Sylvia Plath
Esther Greenwood is an overachiever who is quickly losing her mind. She has a scholarship to her college as well as summer internship at a magazine in New York City. She has some quarkie traits and weird opinions of men, especially of her kinda sorta boyfriend, Buddy. When she doesn't get her second summer scholarship to take a writing class she goes off the deep end, thinking about suicide, being unable to eat, read, write and sleep.
I seriously enjoyed The Bell Jar. It was like falling down the rabbit hole with Esther. Her actions, while not always rational don't often make the reader question them as they are reading. This incredibly solid decent into madness had me questioning my own sanity a few times. She's not annoying, which is a rarity on the crazy characters front. It was a quick, funny and thoughtful read that left me amazed. Some of the minor characters were annoying, but since everything was through Esther's prospective it is understandable. The progression of the story was very natural, just enough time passed so that one was aware it was happening, but there weren't huge gaps of time missing and all relevant information that didn't happen in the linear storyline was told in flashback or new headlines. There is obviously so much of Plath in this novel and it's really heartbreaking that she died so young. Definitely worth the read.
Story
****
Structure
***
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