Bell Jar

Rating:
Summary: "The Bell Jar"- a memoir of madness
Review: "The Bell Jar" is definatly one of the most impressive books I have ever read. Sylvia Plath talks about how she gets depressed and eventually tries to kill herself. This book is bound to leave it's mark on you, and it is definatly recommended for anybody who liked "Girl, Interrupted" by Susan Kaufman; "I Never Promised you a Rose Garden" by Joanna Martin(?), "Lisa, Bright and Dark", and Sylvia Plath fans. The story starts in New York City, where we meet Esther (Sylvia Plath). Esther has been chosen by a magazine to work for a month at the magazine to learn about writing. Esther has "adventures" in New York, and after her month with the magazine is up, she returns home. There she learns that she has been rejected by a university for a writing course that she wanted to take, and she doesn't know what to do with herself. It is here that she realizes that there is something wrong with her, and many other events unfurl, such as her visits to a psychiatrist that performs shock-treatment on her incorrectly, until finally she overdoses on sleeping pills. After this she ends up in a mental institution, and she finally "gets better". Towards the end of the book, she says that she hopes that the bell-jar of despair does not fall over her again. The sad thing is, that it did fall over her and that is how she died. This book is incredible, and there is nothing bad to say about it. Sylvia Plath is a great writer, especially because she speaks from experience. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is considering buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Plath's highly disturbing poetry in novel form.
Review: This book is everything you knew about life but didn't want to believe. The story of a girl who falls from the embraces of sanity into the bell jar where life takes on a completely different view. This book should come handy with a pack of razor blades. I never read a book that has shaped my life as much as this one. Towards the end I stopped feeling symapathy for the character as I felt like I was having a pity party. Plath's writing style reminds me of Salinger possessed by the spirit of Poe. A great book to read just don't stay in house alone after reading it

Rating:
Summary: A powerful psychological time bomb
Review: This was simply too powerful a book to describe. I would reccommend anyone who has ever felt themselves overwhelmed, to take this eerie journey with a woman who could not take the pressures life has to offer. But beware, the strength of her prose offers a view, sometimes too close for comfort, of a mind in the ravages of a breakdown. Rebecca Silverstein

Rating:
Summary: THE BELL-JAR , BY SYLVIA PLATH
Review: It is interesting in that it shows that "teenage angst", a term that we often apply to the Generation X-ers of today, has always been prevalent in society. It treats depression and feelings of self-worthlessness as real and tangiable things. Someone who had not experienced these feelings herself would not have been able to write such a believable novel. Kristy Wandl

Rating:
Summary: Stunningly poignant.
Review: I don't often cry because of the power of a book.The Bell Jar, however, is no ordinary book. From thebeginning, in her Salinger-esque style, Sylvia Plath traces the tortured downward spiral of her own soul, the story made ever-so-much more effective by the heartwrenching true tale of her own suicide. A wonderful book, suitable for the young, the old, and everywhere in between; NOT, however, for those afraid to reflect on their own depths and faults, and those of society. -Anthony Gabriele

Rating:
Summary: Sylvia Plath's perspective was nothing less than genius.
Review: Sylvia Plath's perspective,on something as simple as a glass of water,was nothing less than genius. Along with the mastermind of her poetry, 'The Bell Jar'-with it's steel vice of poignace and honesty,can still make this grown man cry. For the new Doom and Gloom Generation this will be a must read while listening to your big brothers old Joy Division and Cure albums. -Craig Hardesty

Rating:
Summary: Madness and Brilliance
Review: The Bell Jar is a stark narrative about depression, and the power it has to completely immobilize protagonist Esther Greenwood and throw her into insanity. The Bell Jar's prose is easy to read, and yet Sylvia Plath's writing style is highly sophisticated and exact, which is startling considering the nearness of her own suicide. Esther Greenwood begins an ambitious and talented young writer, working for a beauty magazine in New York, and attending college on a full scholarship. Her sorrow and madness begin to surface, and she soon finds herself trapped in a revolving door of mental asylums. The interesting thing here is way the story is told; unflinchingly and without remorse. I could hear Plath's cold, spare, incisive voice behind that of Miss Greenwood - hurting and ready to die. The Bell Jar can be read as a fierce indictment on depression. It is a brilliant, haunting, frightening work, and it held my interest intensely the whole way through.