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A review by xx_selenite
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
I am truly speechless. I finished the book 40 minutes ago and needed those 40 minutes to process the monumental biography I just read. My thoughts are not fully organised yet, and I apologise for this.
- I believe Heather Clark knows Sylvia Plath better than Sylvia herself. There isn't one aspect of her life that wasn't talked about. This is the first time I feel familiar with a person through a biography.
- Related to the previous point, I cried, which is new for me upon reading biographies.
- Despite having studied The Bell Jar, I did not realise how autobiographical it was before reading this book. Even smaller, more trivial elements are rooted in Sylvia's real life. In the same way, some poems become much easier to interpret
- This book didn't feel tedious to read like some biographies are. It reads as easy as a novel, at the end of each chapter I just wanted to keep reading.
I truly believe this is a book one must read if they've ever read anything by Sylvia Plath. It is necessary to understand her writings, and her life illustrates the psychiatry of her time, a system which failed to understand women's suffering and the impact of patriarchy on their psychology.
A genuine, major recommendation.
- I believe Heather Clark knows Sylvia Plath better than Sylvia herself. There isn't one aspect of her life that wasn't talked about. This is the first time I feel familiar with a person through a biography.
- Related to the previous point, I cried, which is new for me upon reading biographies.
- Despite having studied The Bell Jar, I did not realise how autobiographical it was before reading this book. Even smaller, more trivial elements are rooted in Sylvia's real life. In the same way, some poems become much easier to interpret
- This book didn't feel tedious to read like some biographies are. It reads as easy as a novel, at the end of each chapter I just wanted to keep reading.
I truly believe this is a book one must read if they've ever read anything by Sylvia Plath. It is necessary to understand her writings, and her life illustrates the psychiatry of her time, a system which failed to understand women's suffering and the impact of patriarchy on their psychology.
A genuine, major recommendation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, and Suicide attempt