The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
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4/5
“I wondered what terrible thing it was that I had done.”
“I remembered everything…Maybe forgetfulness, like a kind of snow, should numb and cover them. But they were part of me. They were my landscape.”
This was a great book with a great peek into mental illness with the perspective of the 1940s. There was a lot of fluff in my opinion that seemed pointless to the plot, but an amazing book nonetheless.
0You know when people say "this book saved my life"? Well, looking back, this one truly did. God it was gorgeous and heartbreaking, but more than that it got me outside of my head a bit. It was the reason I got help when I did, and I'm not sure where I'd be without it. I want to re-read it from a healthier place in life to see what I think, but I will forever treasure it even if it doesn't have the same effect on me the second time around.
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