The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath

[brokentune]

Not so much of a review, just a note to confirm that after years of trying, I give up.

I can see that The Bell Jar is an intelligent and, for its time, courageous venture into issues of relationship, the perception of women in western society, the taboo of mental health, the medieval treatment of mental health issues, the classification of non-conformist identity as mental illness, and other topics that clearly needed to be discussed at the time when Plath wrote the book - and still need to be discussed.

No, my issues are not with the book as a work of social record. What I am giving up on after years of trying different samples of her work is Plath's writing - it does nothing for me and I found it a bit of a tedious slog to finally finish the book based on one of the whiniest characters in history.