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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
This is the first thing I’ve read by Janet Malcolm and it definitely makes me want to read more of her work. I love her writing style. Very readable but also complex. I also learned a lot about the practices of biography, literary criticism, and publishing. And human nature.
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
What an amazing book. Not sure if I want to read the Bitter Fame anymore but I'm glad I read The Silent Woman first!
informative
slow-paced
2023 is the year I become a Plathian scholar. This is a critical analysis of Plath's biographies (that were written at the time of this publication). I think it's written well and ethically, but I most of all love how much Malcolm shits all over the entire biographical genre. 3.5 stars
informative
medium-paced
Janet Malcolm seems to delight in sneering at everyone and everything (including biography itself) but never enough to seem nasty. It is a celebration of the fickle, self-centred, multi-faceted nature of human beings as much as it is about Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
'The pleasure of hearing ill of the dead is not a negligible one, but it pales before the pleasure of hearing ill of the living.'
I love the picture she builds up of the 'players' in the legend of Sylvia Plath. They mainly get torn apart but in a way that feels fairly even-handed (Ted Hughes does seem to get a tiny bit of sympathy though). Olwyn Hughes sounds delightful!
'The pleasure of hearing ill of the dead is not a negligible one, but it pales before the pleasure of hearing ill of the living.'
I love the picture she builds up of the 'players' in the legend of Sylvia Plath. They mainly get torn apart but in a way that feels fairly even-handed (Ted Hughes does seem to get a tiny bit of sympathy though). Olwyn Hughes sounds delightful!
This is such an interesting look at Plath's life through the eyes of many of her biographers and it's also an examination of the act of biography itself. I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this. Malcolm's writing is wonderful, and her thoughts on death especially thoughtful.
reflective
slow-paced