I’ve been reading Shirley Jackson’s memoir of raising kids in an old house in a small Vermont town and marveling at how well she captures the endearing chaos of family life. “Madcap” is a word that comes immediately to mind, an “Erma Bombeck’ish” word that describes a certain style of postwar mothering that is loving but off-handed. And Life Among the Savages is certainly madcap. “Surprising” is another, because Jackson is known for her horror stories (she wrote the short story “The Lottery”).

Some of my favorite scenes in the book are set around the dinner table — one child demanding, another pouting and still another floating around in her own imaginary world. There’s a rise and fall to the dialogue that is exactly like the real thing. It makes me nostalgic for our own madcap days. Most of all, though, it makes me smile.