Last Confessions of Sylvia P.

by Lee Kravetz

I’ve learned the difference between recovered objects and discovered objects. One is lost. The other is buried, like a secret, like evidence. And yet all objects that transcend time endure a process of burial, a period of hidden preservation. That is, deceit is part of their makeup.

Nicolas says it’s possible the manuscript wound up in the house as a fluke, a culmination of random, mathematically dubious connections, in which case we may never know how the notebooks got from Plath to the attic. Nicolas understands just as well as I do that the unintended consequence of discovering an item is so often a heartbreaking lack of closure.