Gina's Book #1: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This book was recommended to me by a coworker and was not a typical pick for me.  Although it was a little bit out of my comfort zone I did like it and finished it in two evenings.  It is an easy read, but the subject matter is a little dark.  The story follows the life of Esther Greenwood: a young and brilliant college student who shows great promise.  As the story enfolds you watch as Esther is slowly driven insane by what seems to me like her fear of the future; what she will amount to, if she will live a conventional life, and if she will be happy. I was interested to read in a short biography at the end of the book, that much of what Sylvia had written, she had taken from her own life.

The novel was of particular interest to me, I think, because I have recently graduated and find myself in the time of my life that Esther was so afraid of.

The more I read about Sylvia Plath, the more fascinating I find her.  I'll finish with two quotes of hers that really stood out to me:

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.”

"What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age."