Book #46 for 2024: The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is a study in the condition known as Multiple Personality Syndrome, which I decided to read having read Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle".
Elizabeth has lost both of her parents, and lives with her Aunt Morgen. At first her signs of having extra personalities manifest by her not remembering things that she's done, particularly an incident at dinner. As the novel progresses, she develops three new personas, referred to as Beth, Betsy and Bess, and getting (as I understood it) increasingly malicious. For example, Betsy makes Elizabeth run away from home, and Bess makes her put mud in Aunt Morgen's food.
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did, but I did find it to be quite a hard book, with its dense narrative. The chapters I found most difficult were when the narrative switched to the point of view of her psychiatrist, Dr. Wright (repeatedly referred to mockingly as "Dr. Wrong"). Dr. Wright's narrative is very detailed, and is in a style that put me in mind of Edgar Allen Poe, so I felt that I had to really pay attention.
I think it was a simpler story than it felt, and I'm glad I stuck with it, but I hope that the next Shirley Jackson novel I read will be an easier one.
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