Deeply depressing.
Esther Greenwood is talented and successful. She has decent looks and is in New York on a big fat scholarship. She has her whole life ahead of her. But things go downhill very quickly for Esther. Things get so bad to the point that her doctor recommends shock therapy which traumatizes the poor girl and since her spiraling even further downhill. During her steady decline she tries to commit suicide and is consequently thrown into a mental institution. And that's when things get really serious... or crazy rather🤔 This book dives into the deepest pits of our psyche. It chronicles the dark descent into psychosis. And as the main character is also the narrator we get an inside look at what's going on inside her head. It is almost maddening in itself to read the pages of this book. And it is heartbreaking to watch such a strong successful woman go down so quickly in flames. Very reminiscent of Girl, Interrupted... Or should I say Girl, Interrupted is very reminiscent of The Bell Jar since the latter was written first? The Bell Jar definitely takes place in a decade way before Girl, Interrupted did. However they ended in very much the same way. I devoured this book in one sitting but then again it's not a very large book. This was my first Sylvia Plath book and I have to say I'm glad I gave it a chance. It seems to me that people who have read this book either love it or hate it. To be honest I kind of feel indifferent about it. I didn't adore the book but I didn't loathe it either. Perhaps this is one of those classics that everybody should read once because it acts as a time capsule as well as a look into mental illness and psychosis, both of which it is written beautifully for. With that in mind I would definitely recommend reading this book at least once to take a look into are human past and what may be even more scary, I look into our own human minds.
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