Review Detail

Reader reviewed by dede

This book sucked me in from the very beginning. It is semi-autobiographical, and it is heartbreaking to read things that Sylvia herself probably went through. Esther is the main character and she starts out pretty "perfect", she won an essay and goes to New York as a great prize. She does notice that there is something "wrong" with her that summer, but she can't understand why, because she has a good life. It spirals from there to suicide attempts, to doctor's visits, to being committed, to electroshock therapy and interacting with other people who are in the asylums too. We also get to see her interactions with Buddy, her foremost "suitor" and other men, while she struggles with her virginity a bit. It's not pretty, but it's not supposed to be. She continues to have "normal" thoughts while suffering. Thoughts like "There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know any of them... I never feel so much myself as when I'm in a hot bath." She says that she seemed to be inside a bell jar with no way out. Sometimes the jar would raise a little bit and seem to be ready to let her go, but it would always come back down and keep her there. There seems to be no one thing or any combination of things to contribute to her downward spiral. It could happen to anyone, and they would be just as helpless to stop it as Edith was. Was Edith (or Sylvia) really going crazy or just suffering from some medical issue, schizophrenia the foremost guess? After this book, I am really looking forward to reading her poems. It's heartbreaking to think what she may have accomplished had she not died so young. In today's society and all the sensationalism, I truly enjoyed this book for it's honesty and it puts some of the more recent books to shame.