The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Bell Jar
Book Review: The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Summary: 4 Stars
"The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence."
So, I missed the boat on this one, back in high school when every literate fifteen year old girl was reading it. I'm glad I waited out. I think I would have liked it, but perhaps for the wrong reasons.
Ok. The book morbidly fascinates me--a thinly veiled autobiograhical novel of a poet's descent into madness written by a woman who later stuck her head in an oven and committed suicide. Just from this knowledge, the book becomes immediately haunting. But it's not just this black curiosity that made this an engaging read. I love how absolutely honest it is. Unlike other books I have read in which the protagonist goes "crazy," Esther Greenwood's insanity is subtle and far more realistic. At the beginning of the book, Esther seems relatively put together, but she slowly unravels so fluidly that I surprised myself when I realized, "Wow. This girl is really crazy." Perhaps because it is based on personal experience, I think that Plath's depiction of depression is so well-done. She shows that it is not a raging force, but rather a paralysis, a lack of emotion--and all through beautiful and intense language.
This book is a good read, but it will depress you. That being said, I would recommend it, especially to girls in college who feel like they can relate to Plath's story.
Book Review: Tragic but telling
Summary: 5 Stars
The Bell Jar is an accurate and soulful story of a brilliant woman who fights constant psycholoical battles. The writing is spectacular and the story itself is thoroughly captivating. Worth a couple of re-reads!Book Review: Twisting and Turning
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up The Bell Jar by chance, I was looking through Barnes and Noble, I saw it, and asked my mother what she thought of it.
"Oh it's about someone like you and your sisters, crazy."
Instantly I bought it (I picked the one with the fabulous cover of course!)
I read it in 1.5 hours.
It is a delicious read. You can really taste the words and the madness inside of the character. It amplifies madness and beauty. It sits on a place of honor, on my shelf of favorites.
Buy it and read it. The story will sweep you off your feet and drag you into the realms of madness.
Taste and see.
Book Review: Ugh
Summary: 2 Stars
I read this book in highschool and it nearly ruined modern fiction for me. I'm older now, have a masters degree in English, and I still find this book a boring, uninteresting, waste of time. To me Plath tries too hard to come across broken and tragic in her writing. Why do so many people think that a character's descent into madness makes for good reading? Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone is equally a waste of time in this regard.Book Review: Unexpected Misery Is The Worst
Summary: 4 Stars
With the seas of collective enigma and awe that surrounds Sylvia Plath, this first and last novel of hers flows like that sea itself. 'The Bell Jar' starts off with a taste you can almost feel tingling on the tip of your tongue. That taste is hollowness.
As Esther Greenwood tries to have that time of her life she thought she would getting this chance of a lifetime, she begins to experience an emptiness of sorts which, clearly, lies beyond words.
Even as one reads the sentence after sentence, one is pulled in between those blank spaces to a world so completely black. As Esther describes the beginning of her breakdown, you begin to almost hear Sylvia Plath whispering the written words so ominously in your ears - whether you know how she sounds or not.
For years Plath enchanted people with her poetry, but she knew she could manage more than that. With 'The Bell Jar' Miss Sylvia certainly manages MUCH more. Beautiful descriptions, believable, enriching dialogue, and a story that will resonate in the core of your heart forever.
Some part of this book are so eerily haunting that you feel the pain Esther, and likely Miss Sylvia, must have felt. The hurting sometimes is so deep that you begin to wonder what it really would be like to be trapped in such a prison. Of course, those who already feel this melancholy - like myself - will be more than attracted to this book as it can become like a shared secret between the reader and the character.
What also pleases me is this is a first-person narrative. The book is supposed to describe a 'crack-up' of sorts but the way Esther talks of what is slowly creeping into her, you can see that she is not 'crazy' at all but a human being at the end of the day.
That personal, private touch to 'The Bell Jar' is a definite part in the success of this book. One is left to wonder what Sylvia Plath, a woman with such great words sprouting from the depths of her mind, could have written in the lost years of a life she chose to end.