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4.64 AVERAGE
4.64 AVERAGE
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
This book has been nothing short of life changing. In every moment you can feel the care and consideration Heather Clark has poured into painting a complete portrait of Sylvia Plath's life, which is inextricably intertwined with her work. It is nuanced, detailed, and isn't afraid to call out past biographers for their lack of care in telling Sylvia's story as an inevitable tragedy. In this, Sylvia gets to be the whole, complicated woman she was, and you get to watch from the moment of her first childhood poem how she evolves as one of the greatest poets of all time. In a way, the book also leaves you with a hefty reading list, both to understand Sylvia's influences and the broader scope of 20th century literature. I would strongly recommend to those reading this to have already read the Bell Jar and Ariel at minimum, though Collossus and Hughes' Birthday Letters help further enrich the experience.
So much love and admiration to Heather Clark for tackling this. Would strongly recommend to any lover of literature and biography.
So much love and admiration to Heather Clark for tackling this. Would strongly recommend to any lover of literature and biography.
Incredible! Heather Clark navigates the mire of Sylvia Plath's enduring romanticization and the fandom surrounding her's aestheticization of death as something beautiful and alluring, mystical and powerful. Instead, Clark maintains lucidity and a searing critical eye throughout such a variety of documentation (letters, journals, diaries, interviews, poems, primary and secondary school exams, juvenilia, etc.) that this tome of a book feels deceptively easy to read. The level of comprehensiveness! The ability to defy standard narratives! The denial of easy labels! The further problematization of Plath's legacy! It's just incredibly eye-opening. My whole consideration of Sylvia Plath has been shifted by Clark's insights. Clark argues that Sylvia Plath is not in fact... a truly confessional poet. She is, but she is not. I think everyone can love this behemoth of a biography (and I'm rather surprised this did not go on to win the Pulitzer for Biography, even though it did attain a finalist slot). I don't know how to encapsulate how all-encompassing this book is as a sociocultural history of mid-century America, literary historiography, literary criticism (and a reflection of the rise of New Criticism), a comparative examination of American and British poetry (and the countries' differing relations to class/caste and sexism), and a metatext on the Plath legacy, all without veering into hagiography. How can one not swoon?