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rdiosteve 's review for:
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
by Heather Clark
Like many people, I was introduced to the work of Sylvia Plath as a moody teen. It left a mark on me that has not faded. For the many of us who have been uneasy with the image crafted by Ted Hughes and his sister Olwyn, "Red Comet" is a long-awaited corrective. This work is an attempt to move Plath out from the simplistic image of her as the doomed emo Confessional poetess, and recenter her in her own life. It is Sylvia's voice which comes through with all it's strength and complicated humanity. Clark helps us see the deeper notes to Plath's work that have been so easily passed over in her dismissal by what was a male-dominated literary culture.
This is a complex work, befitting of it's subject. Against the sea of other works purported to show the 'real' Sylvia, Clark is able to do what others have not. There is no judgment of any of the players, and this single act allows us to move beyond the facade. We see Plath's work as not only that of a 'female' creative, but also as precursor to Second Wave Feminism, and at the vanguard of the 1960's creative blossoming, pushing boundaries and straining against convention. That would have pleased her most.
This is a complex work, befitting of it's subject. Against the sea of other works purported to show the 'real' Sylvia, Clark is able to do what others have not. There is no judgment of any of the players, and this single act allows us to move beyond the facade. We see Plath's work as not only that of a 'female' creative, but also as precursor to Second Wave Feminism, and at the vanguard of the 1960's creative blossoming, pushing boundaries and straining against convention. That would have pleased her most.