Raising Demons

In the uproarious sequel to Life Among the Savages , Shirley Jackson confronts the most vexing demons yet- her children. Best known for her chilling novels and stories, Shirley Jackson was equally masterful at chronicling the chaos of motherhood and small-town life. In her second memoir, Jackson's savages - her four children - are all grown into full-fledged demons. Confronting a move to a new house, a faulty refrigerator, Little League, and enough clutter to bury her alive, Jackson fends off domestic nightmares with one hand while spinning them into charming and witty stories with the other. A celebration of the strangeness of ordinary family life and a portrait of the 1950s ripped straight out of Mad Men and Norman Rockwell, Raising Demons is Shirley Jackson's reminder that every bit as thrilling as a murderous family in a haunted house is a loving family in a new home. 'Hilarious, subversive, sharp without being lethal, and loving without an ounce of sentiment, Shirley Jackson's more-or-less autobiographical account of life as a mother of four and faculty wife (and brilliant writer) is an eternal, comic joy.' Amy Bloom