Books: Mom Did It

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (246 pp.)—Shirley Jackson—Viking ($3.95).

When busy Housewife Shirley Jackson finds time for a new novel, she instinctively begins to id-lib. Her favorite fictional creation is the normal-looking girl who lives in a private nightmare of someone else's making. This heroine is usually close enough to sanity to be alarmed by her own fantasies, near enough to a strait-jacket to invite immediate psychoanalysis. The familiar formula, which worked almost magically well in Hangsaman (TIME, April 23, 1951). but began to look a bit seedy in The Bird's Nest (TIME, June 21, 1954), still carries a lot of...

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