Pepper street is an upper-middle-class neighborhood somewhere in California. The street is separated from the lower-class houses by a wall, giving a sense of protection to the wealthier. The houses belong to families that thrive to climb the social ladder. They have an acute sense of entitlement that has trickled down to their children. Families that rent, are not from the same religion, that don’t conform to a physical or intellectual standard are looked with contempt. But then life catches up with two of the families and the wall is destroyed. The end of this ideal street. The first novel from Shirley Jackson that misses the weird twist of the others.
“Pleasure was in the feeling that the terrors of the night, the jungle, had come close to their safe lighted homes, touched them nearly, and departed, leaving every family safe but one; an acute physical pleasure like a pain, which made them all regard Mr. Desmond greedily, and then turn their eyes away with guilt.”