Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.64 AVERAGE
4.64 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
medium-paced
This is a wonderfully vibrant, multifaceted, and complex look at Sylvia Plath that offers so much context and insight into Sylvia Plath as a whole person. I appreciate that Clark hasn't reduced Plath to a one-dimensional or polished relic of tragedy, but instead approaches her life and her art as a multidimensional, often contradictory, very flawed yet deeply gifted human. As the end of the book draws near, you get this sense of an unstoppable freight train speeding up--knowing how it all ends, the exquisite narrative of Plath's last few weeks and days is absolutely heart-shattering.
“If she [Sylvia] must be a myth, let her be Ariadne, laying down the threads, leading us out from the center of the labyrinth. Let us no desert her.”
Wow!
Incredible research and detail, footnotes longer than most books I'm reading.
Just in case you want to know everything -- and I mean everything -- about Sylvia Plath.
I enjoyed The Bell Jar, felt bad when she died, likely laughed inappropriately at a bad joke about it at the time. I am decidedly not the target audience for this tome.
And yet, it is magnificent. And her work was important.
Wow!
Incredible research and detail, footnotes longer than most books I'm reading.
Just in case you want to know everything -- and I mean everything -- about Sylvia Plath.
I enjoyed The Bell Jar, felt bad when she died, likely laughed inappropriately at a bad joke about it at the time. I am decidedly not the target audience for this tome.
And yet, it is magnificent. And her work was important.
Wow!
challenging
informative
sad
challenging
informative
slow-paced
A definitive biography of Plath with in-depth analysis of her writing and “a warts and all” portrait of her as a person. The book presents her as a real, flawed person. A big undertaking due to its length and academic tone it is at its most enjoyable when chronicling Plath’s early life and the tension she felt between being the all-American “good” girl and wanting to have a career, a sexual life etc. The ending of the book - years spent unwell in London… well we know how it ends. Very respectful and actually surprisingly upsetting considering most of us know the facts already. I’ll dip into this regularly and no doubt will reread again. Kept me company over one very strange Christmas.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
To say this biography of Sylvia Plath is thorough is an understatement. This was such a well constructed portrait of the life of Plath and those she was closest to, as well as a thorough depiction of the times she was living in to provide context for her life and work. It’s heavy and at times depressing, considering all of the factors that led to Plath’s eventual suicide. At the same time though, it’s so interesting you can’t put it down. It made me want to read all of Plath’s work as now I have a framework for where it came from and what might have inspired her work. If you’re willing to commit to the thousand pages or hours of audiobook, this is a worthwhile read.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced