The Bell Jar

3.5 - My rating is not based solely on how much I enjoyed the book because if it were, I would probably make it lower. I did not like it.

I love reading sad books and the idea of reading about her “decent into madness” intrigued me. I've heard so much about The Bell Jar and about how painfully accurate Plath's depiction of mental illness is, so I guess I was kind of hoping that I would find some parts of myself tucked away in the book and that it would be close to my heart. I was wrong. I felt disappointed at best, and at worst, like I finally aught to kill myself because that's supposedly the only thing that makes mental illness real. Disliking the book this much makes me feel like I have some sort of internalized phobia.

First of all, I just really did not like Esther :/ it feels awfully insensitive to say because I know this book is semi-autobiographical and Plath really did struggle, but Esther was insufferable. I mean, mann, I did not like her even before her breakdown but at least once she became depressed I felt a bit more empathy.

I get it. Being a women in the 1950s was hard and not everyone wants to get married or have a baby but why is that a reason to look down on those who do? In fact she looks down on nearly every single women/female companion in this book, it's ridiculous. In her eyes everyone is either boring, shallow, stupid or inferior. Even her mother! I could not understand for the life of me why she hated her mother so much. Even when she TRIED, nothing she did was ever good enough.

On top of that, I don't think having depression is an excuse to be racist or act like you are superior to other classes or ethnicities. I'm not even exaggerating, it made me feel like the book was set in the 30s. People continually defend the racist elements of this book as a product of the time blah blah blah and yes, I agree that those terms were common usage, but my annoyance came with her comparisons. Why is it every time she described herself as ugly, there just had to be a reference to some ethnicity. I do not think those descriptions were justified in the context or even good.

For example, there's a part where she writes

“I noticed a big smudgy-eyed Chinese women staring idiotically into my face. It was only me of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used-up I looked.”

or when Doreen mentions that a guy is from Peru, Esther says “they're ugly as Aztecs.”

Like??? It left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was literally no need for it either. Comments like those would come out of nowhere and irked me. You can write a book where the character calls someone a Nigger a million times for all I care but don't go and expect me to sympathize.

Of course, the poignancy of The Bell Jar comes from the fact that Sylvia Plath successfully commits suicide a decade later, but even Esther's view of depression frustrated me too. Countless times she undermines the plight of other women in the ward because no one else could possiblyyyyy be struggling. Of course we're all more privy to our own struggles, but at some point you have to realize other people are hiding their issues just as well as you. Should I stop taking medication so I'll finally descend into madness and kill myself to prove I'm as sick as you? Of course not, that's ridiculous, yet time after time the book could not seem to get away from this proverbial hierarchy where Esther was judge, jury and executioner.

And it frustrates me because Sylvia Plath is an excellent writer and I did enjoy her prose. There were parts of the book that were lovely to read like her visit to her father's grave or her walk along the beach. I just wish more of the book could have been like that but evidently I wouldn't have complained this much if it was.

This is a hard book to read, partly for the confused start, but also the very real ending. A deep insight into clinical depression.

I have to admit that in reading this book I really struggled to enjoy it - and not because it of the nature of the book, but because it felt like I was bouncing around inside of Sylvia Plath's head in a random jumbled up, non linear fashion.

In fact, I'd say the first third of the book is almost entirely that. The mini stories that occur don't really finish, and as we were journeying through one recounted story, I'd find we'd quickly make a sharp turn and begin a new journey.

The middle third starts to become a bit more pieced together but the book was struggling to win me over. Esther Greenwood (which I'd read earlier The Bell Jar was semi-autobiographical) wanted to kill herself. The way that this third goes on read almost childish and, for my shame, I was beginning to hope the character “just get on with it”.

It was also that the first section of the book painted an extremely successful character and the character in the second part was very much the opposite end of the spectrum and the different was jarring and hard to consolidate (as a reader).

Suffice to say, she does indeed attempt suicide. For the final third of the book she is institutionalised and undergoes therapy but also electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The ECT isn't glorified nor is it vilified which was interesting and challenging (particularly with the story being semi-autobiographical).

The last third takes its time and walks gently through the journey that she takes during her institutionalised. None of this part of the book is glamourised and she doesn't make some magical recovery.

It's slow, gentle and unsure. Even as Esther finally reaches her board review to see if she can leave the institution, she herself is unconvinced that anything has changed, but something is certainly at rest in her.

The last part of the book definitely calls for reflection and helped to give me an insight into those who struggle with existing. There's rarely some grand purpose that drives them to death by suicide, and indeed in Esther's case there's nothing that particularly explain why she wanted to end her life.

There's a moment with her medical supervisor where Esther says that she hates her mother. This is after their last encounter - and her mother isn't bad in the slightest, it's that her mother wants to know what she had done wrong to have not been able to help protect her daughter from these feelings. The supervisor (slash therapist) says, “I believe you do”. She doesn't try to sympathies or give Esther another point of view. This line surprised me, in a believable way.

And as the book ends, Esther is reunited with her mother, and her mother, naively says she just wants to forget about it all and move forward from this, healthier time. To which Esther writes that her mother may want to forget and that perhaps Esther might forget those feelings:

> Maybe forgetfulness, like a kind snow, should numb and cover them. But they were part of me. They were my landscape.

Having dealings with depression myself, and shock grief of the worst kind, it really doesn't go away, and it isn't forgotten. It's as Plath writes: it becomes part of your landscape.

—

This is a hard book to read, partly for the confused start, but also the very real ending. Made harder by knowing that Sylvia Plath died by suicide the same year of this book's release.

Plath described the book (to her mother) as:

> a pot boiler really, but I think it will show how isolated a person feels when he is suffering a breakdown.

Indeed that's the experience of the last third of the book.

Even though I didn't understand it completely I couldn't help but love it.

i've never felt more understood in my whole life, that's all i got to say.

A reread in order to review the new Folio Society edition, to come shortly on the blog. Reviews and more on my blog, Entering the Enchanted Castle

Rereading this for bookclub. Found my dog-eared high school copy on the shelf and am pretty interested in the experience of reading it as an adult without the heightened teenage angstiness. As suspected, was not as enthralled this time around...thankfully

Plath is one of my favourite poets, and now, one of my favourite novelists. She is a brilliant writer.

The Bell Jar is beautifully written- so many meaningful and thought-provoking quotes. The main character is hilarious and feels like an old friend. An easy read (ignore how long I took quite with it, life got in the way) and will surely be a re-read in the future.

A brilliant book. Like one of the reviewers said...this is literature.

The story was very convoluted, and triggering. What tied it together for me was the last chapter where real life events from Sylvia's life were told (as an extension of Esther's ending). This was so hard to read/listen to. I was horrified more than once.
I do understand however, that this shows the real and cruel aspects of depression, and something the author needed to get out of her system to able to move on.
Trigger warnings: Self-harm, suicide, blood mentions.

Not much you can say about this one that hasn't already been said. Very well written.

yeah. yeah.

It feels weird saying I loved this, but I really loved this. Plath's writing is so simple and easy, but so real and raw. It's beautiful and heartbreaking.

So, I really need to stop reading other people's reviews because it only furthers my hate for ignorant people.

This book to me has nothing to do with a “privileged girl afraid to lose her status” or young twenty-something female angst or anything with feminism nor does it cause me to hate Ted Hughes with the fury and passion of a thousand suns. It's a story of a woman who has worked so hard and studied intensely for so many years and kept herself as pure as society wanted her - but for what? I can relate in that I thought I knew for the first 23 years of my life exactly what I wanted to do and then realized I had no clue. And to be caught in this deep depression that can't be cured by a man taking care of you or some group therapy sittings.

It's the same people who don't see how depression can consume you that won't appreciate this novel for what it is. Semi-autobiographical or not, it hits close to home. Scary.

It's a good book.

Nevertheless a good book has its limits. First coming with its suddenness in introducing a mental illness, or maybe it's simply that detachment to modern society or upper class social events, which the latter is much relatable.

Okay, don't blame the victim here. Esther is all right to think that way. Or should she not? Shutting every possible outlet to something better? Have we not learnt that constraint choice is better than keeping your options open? Well, anyway. Never mind. Great talent lost. In battle of freedom and marriage. (As one opting for the first, well I wouldn't die yet)

I don't think Esther did have any sorts of recovery towards the end. But if you say that exchange a life for one is worth it then, well, I suppose this book serves its purpose.

Held me hostage from start to finish.

really inspired writing.

Apparently I read this in AP LIT and forgot so I gave it another shot and I still had no idea what was going on LMAO

I was binge watching ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' for the second time, when I came across the dialog, “....here's the number of a psychiatrist, he helped my friend Sylvia Plath.” I turned my neck from the tiny screen of my mobile phone over to the shelf full of unread books and thought of giving this one another go.
Strangely enough, it was like Mrs. Maisel. At times we can see her building up a joke. It's smart, witty, honest, sarcastic and honey-coated with feminism all over; until the first half. I'd like to review this book as 2 parts. The first half is all wit and funny as hell, whereas for the 2nd half her mental health issues piggy-back over it, and at times fun takes the backseat.
When faced with the choice of going to the fur show or Coney Island, Esther chooses to

lie in the bed as long as she wanted to and then go to Central Park and spend the day lying in the grass,.... in the duck-ponded wilderness

was a secret voice speaking straight out of my own bones

After 19 years of running after good marks and prizes and grants of one sort and another, I was letting up, slowing down, dropping clean out of the race

I know my baby wasn't like that...... like those awful people, those awful people at the hospital. I knew you'd decide to be alright again

Doctor Nolan

Plath's ability to relay Esther's experience of being drawn into an abyss is simultaneously remarkable and unfortunate. It's easy to see that she was a poet.

4.5

Die erste Hälfte des Buches beschreibt einfach nur Esthers Leben auf eine witzige Art und Weise. Der Teil liest sich schon sehr gut und ist auch spannend, aber der zweite Teil nahm mich emotional wirklich mit. Sylvia Plath beschreibt dort ihren Verfall in dir Depression und berichtet auch von ihren Selbstmordversuchen und ihrer Zeit im Asylum. Ihr Schreibstil bleibt aber weiterhin poetisch und witzig, obwohl der Gegenstand ihrer Erzählung eher makaber ist.
Insbesondere die Tatsache, dass dieser Roman so nah an Sylvia Plath‘s eigenen Erlebnissen liegt, bringt einen zum Nachdenken.

I was promised a sad ending. Where is it???

Sylvia Plath and I share the same birthday and I can say that she and I have a lot in common

3.5*
Quite promising at first. I can see the resemblance with Salinger's writing style, which I quite enjoyed, but then it got repetitive and nonsensical.

My favorite book of all time. Bleakly funny, beautifully penned, a wonderful and horrible companion through so many years.