The Bell Jar

(Line from the book, possibly my favorite)

So rather than spam this page with three blog posts, I'll just do one each evening this week--hopefully I'll remember.

Okay, well my second independent reading book was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I didn't dig it as much as I did my first book, but this one definitely wasn't bad. First off, Sylvia Plath really knew how to craft some sentences. It's strange how she writes such a depressing novel and it ends up sounding sooooo pretty. The imagery for fig trees and bell jars were both beautiful and terrible. Granted, she killed herself a month after this book's publication, so I'll just assume she wasn't in the best of places when it was written.

I really loved the first two hundred pages. Its very much my kind of book, mostly because it focuses on character development rather than plot. Then the last forty-four were... rushed. A good four major life events happen to tie the ends up to this book, but they feel so fast when compared to the rest of the novel. Only a good two pages are devoted to her friend's suicide. Really? Granted, the main character is a little bit self-absorbed, but not so much that a suicide would mean nothing. Quite possibly Sylvia Plath was trying to wrap everything up rather quickly with hopes of everything just ending. What I found annoying about that mindset was that she didn't explain what caused Esther to get better. Instead, the reader is told everything is all good, and the bell jar has lifted, but the depression was a crucial part of her life and she wouldn't be willing to ignore it.

What I find most depressing about this book is how positive the future is for Esther, but terrible for Plath. It almost feels like she wrote everything down to get better, but it didn't work...