and good wishes to be returned, the affections to be reciprocated, but with the securing of her niece she found at last that there was nothing other people had which she needed to regard, anymore, with the longing eye."

Things never really do get as bad as the reader expects, but there's a part where you just don't see how the Aunt Morgen can keep living in the same house with Elizabeth without going starkers:
P.221
" 'We're going to put you in a place,' Morgen said speaking quietly again, her voice shaking, 'into an institution, a madhouse, a head - whorehouse, where you can take yourself apart and put yourself together again like a goddamn jigsaw puzzle and all the pretty doctors will stand around and clap their hands when you subdivide like a building lot and all the nice nurses will Pat your head when you split four ways from Sunday and then they'll all giggle and drag you off and lock you up and I'll be rid of you and the world will be rid of you, and your precious doctor will be rid of you and the world would be a better place with you going to pieces in private. And now, now I think of it, just to make you happy I'll take your piles and piles of money and I'll buy up a couple of acres of swampland and I'll dig it up and go and pour it on your late lamented mother's grave, so the world will know what I think of what she did to you and me. And if they ever let you out again - which they won't, I tell you--and you come all whining and old to me and begging for me to take care of you--which I can tell you I won't--and you're mouthing doctor to come and put the pieces back together- - which I will just bet he won't -- we can shove the mud off your mother's last resting place and dig up enough of it to put you in, and your poor old auntie will buy a marble bench to come and sit on and Snicker over the two of you dead.' " ( )

This is Shirley Jackson's "multiple personality" book. Elizabeth lives with her aunt Morgen, and works at a clerical job at the museum. When she starts having severe headaches and multiple blackouts, her aunt sends her to Dr. Wright. Through the course of her therapy with Dr. Wright, we meet, in addition to Elizabeth, Beth, Betsy and Bess. Each of the distinct personalities is incomplete and broken, but Elizabeth is somehow enduring since she is the one who remains behind to carry on and clean up the messes left by the others.
I found this to be rather dated and very much of its time. I didn't enjoy it as much as I've like other books I've read by Shirley Jackson, but by all means go for it if the subject interests you.
(I remember devouring the multiple personality book Sybil 35 or 40 years ago. I was never compelled to pick this one up, and had to force myself to finish it.)

2 stars ( )

The first three chapters (Elizabeth, Dr. Wright, and Betsy) I thought were great-- later, I thought, the book took a bit of a turn towards something slightly comic and lower-stakes with the introduction of Bess, and didn't have the raw disturbing quality of the Elizabeth and Betsy chapters, though was still an enjoyable read.

But in general, though not the masterpiece of Jackson's later works, it's still Jackson. ( )

I randomly stumbled upon a biography of Shirley Jackson while I was picking up a hold from the library and it immediately reminded me that I should get back to reading her work. I ordered the last 3 novels of hers that I hadn't read and started with The Bird's Nest.

This book is about Elizabeth, a young woman who is disturbed to find a large hole in her museum office when the building is being remodeled. The destruction of her work space seems to set off, or at least parallel, a mental breakdown. In fact, Elizabeth is also Beth, Betsy, and Bess - her alternate personalities. She lives with her Aunt Morgen - there is some mystery as to what happened to her mother - and Aunt Morgen gets her set up with a psychiatrist, Dr. Wright.

As with all of the Jackson novels I've read, the writing is just perfect. Subtle and clear and precise. And the creepy factor is always there, below the surface of what could appear normal. I was a little annoyed that the (male) doctor's voice becomes prevalent for a while in the middle of the book, and I felt like (female) Elizabeth was being overshadowed, but Jackson brings things back around to her women characters satisfactorily. ( )