THE BELL JAR BY SILVIA PLATH

Sylvia Plath’s shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity. 

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

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I read this book in one day, over winter break. I had a lot of free time, and I don’t think there is any feeling better than being completely absorbed in a book and not needing to stop for any reason. This is the only novel Sylvia Plath wrote during her lifetime, releasing mostly poetry collections.  Part of the reason I was able to fly through the book was because the writing style is so engaging and easy to read. You really feel as if you are inside of Esther’s mind for the whole book, and her motivations and actions seem so real and reasonable, even when they are completely the opposite. The book follows college student (although we only see her in college in flashbacks) Esther Greenwood through a specific period in her life, and slowly get to know her and her life story. The book to me seemed like it had two distinct parts, the first being her time in New York, and the rest being her mostly downward spiral.

The imagery and language in the book is beautiful and imaginative, which makes sense since Plath is known for her poetry. Her writing is very expressive and flowing, and makes the reading experience very enjoyable. I also really loved how deftly flashbacks were woven into the story without disrupting the flow, and how they gave the book an almost non-linear sense of time. I think this book owes a lot of its popularity to the poetic language used, but also because it is very relatable to anyone who feels even somewhat lost in life, even though most people have much less extreme experiences. It also portrays mental illness in a way that the reader knows that Esther is unreliable, but also understands and empathizes with Esther. Even though I really loved the book, I think that it drags in a few parts and feels a little repetitive. A cynical reader may feel that the novel is trying too hard to be profound. There is also a story line with a character named Joan whose purpose and significance I don’t think I quite grasped.

Overall, this is a lovely, easy-to-read book despite its often difficult and dark subject matter. Even though I flew through it, at points there was no optimism or light at the end of the tunnel, and I felt so deeply for Esther that it was hard to keep going. Hopefully in the future I will attempt to read some of Sylvia Plath’s poetry, even though I don’t generally enjoy poetry when I read it in collections, but the writing of this novel was so beautiful, I think I have to try.