A review by euthalia
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Sylvia Plath's only novel, it is truly one of its kind. From exploring complex internal emotions to discussing feminism and societal structure, this classic is still relevant today. The story is parallel to Sylvia's own life, an autobiography with the protagonist named Esther. Most of the novel is spent remembering past events and internal monologue, the gradual transition of Esther's inner state of mind from a academically bright scholarship girl to the girl who could not stop thinking about killing herself is truly the most raw and subtle way anyone has been able to capture mental illness, especially in women. Esther's thoughts about various societal topics ranging from femininity, sex, depression, men etc. were very well explored through events that had occurred in her life. 
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
 “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” 

 “The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.” 

 “But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrist looked so white and defensless that I couldn't do it. It was as if what I wanted to kill wasn't in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get.” 

 “The floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no farther.” 

and many more.....

I really liked this book, I read this book exactly at the time I needed it most. And I think this has become one of my favorite books of all time, I loved it.
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