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Book Review of The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar
Author: Sylvia Plath
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 813 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This semi-autobiographical novel might have been titled A Descent Into the Maelstrom. Well-written and sometimes witty, the first part reminds me somewhat of Cornelia Otis Skinner as she essays through her life in New York. Then it gradually turns dark and disturbing. The heroine goes from Betty MacDonald (The Plague and I) to become a bit of Salingers Holden Caulfield (A Catcher in the Rye) to Styron in his Darkness Visible. Put this book on your short list.