The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson

If you’re a Shirley Jackson fan, as so many of us are, you surely are aware of her supernatural (or is it?) masterpiece The Haunting of Hill House. That book, in my humble opinion, is one of the best and frightening novels of all time because it plays with the reader’s concept of reality in such a subtle way. Is Hill House really haunted by evil ghosts, or is it haunted by the neuroses of Eleanor, the main character? Eleanor is a study in female mental instability, nervousness, self-effacement and simultaneous self-involvement, but I would argue that the heroine of Jackson’s other masterpiece The Bird’s Nest – and the subject of today’s blog post and related recipe – tops the list of truly mentally abnormal characters that abound throughout Jackson’s work.

The Bird’s Nest tells the story of Elizabeth Richmond, a rather dull young woman who dutifully goes to her boring job at a museum each day, suffers from never-ending headaches, backaches and other sorts of aches, lives with her bossy aunt Morgen, and is essentially a pale shadow who drifts through her own life like a ghost. She’s been receiving a series of nasty letters that allude to her being “dirty.” Her job at the museum comes to a head one day when the building is undergoing renovations, and a large, gaping hole next to her desk showcases the original structure beneath. I mean, that’s a pretty obvious use of metaphor there – the museum itself is meant to represent Elizabeth and the hole in the wall is supposed to represent the break in her psyche, which itself comes to creepy life when she begins to act very strangely. She starts experiencing blackouts, gaps in her memory, and when she comes back to herself, she is told that she has been vulgar, cursing and generally acting like a bad girl.

Her aunt Morgen takes her to see Dr. Wright, a very pompous man who is also highly misogynistic and self-flattering. You could argue that his idiotic methods of treatment seem to make Elizabeth worse. As their sessions together progress, it gradually becomes clear that Elizabeth is experiencing multiple personalities. Dr. Wright – whom one of the personalities named Betsy amusingly refers to as “Dr. Wrong” – starts to see the emergence of four separate personalities who represent an aspect of Elizabeth, and as he names them each, you see the inspiration for the book’s title. “Elizabeth, Beth, Betsy, and Bess, they all went together to find a bird’s nest…“

Shirley Jackson’s heroines are all grappling with the cutting edge of reality and walk along a tightrope of sanity, self-absorption and fantasy. Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House is at once pathetically irritating in her drabness and victimhood and terrifying in her vulnerability to the spirits in the house. Merricat Blackwood in We Have Always Lived in the Castle is neurosis mixed with OCD tendencies who alternates between her rituals of magical thinking and a weird ability to interact with the outside world. Elizabeth and her fragmented personalities are endearing, pitiable and at the same time, very strong in their ability to protect her inner self from the information and knowledge that created the chasm in her psyche.

As a study in mental illness, it leaves something to be desired, but since it was written in 1954 and less was understood about multiple personalities, it’s understandable. At this point, we all know that extreme trauma is what causes that schism in mind and personality, usually relating to sexual abuse. This is alluded to as the reason why Elizabeth has split into four personalities, as well as her ongoing refusal to believe that her mother is dead or even that her mother might have had some responsibility for her daughter’s trauma. One of my frustrations with the book, however, is that so many aspects are left hanging. We are never quite certain how Elizabeth’s mother died. We are never quite certain what Robin – Elizabeth’s abuser – did to her. We are never quite certain what happened between Aunt Morgen and Elizabeth’s father, another relationship that is alluded to, and most of all, we are never quite certain as to how Elizabeth’s fractured selves are able to reconcile into one cohesive personality at the end.

Betsy was my favorite of all the personalities. She definitely had attitude, and she tended to see through Dr. Wright’s bullshit, which I appreciated. She’s had it with Dr. Wright’s treatment and his ridiculous way of self-aggrandizing as he attempts to work with Elizabeth, and Betsy’s takeover shows that she is one of the stronger personalities, which is also why the doctor doesn’t like her. She stands up to him, and in many ways, she is laughing at him. In a pivotal part of the book, Betsy takes over Elizabeth’s mind and body and runs away from the doctor and her aunt, and heads to New York City, where she checks into a grand hotel and takes herself for a meal in the hotel restaurant. She inadvertently makes the acquaintance of another psychiatrist who is also dining in the restaurant and invites him to eat with her, as she decides she wants to eat nothing but the luscious desserts that are on display in front of her.

“I want cake,” Betsy said, and he laughed, and gestured to the waiter with the dessert wagon. “Only one,” he said, “and then you eat the rest of your lunch I ordered for you…..” “Not me,” said Betsy, bending lovingly over the tiny rich cakes, her eyes sparking with the reflections of whipped cream and chocolate and strawberries; ”it’s Lizzie who gets sick……”

Chocolate and strawberries and whipped cream sounded delightful, so I opted to make a chocolate-strawberry cake with whipped cream frosting. The three elements turning into a fourth, cohesive thing seemed like the perfect homage to Elizabeth and her three personalities gradually becoming integrated, so that’s what I did. It’s like I was a psychiatrist or something. 🙂

INGREDIENTS
1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 cup full-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup cooled coffee
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 packet gelatine, dissolved in warm water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350F, and in a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and in another bowl, combine the oil, milk, eggs and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until well combined. Add the hot coffee to the batter and whisk just until everything is combined.

Pour the chocolatey batter into an 8-inch round cake pan that has been oiled and lined with parchment paper. Bake for 60 minutes, checking the cake’s doneness at about 45 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and while it’s cooling, trim and slice the strawberries, add sugar, toss to combine and refrigerate.

Meanwhile whip the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla together into soft peaks, then pour in the warmed gelatine liquid, and whip again until firm peaks are reached. This will keep the cream frosting from melting if the cake must stand for several hours.

Slice the cake carefully down the middle so that you have two equal rounds. Lay one of the cake layers on a plate and spread a layer of whipped cream over the top. Add some of the sliced strawberries.

Top with the second cake layer, spread the rest of the whipped cream frosting on top, and decorate with the remaining strawberries. It’s such a beautiful cake, this amalgamation of three separate elements into one united object. Much like the psyche of our heroine Elizabeth.