Book Review: Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell

Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell
Literary figure, Shirley Jackson, best known for her short story, The Lottery, and her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, a literary critic and professor at Bennington College, take in a fictional young couple, Fred and Rose Nemser, for a year in 1964 in Shirley, a psychological thriller novel with Shirley Jackson, one of America's greatest horror writers at its center. While Fred, who is is Stanley's teaching assistant, becomes engrossed in his teaching schedule, as well as adoring co-eds, pregnant Rose forms an unlikely friendship with Shirley and soon becomes aware of the many secrets that her host harbors.

"Merrell (Creative Writing and Literature/Stony Brook; A Member of the Family, 2000, etc.) is no thriller writer, but this unsolved mystery stokes an atmosphere of quiet menace. Her decision to blend fact and fiction adds to a lingering sense of uncertainty, with set pieces—including a cameo for Bernard Malamud—providing comic relief. A sidelong portrait of a category-defying writer dovetails surprisingly snugly with the drama of one young woman's coming-of-age." (Kirkus Reviews)

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