Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I often see this book on lists of books you should read before you die or novels you shouldn't miss etc. but I was never personally attracted to it. I knew that Sylvia Plath was a poet, and I was never really into poetry (excluding Bukowski). Still, I decided to give this one a go and see if I like it. And in the end I did.

This book tells the story of Esther Greenwood (Sylvia's semi alter-ego), a young girl who comes to New York after having won a competition and she seems to have this amazing, bright future ahead of her. But, since the beginning of the novel, you can sort of see that not everything is great with Esther. She slowly starts to lose her mind and kind of starts sinking into a kind of depression. She ends up dropping out of school and going home, where her mother isn't sure how to help her. She takes her to a psychiatrist who refers her to this mental institution, where they specialize in shock therapy.
I know this summary doesn't really tell much, but the plot isn't really what you should be curious about. It's the way you can actually read how Esther feels and how she spirals further down to her illness.
I really liked the way Plath writes, at least in this book. It's crisp and so honest. It's a sincere story of a young woman who tries really hard to battle her inner demons and problems. I like that you kind of get a glimpse to a mind of someone who is sick and you can see how that person thinks and what she has to go through on a day to day basis. For me personally, this was so important, given the fact that I am going to be starting psychological studies. This book also made me quite sad. You can see Esther who can't get away from herself, who is starting to live inside her own head, isolated from the world. It also shows how attempts from her surrounding to help her fail and why that happens.
So the whole concept of the book and certain thoughts were amazing. But it did take me a lot to read this book. It wasn't a compelling book that I couldn't stop reading. The writing got messy and jumbled at certain points, and was a bit hard to understand at times, at least for me. Also, I was expecting more from this book somehow so it was a bit of a letdown. But in the end, I really did enjoy it and I appreciated the insight. I would recommend this book because I think it really is one of those books that you have to read to understand, even if you don't necessarily like it.