The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (2001) ( )

Scathing, comic, honest story of mental breakdown ( )

I absolutely loved this book. What are the techniques used to write this book?

I can absolutely say, this was my favorite book so far this year. I can't definitively say it was the best, but I loved it. This is in large part because of how well I connected to the material and Plath's beautiful, overwhelming descriptions of each event.

Plath has been one of my favorite poets for a long time - since I wrote a long report about her in the 7th grade. Her poetry moves me and makes me wish I could write some of my own that didn't sound ridiculous.

In the book, "the bell jar" refers to the feeling of suffocation that depression causes. This is one of the best descriptions I've ever heard, being the most accurate, in my experience. Yet I feel as if writing this must have been slightly cathartic for her. When I think how she went on to kill herself the month this was first published, it makes a strange sense to me.

On a purely literary level, Plath's writing moves me, as her poems have in the past. She has a dry sense of humor and ironic voice that, if misread, would probably sound strange, but read correctly amuses and entertains. Esther's reminisces on her time in New York are realistic and aptly prosaic.

Overall, I loved it and recommend it as a way to understand depression. Sometimes depression doesn't necessarily have an definitive basis, nor an easy fix like so many would like us to think. ( )

Wow! I picked this up at Costco and just finished it this weekend. It was one of the best books I have ever read.