The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The protagonist of this depressing novel of Plath's is Esther Greenwood, the detached college student from Boston. In the beginning of the book, we find Esther interning for a fashion magazine in New York; her summer stay is described in chapters that are interjected with quick memories of Esther's. She stays with eleven other girls in an all-women's hotel, and has two main friends: Doreen the partier and Betsey the polite friend. Esther has some crazy experiences, including drinking too much, thinking too much, regurgitating too much, and working too much.
Esther's life seems great; she could marry Buddy Willard-the handsome, smart, family-oriented gentleman she has dated for a while, and she seems to have a successful career at her hands. Plath doesn't show Esther in this great light though; rather she brings forth a character with inexperience, doubtfulness, and lack of self-knowledge. Esther is constantly questioning the many paths she could take and gets all out of sorts when things go unplanned.
After leaving New York, Esther returns home and finds herself stuck in the suburbs that she grew up in; this part of the book is a turning point because at first, Esther seems too insightful to belong in the city that never sleeps, but when she goes home to the quiet neighborhood, she’s even more desperate to find something more to life. As a reader, I thought from the beginning that Esther was crazy, and when she stopped functioning like a normal person, I wasn’t surprised. The following suicide attempts only plunge deeper into the realm of insanity and depression, and as if understanding Esther before wasn’t difficult, trying to relate to her post-nervous breakdown was quite a task.
Plath’s memoir is definitely interesting in account of the deep voice that Esther thinks with and shares. The author’s ability to translate the true feelings into words that I could comprehend and imagine proves her legitimacy.
I’d recommend The Bell Jar to the artsy, deep people that have a secret thirst for insight into the world of depression and confusion. It’s not like any other book I have given the chance to read, but I enjoyed its uniqueness nevertheless.