When I began putting together my list of the most underrated books of 2013, I expected them to cohere to a category — quiet, self-effacing books that were slow to affect but contained a more enduring power. Instead, I discovered how various the category actually is. Yes, there is a quietly powerful book here by a sometimes overlooked author. But there is also the genuinely terrifying, the fiercely innovative and the aesthetically rich. However miscellaneous, below is my list of the books that — for whatever reason — didn’t receive the recognition they deserved this year.
“Hangsaman”
Shirley Jackson
Penguin Classics, June 2013
American novelist Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) is best known for her story “The Lottery,” a shocking dramatization of small town hypocrisy and social brutality first published in The New Yorker in 1948. It received the most mail the magazine had ever received in response to a work of fiction. The story (which quickly became one of the most frequently anthologized in English) and Jackson’s horror classic, “The Haunting of Hill House,” have cemented her reputation as primarily a writer of the macabre and dark.
     |
The 5 most underrated books of 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment