A book that exists in its own bell jar surrounded by literary and celebrity mythology. The semi-autobiographical description of mental descent and partial recovery by a writer. One month after publication the author is dead aged 30. What was the writers intention?
Self-help, self-knowledge, self-publicity, honesty about mental health issues and how it is/was treated, plea for help, something darker? All this took place in the 1950/early 60’s when electric shock treatment and experimental drugs were seen as solutions, which Plath was subject to. What she suffered from is a devastating problem many people go through daily with themselves as first responders.
It is an achievement then the book was written with such literary poetic skill. It cannot be easy writing about your self like this in the face of societal disapproval then and now from various angles and publishing, even under a pseudonym. Elements of detachment and obsession are not surprising, along side anxiety, fear, uselessness, and compulsion evidenced in the vivid progress of the story, repeatedly.
We cannot know if in, even slightly, different circumstances, Sylvia Plath would have gone on to write more, lived long and become a leader in revising attitudes to issues of well-being broadly. She had the abilities. She has left behind a recognised testament in courageous honesty.
Mark's Reviews 