This autobiographical novel by Sylvia Plath certainly gives insight about her mental illness. It’s a fascinating peek into the author’s troubled mind.
Esther Greenwood (a thinly veiled Sylvia) is bright and appears to have it all, but why and where did her life go wrong? It seemingly begins when she is rejected for a writing class at the same time she is having relationship problems. Her downward spiral is swift. Esther demands much of herself and of others, and when perfection is not attainable, she cannot accept it. Although she is then admitted to a mental hospital, the book (unlike the author’s real life) eventually has a hopeful ending.
This book was a quick read, and I know I will be reading it again at some point as it is very compelling. I’ve twice seen the movie Sylvia starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and I definitely believe it added to my appreciation of the book.
A quote from the book:
The one thing I was good at was winning scholarships and prizes, and that era was coming to an end.
I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone.
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.
From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was EeGee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.
I started out not liking the writing style of this book at all. This is the first Proulx book I’ve read, but if her other books are written in the same style, she is the queen of both the sentence fragment and the comma splice. I get that some of the sentences were supposed to be news headlines, and I found that to be clever. However, not all of them were and it truly was like fingers on a chalkboard to me. After a few chapters, though, I found the storyline very compelling. The characters were well drawn, and I was sympathetic to their life situations. I discovered that I wanted to keep reading so I could learn what happened to them.
Quoyle and his family go from the States back to Newfoundland, which is where his father was originally from. Everyone there knows about the Quoyles and it isn’t all good. Quoyle is a kind man, but a bit of a bumbler, or so he thinks. He has a job at the local newspaper writing about car wrecks and the shipping news. (I could have done without the detailed newspaper reports of the s*x abu se cases.) He takes care of his little girls, Bunny and Sunshine, as well as his aunt. Or is his aunt taking care of him? (I was fascinated by her character, especially the certain incident with the outhouse!) All in all, it’s an engaging domestic drama taking place in a freezing, unforgiving climate.
In the end, I still didn’t like the writing style, but I did enjoy reading about this family and Newfoundland. I’m now looking forward to viewing the movie adaptation.
1993, 337 pp.
Rating: 3.5
Winner, Pulitzer Prize
Winner, National Book Award
This book created a little controversy when it won the Newbery Medal because it contains the word ‘scrotum’ in relation to a snake bite on a dog. I’m almost conservative as they come, and I don’t see what the big deal is. I really liked this book and found it to be very charming.
Lucky is a girl whose mother has died and who lives with a Frenchwoman. They live in the desert of California in a very small (population 43) community. Also in her life besides her French guardian Brigitte are Miles, a cute little boy whose favorite book is Are You My Mother?, and Lincoln, a boy her age who is obsessed with knot tying.
These relationships and the longings of this little girl form the heart of the novel. I really cared about these characters and found myself rooting for all of them.
My Sister’s Keeper is about a family with a deathly sick child and how that illness colors every decision they make. How far would you go to keep your child alive? Would you have another baby–even make it a “designer baby” that would be a perfectly matched donor for your sick child?
These questions are explored in the novel from all sides. There are multiple narrators. We get to hear from the mother, father, each sister, the brother, and others important to the story. I really liked the multiple points of view. Picoult takes a tough ethical issue and represents each side quite well. This was my first Picoult novel, and I look forward to reading more.
MyUtopia – June 5, 2007
I liked this book though it totally made me cry much like her other works.
J at www.jellyjules.com – July 5, 2007
I read this book last year, and I was really enjoying it, to the point where I wanted to buy it as a gift for a friend…but the end, I HATED. Seemed too soap operaish to me.Here’s my review, if you’re interested. http://jellyjules.com/?p=443
I’m wondering if I want to read any other of her books, since I felt SO let down.
I’ve been wanting to read The Echo Maker for several reasons. I always like to read novels that are set close to where I grew up–on the prairie in the Colorado/Nebraska/Kansas region. This novel is set in Kearney, Nebraska, where my sister currently lives. I like to read award-winning novels, and The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award. Also, it is one of the books in the New York Times Notable Book Challenge, in which I am participating. Lastly, it concerns Capgras and Cotard’s Syndromes, and I have an intense interest in these because I know a person who experienced them.
Warning: there may be some minor spoilers below.
Mark Schluter has been in a rollover accident and has sustained a severe head injury. As Mark starts to get better, he insists that his sister is an impostor. He also doesn’t recognize his dog, Blackie. He begins to think that his home has been duplicated and perhaps the whole community has as well.
His sister Karin (Mark calls her Kopy Karin and Karbon Karin) is devastated when he refuses to accept her as his sister, and she calls in a nationally known doctor who has written several popular books on brain disorders. “Shrinky” as Mark calls him, comes to Kearney, runs a few tests, consults with Mark’s doctor, and then goes home. Is he truly interested in Mark’s case or does he just want another “story” for his new book? Mark does trust “Shrinky,” though, as well as his nurse’s aide Barbara–two people he did not know before the accident. Much of Mark’s time is spent trying to figure out who wrote a mysterious note found on his nightstand in the hospital.
“I am No One but Tonight on North Line Road GOD led me to you so You could live and bring back someone else.”
We do find out who wrote the note, how the accident occurred, and if Mark gets well again. Contrary to some bad reviews of the book, I liked how the characters were developed–even if some weren’t likable. While I was interested in the various characters’ thoughts and feelings, I thought some of it extraneous. I appreciated the setting (of course) and the descriptions of the birds. I didn’t like the vulgar language and s*xual content, but I guess that is the norm in a modern novel today.
Also, I’m not sure why, when referring to prairie farm people, certain very negative subjects have to always be brought up. The people I know from the area are the most decent in the entire USA, and I’m always sad to see it when they are portrayed with negative qualities that might occur in less than 0.5% of the population of the region.
All in all, I’m glad I read the novel because of the reasons I stated in the first paragraph. I’m not sure that most readers would appreciate it, though.
"Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." (John 6:27, ESV)
This autobiographical novel by Sylvia Plath certainly gives insight about her mental illness. It’s a fascinating peek into the author’s troubled mind.
I started out not liking the writing style of this book at all. This is the first Proulx book I’ve read, but if her other books are written in the same style, she is the queen of both the sentence fragment and the comma splice. I get that some of the sentences were supposed to be news headlines, and I found that to be clever. However, not all of them were and it truly was like fingers on a chalkboard to me. After a few chapters, though, I found the storyline very compelling. The characters were well drawn, and I was sympathetic to their life situations. I discovered that I wanted to keep reading so I could learn what happened to them.
