The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath, Harper & Row, 1963, 275 pp
I admit that I had reservations about reading this novel which is based on the author's own experience with mental illness. I put off reading it for years. Odd, because I have read other novels and memoirs featuring people who descend into madness and actually liked them. I think because we all know that Sylvia Plath committed suicide just one month after The Bell Jar was published, I was concerned about what I would find.
What I found was some of the more wonderful writing I have read. Poetic imagery, wry humor and pithy observations enough to make me wish I had known her. I did find mental anguish but not a victim mentality or even narcissism, just a sense of bewilderment about what had happened to Esther Greenwood, the autobiographical stand-in for Sylvia. Most telling though was her fear of the future once she was released from the asylum.
"I had hoped, at my departure, I would feel sure and knowledgeable about everything that lay ahead--after all, I had been 'analyzed.' Instead, all I could see were question marks."
Because the timescape is mid 1950s, one is given a patients-eye-view of the barbaric treatments of those times (shock treatment, insulin shock, and the sexism from male practitioners.) Now we have all these designer drugs for every mood and diagnosis. The fact that these drugs are also attempts to alter the mind and personality does not fill me with much more confidence however. I am not up-to-date on the current statistics as far as saving lives goes with the drugs, but I am up-to-date on some of their failures.
The final section of the edition I read is A Biographical Note by Lois Ames (at one time contracted by the family to be the official biographer.) That was the saddest part by far. It depicts a gifted and determined woman who struggled to overcome her demons but in the end succumbed within eight years of having been pronounced "cured."
Well, I have read it now. I am no longer afraid of the book but I am just as certain as I have always been that there is much more understanding of the human mind needed to help those who are afflicted with mental illness.
(The Bell Jar is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
I thought this was a very impressive book, however it was too emotionally raw for me to say I 'enjoyed' it.
ReplyDeleteI understand!
DeleteThe writing is so poignant, so poetic, and emotionally wrenching. It is a book written from the gut. Not one necessarily to enjoy, but one the honesty of which you can certainly appreciate. It gives one unfamiliar with the horror of mental illness at least a taste of what it must be like.
ReplyDeleteSo well said Dorothy! I should have had you write my review or at least edit it-:)
DeleteI hope you understood I meant that as admiration. It sounds kind of mean when I read it again.
DeleteYour review is perfect. It needs no editor!
DeleteThank you Dorothy. You are a good friend!
DeleteI would like to read this novel. I saw a a movie biopic of her and it was so sad...
ReplyDeleteIt is so autobiographical, I felt I got to know her and like her.
DeleteIt's been many moons since I read this book - but I remember it made quite an impression on me. It was wrenching in the end -- that someone so bright could have such a fall.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. There but for the grace of whatever go I.
DeleteThanks for the review of this book. I too have been very hesitant in terms of wanting to read this book knowing Plath's history.
ReplyDeleteThe way mental illness is treated and or seen by the general public and also by those working in the mental health is disheartening sometimes. A friend of mine has a daughter with bipolar disorder and it has been a very rough ride for her daughter in terms of dealing with the extremes of having bipolar.
Yes, I agree with you on the mental health profession. Lots more research needed and education of the public.
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