The Bell Jar in The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club

Aug 24, 2017 Cynthia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-reads, 2021-books-read, fave-authors, fiction, stand-alones

I have read this book many times in my youth and later on as an adult. Was obsessed with her for awhile.

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2011 Coquille Fleur rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Bell Jar is one of those books that I have been putting off reading since high school. I read several of Sylvia Plath's poems back then, and a few of my friends were obsessed with The Bell Jar, but I think I knew that it might hit too close to home when I felt suicidal all the time as it was. Luckily, I have grown out of my depression, at least I hope forever. Sylvia Plath may have thought that at one time, too. You can't read this book without also becoming interested in the author herself, ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2018 Raimey Gallant rated it liked it

In this semi-autobiographical novel, Plath conveys, with endearingly hyperbolic and metaphorical prose I mostly want to mainline, what it feels like to be mentally unhealthy. Here's my problem: I'm tired of excusing literary racism of yesteryear as a product of its time, when with about fifteen edits, this book could be reissued as an inoffensive edition for those who want it. My guess? If she'd lived to age seventy, she would have reissued it herself. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2017 Lisa Thomson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics

So, this is one book I've heard of over the years and has been referenced in various feminist circles. Here I am, 52 times around the sun and finally can say I've read this iconic Sylvia Plath book. It was amazing. It was also disturbing. It truly was written in such a unique style that I imagine at the time, people were almost shocked by it. We are witness to the mental demise of main character and narrator, Esther, as she struggles with both her gift of intelligence and the societal expectatio ...more

Like · see review

Jun 04, 2015 Elizabeth Alsobrooks rated it did not like it

I read this in college, and I remember wondering how anyone would want to read about someone who was so hopeless and alone, even in the midst of those who loved her. It is so depressing, it feels like opening a visual vein. She obviously needed a well-monitored medication regime to level her mood swings and elevate her depression. It's like praising suicide. If you like a Roman à clef about the descent into madness, this one's for you. Otherwise, try The Wizard of Oz. All I can say is thank God ...more

Like · see review