The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingPiikuwing of Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on 6/3/2010
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingPiikuwing from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Thursday, June 3, 2010
"Working in New York one hot summer, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future. Yet she is also on the edge of darkness that makse her world increasingly unreal. In this vivid and unforgettable novel about the struggles of growing up, Esther's world shines through: the wide-eyed country girls, her crazed men-friends, hot dinner dances and nights in New York, and a slow slide into breakdown."

Journal Entry 2 by wingPiikuwing at Parainen, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Monday, July 12, 2010
I guess I should have read this years ago as “everybody else”, the book would have made a greater impact on a teenager than on a middle-aged cynical woman like me. It was not a bad read at all, but yet I found it somehow…. yes, boring.

Esther is a scholarship girl, a perfectionist who wins a summer job at a ladies magazine in New York City. Her innocency makes her seem nearly arrogant, but she soon sees that the big city and the nightlife (and the sex thing…) is just too much for her. She doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. There are some very humorous bits, but most of the book is quite sad and depressing. Especially of course the later half about the suicide attempts and the life at a mental institution. There’s one sentence in the beginning of the book that tells that Esther finally gets married (which she so much tries to avoid) and has a baby, but that is not explained later on.

I hope this book finds a reader that will appreciate it more than I did.

Journal Entry 3 by wingruzenawing at Hämeenlinna, Kanta-Häme / Egentliga Tavastland Finland on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Thank you Piiku for this boring wishlist book. :D Well, you just wait!

Journal Entry 4 by wingruzenawing at Vantaa, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sylvia Plath wrote this novel at about 30 years of age, and later the same year she committed suicide. In this book (the only novel she wrote) she skilfully sets herself into the situation and feelings of Esther, about 20 years old. The story is fictive, but it is said to be much autobiographical.
I think this is not a literary masterpiece, though it is pretty well written (by "a girl with fifteen years of straight A's"). It is simply interesting as a (self-)portrait of a talented young person drifting into severe depression. At first sight the text might appear superficial, but I think there is much introspective self-reflection underlying, and, fortunately, she does not "explain" but just tells.

-ruzena

EDIT. 24.7.2018 The book was left at the book swap shelf in Espoo Iso Omena library.

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