Beautifuldecay read and liked Mister Jones's review of The Bell Jar:

"[groan] when I was in my twenties, I read this book and liked it immensely; I related to Esther; I empathized with her angst and anxiety about what life had handed unfairly to her, and how she had enabled all of that woe to alienate her from a world ...more [groan] when I was in my twenties, I read this book and liked it immensely; I related to Esther; I empathized with her angst and anxiety about what life had handed unfairly to her, and how she had enabled all of that woe to alienate her from a world she felt she had no part. The prose was clear; well-written; and was steeped in persecution and isolation as Esther spiraled into the darkest recesses of depression.

In grad school, all I heard was how great Ms. Plath was, how her writing--her poetry, her fiction, her confessional themes--had set her apart as one of those great writers who suffered in a partriarchal world, amid scandulous, indignant speculations that Mr. Hughes had abused her. Yes, it was the archetypical abused female writer and the expected abusive Hemingway-like genius together that fed the academic PC interpretative legions of Feminist-Gender Studies.

Somehow between that time I read The Bell Jar, and heard others using this novel as an pseudo-autobiographical explanation of Ms. Plath living a dysfunctional existence, as well as supporting their own political agendas, I came to an epiphany: this book is a self-serving/self-pitying pretentious literary load of classic whine.

I'm glad God gives us choices in life because I won't ever read The Bell Jar again or read it inside the oven on broil.

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Beautifuldecay added a quote:
"Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful." — Milan Kundera

Beautifuldecay added a quote:
"There were always in me, two women at least, one woman desperate and bewildered, who felt she was drowning and another who would leap into a scene, as upon a stage, conceal her true emotions because they were weaknesses, helplessness, despair, and present to the world only a smile, an eagerness, curiosity, enthusiasm, interest." — Anais Nin