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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
Certainly interesting narrative, but the ending was surprisingly bad.
The most even-handed of the bios on Plath and Hughes. Malcolm really tries to get the full story without taking sides. It's nice to see, since most Plath bios depict her as a simpering victim to Hughes' cruelty, which was most assuredly not the case.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
It’s important for me to note that this was a book we had to read for class but not expected to finish. I read it in its entirety because nobody writes like Malcom. Her work (of the books and New Yorker articles I’ve read) appears to be magic but requires true skill and craftsmanship in the English language and storytelling.
The story follows the drama and feuds which underwrite the Plath estate and forces us to reckon with the tension between who we think we are, who others think we are, and all the ways people can spin us into things that we are not (dead or alive), in favor
of creating characters for the public to criticize, sympathize with, or hate.
How Malcom makes the story of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and all other characters that feature in the great story of “Who Was Sylvia Plath?”, a captivating read is a testament to her sheer genius.
For a literary/narrative journalism-investigative research-literary criticism piece with volumes of information and analysis of poems and people, I couldn’t put it down. It felt like reading a crime novel except everything was true and we knew upfront
who our victim was all along.
10/10
The story follows the drama and feuds which underwrite the Plath estate and forces us to reckon with the tension between who we think we are, who others think we are, and all the ways people can spin us into things that we are not (dead or alive), in favor
of creating characters for the public to criticize, sympathize with, or hate.
How Malcom makes the story of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and all other characters that feature in the great story of “Who Was Sylvia Plath?”, a captivating read is a testament to her sheer genius.
For a literary/narrative journalism-investigative research-literary criticism piece with volumes of information and analysis of poems and people, I couldn’t put it down. It felt like reading a crime novel except everything was true and we knew upfront
who our victim was all along.
10/10
Really excellent book, informative and easy to follow - finished it in a day. It goes through the existing accounts of Plath’s life with a critical eye and draws on new interviews with those that knew her to portray a reasonably rounded picture. Malcolm highlights the possible inaccuracies of biographical writing as she goes, as well as the back and forth between biographers and the Plath estate (which makes it an interesting read for anyone interested in this form of writing).
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Malcolm fearlessly invokes her, and all of our, draw to biography/voyeurism in this multifaceted portrait of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the many still-living figures we all leave behind.
Hard to convey how intriguing and complex this book is.
Hard to convey how intriguing and complex this book is.
This was fascinating, engaging, and easy to read. A little bit name-droppy in places but otherwise very insightful, discussing a notoriously 'slippery' literary marriage. Easily as profound writing about Plath/Hughes as it is in its questions on the legitimacy and authority of biography.
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!