i recently read this book and it was pretty good. isn't a good book to cheer you up but will surely enlighten you to a new side of life you'll most likely never experience . - Definitely made me want to read some of Sylvia Plath's poems(there are none in this book) . it was a refreshing read, just because of its set up which each page had a poem summarizing a key part or time of her life from different people she encountered. They are all actual people but their poems in the book are all written by Hemphill which she just adapted to poem from their actual written accounts on the subject. I recommend reading this book, but probably not worth buying unless you like to collect shit.