I was disappointed in the book, not that it wasnât brilliant - because it was. Itâs just - this was the vaguely fictionalised novelisation of Plathâs life. I thought itâd be different - more emotional, more detailed. Written by a writer of her calibre, it seemed very bland.
The book starts out while sheâs on a working holiday in New York. This is perhaps my ... read more
Description:Product Description
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rationalProduct Description
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experiece as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
Amazon.com Review
Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.
"
“Do you know what a poem is, Esther?"
"No, what?", I would say.
"A piece of dust."
Then, just as he was smiling and starting to look proud, I would say, "So are the cadavers you cut up. So are the people you think you're curing. They're dust as dust as dust. I reckon a good poem lasts a whole lot longer than a hundred of those people put together".
And of course Buddy wouldn't have any answer to that, because what I said was true. People were made of nothing so much as dust, and I couldn"
Brokebacker added this to a list 1 year, 8 months ago
“I was disappointed in the book, not that it wasnât brilliant - because it was. Itâs just - this was the vaguely fictionalised novelisation of Plathâs life. I thought itâd be different - more emotional, more detailed. Written by a writer of her calibre, it seemed very bland.
The book starts out while sheâs on a working holiday in New York. This is perhaps my favourite part of the book. After itâs over, she goes home, has a ânervous breakdownâ and then is shipped off to a mental hospital. While I know that itâs her life and of course not boring, there are other authors who have written the transition better - Susanna Kaysenâs Girl, Interrupted and Elizabeth Wurtzelâs Prozac Nation spring instantly to mind.
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