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 experiece 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.
My Review: They label this as an american classic, I myself wouldn't take it that far...it's IMO not nearly as much of an American classic as To Kill A Mockingbird but it did have it's appeal. I agree that the Sylvia Plath may have had a hard life and that this so called classic was more like a "semi-autobiography" but this was by far not what I expected nor anything like the good reviews I heard from other people giving it good ratings. Guess this is why they say never expect anything when opening a book, and don't judge a book by it's cover.
My Likes: The book was small in pages, the type was easy to read through, and there are AMAZING vivid descriptions in certain parts that just give you an awesome clarity on what was happening at that time.
My Annoyances: The book literally took me 90 pages to be entertaining to me, that is a big rate loss right there! I am not saying entertain me by page 2 but get to the story before page 90 it wasn't until Esther was cracking up that this book became interesting or bearable for me to get through, had I not been a completest I could have easily put this book aside and forgotten it.
Overall IMO I would give it 3 STARS for easy reading, and vivid descriptions.
Needless to say this book went right back into the swap company I got it from and someone else already requested it ha ha so hopefully they see something else in it that I didn't :)
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