The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

Mrs. Halloran frowned. "When, Fanny?" she asked. "When did all this happen?"

"Just now—this morning. It was just getting light."

"No," Mrs. Halloran said. "There are no gardeners working on the hedges yet. Your brother wants me to speak to them today."

"On a ladder," Aunt Fanny said. 

"Quite impossible," Mrs. Halloran said. "You may very well have seen your father; I would not dream of disputing a private apparition. But you could not have seen a gardener trimming a hedge. Not here, not today." 

~from p. 30 of The Sundial

I love Shirley Jackson's writing and I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened The Sundial. I thought I was about to read another suspense novel in the same vein as The Haunting of Hill House. While there is definitely a suspense factor, I think the book is particularly enjoyable for the way the author stabs at the ridiculousness of humans. 

Aunt Fanny, as in the quote above, has gone for a walk in the garden on a foggy morning. After becoming lost, she gets a message from her long-dead father. The world is about to end in flames. Nobody will be spared but those inside the sprawling mansion in which Aunt Fanny lives with Mrs. Halloran, her husband, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, a few hired people who are almost part of the family, and the servants. 

At first, everyone is skeptical. But, as time goes by it becomes clear to everyone exactly when the world is going to end and they begin preparing. As they do, guests show up and it seems wrong to cast them out to certain death, so they're allowed to stay. One of them actually climbs over the gate and in sharing how she got in, spouted another of my favorite quotes. 

"When I am visiting a place," Gloria said, "I don't like being locked out, even if they don't know I'm coming." 

~p. 63

Highly recommended - Oh, my gosh, what a hoot. I was expecting suspense but this book is witty, thought-provoking, and at times hilarious. And, you can't beat the sheer precision and stylishness of Shirley Jackson's writing. Is the end of the world really coming or are all the inhabitants of the household deluding themselves? Does what Gloria sees in a mirror with oil poured onto it confirm Aunt Fanny's message from her father? Who will stay and who will go? 

This one is a serious keeper, a great read to usher in fall, and there's a lot of discussion-worthy material in it because each of the characters is very flawed in his or her own way. There's also the interesting question of what one would do if given the option that one of the characters is offered — take a large check and the chance that the world really will end and you'll die in two weeks, or stay and lose out on the money but maybe survive an apocalypse. 

A couple interesting side notes: The Sundial is apparently a book that was chosen as a special read for this year's RIP Challenge. Humorously, I'd already pulled it off my shelf and put it in my bedside TBR before people started posting about the RIP. While I planned to read it, though, I imagine that the fact that I was seeing it everywhere nudged me a bit so I'm grateful that other people were talking about the book. I didn't read any of the reviews in order to avoid spoiling the reading.     

Having read a handful of Shirley Jackson's books or books of her writings, now, I think I can finally put her on the Favorite Author's list. And, I definitely want to go back and read We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It was the first Jackson work I read and —believe it or not— I didn't like it, although I don't remember why. But, now that I'm familiar with Jackson's style and have figured out that her books are about people, their oddities and flaws, and how they can get worked up over nothing, I think I might enjoy it more. I donated my copy, unfortunately. Silly me. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley

I planned to finish my 2019 reviews before barreling into 2020 but You Were There Too says it was released on the 7th (that's today as I write but will be yesterday when you read this) so I'm going to go ahead and review it and I'll continue to interject reviews of more recent reads if there's a genuine reason like "Fresh release!" or "I have to say something right now!"

You Were There Too is the story of Mia. Since high school she's occasionally had dreams that feature the same man. Sometimes they're good; often they're nightmares. In her everyday life, Mia is happily married to a surgeon named Harrison. Mia and Harrison have recently moved to a small town called Hope Springs from Philadelphia after Harrison lost a child in surgery and he felt like he needed a change. Mia is struggling with the move and her desire to have a baby, which keeps ending in miscarriage.

Then, one day something bizarre happens. Mia sees the man she's been dreaming about for so long. And then she's introduced to him. Oliver is the brother of a patient whose life Harrison saved, and she feels like she's known him forever. Eventually, Oliver admits that he's been dreaming of Mia, as well. But, what can it possibly mean? In their search for answers, Mia and Oliver become friends. Mia's very open about their friendship with Harrison, but at the same time she's developing a surprisingly deep and meaningful friendship with another man, fault lines have emerged in her loving marriage. Mia works hard at making it clear that she can't be with Oliver, and yet she can't deny to herself that she feels attracted to him.

What will become of the friendship? Will Oliver and Mia step over the friendship line and into romance? What about Harrison? Something is a little off about him but Mia can't put a finger on it and with the rift in their marriage growing, will she be able to help him? Will Mia and Oliver figure out what their dreams and nightmares mean? Or is something about to happen that can't be prevented?

Highly recommended - Ohmygosh, I loved this book. The author kept me guessing all the way through and I loved the way she handled the relationships, the confusion, the questions about marriage and what love can or cannot overcome. There's a shocking prologue at the beginning of the book so you know that Oliver's and Mia's dreams clearly are psychic in some way, but not who Mia is with when tragedy strikes.

This is actually the only book I've ever read that has attempted to address the concept of psychic dreaming and I loved it in part because I am an occasional psychic dreamer, myself. I could relate to Mia's obsession about what it all meant, although I've never heard of two people dreaming about each other and that's far from my experience. I have dreamed about things that happen before the news breaks. Not long ago, I started sharing stories of my psychic dreams (and a couple of what I call "waking visions" because I wasn't asleep when they occurred) with a friend and I realized there were so many of them that it would take a while to share them all with her.

As to meaning . . . I don't know that there is any meaning to those dreams that have come true for me, although a couple of them have felt like warnings. That's one of the questions in You Were There Too. Are Oliver and Mia being warned about something to come? If so, is there anything they can do to prevent something bad from happening? What about the dreams that are not nightmares but the opposite? Do they mean Mia should give up on her marriage and that she really belongs with Oliver? Why do Oliver and Mia both have this strange mix of dreams? It's a really intriguing set of questions and I loved this book so much that I will absolutely seek out more by Colleen Oakley.

I received a copy of You Were There Too from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks! I'm excited to have found a new author who kept me riveted until the wee hours of the morning (although I didn't appreciate the way I felt the next day).

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.