Rating: 4.9/5 stars
CW: depression, suicide, attempted suicide, assault, mild language.
Do you ever read a book and feel as though your brain is taking a deep breath for the first time in ages? Parts of your brain you forgot about are suddenly stimulated and you feel fully engaged and focused? This was one of those books for me. Gripping, extremely well-written, with lots to reflect on and think about.
Summary:
Esther is a young woman on the brink of many exciting possibilities and in the middle of an internship with a ladies magazine in New York. As it ends and she returns home, she falls into a deep depression and struggles to find a purpose as she is confronted with harsh truths about people and life.
Spoiler-Review/Synopsis:
Told from a first-person perspective, Sylvia Plath's novel hauntingly depicts the gradual and all-encompassing submersion into a deep depression. Some memories are sharp and full of detail, such as her relationship with Doreen or her visit to Buddy while he was in isolation. Others are fleeting, such as her relationship with Betsy. As the book goes on, it also shifts from Esther's observations of the outside world to an inner reflection of what is happening in her own mind, and her perception of her relationships with other characters is less and less objective and more and more unsure, both of herself and the motivations of others. The timeline of some memories also becomes unclear, fuzzy and foggy. As all possibilities seem pointless and hopeless, Esther makes several suicide attempts, with a varying level of execution. Some are all planning and no action. Others have at least one thing go wrong. Finally, she has a near complete attempt, and only by the luck of her mother finding her hidden nearly-dead self is she resuscitated and placed in a long-term care facility. Esther gradually moves up, but it is unclear how much internal healing she feels and how much is masking.
All in all, I think this book is an incredible example of how to write a book about trauma that doesn't skimp on true emotional connection. Too often, books use trauma to sensationalize or as a way to make the reader feel something without putting work or motivation into it. (*cough cough* my last two reviews *cough cough*). The trauma is central to the story and treated gingerly, not as something thrown in the reader's face to force an emotional connection.
The element that kept this book from being a perfect score for me was the scene at the communal dining table where the black employee is described in a stereotypical racist fashion. Sylvia Plath is clearly gifted, but this evidence of racism clearly demonstrates a deeper personal belief that I am saddened to learn about.
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think happened to Doreen after the internship?
2. After watching a live birth, Buddy tells Esther of the drug that "would make her forget she'd had any pain" (Plath 66), and Esther remarks "I thought it sounded just like the sort of drug a man would invent...the drug would make her forget how bad the pain had been, when all the time, in some secret part of her, that long, blind, doorless and windowless corridor of pain was waiting to open up and shut her in again," (pg. 66.). Do you think pain hides in our heads? How is this a metaphor for mental health?
3. What three words would you use to describe Dr. Gordon?
4. We see a definite difference between Esther's first hospital and the second, most particularly in how her personal requests are respected or not (i.e. visitors). Why do you think this is?
5. What are your thoughts on Joan? Where did she come from? How did she get released?
6. It is unclear at the end of the book whether or not Esther passed her interview. Do you think she does?
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