The Bell Jar

has anyone read it?

if so, is it any good?

my library doesn't have it and I'm not waiting 2 weeks to get it from amazon UK, so I'm asking friends at work if they have it......

I wonder if it's online somewhere......

Constance and Eddie - both/one of you surely have read it........

Yes, I've read it a few times. Sylvia Plath called it a "potboiler" but it's much better than that. It's a novelisation of the summer she went mad and was hospitaized. Very edgey and funny in a dark way.

thanks a lot, Dharma......sorry - I just love your old name......

I was looking at the wiki on Girl, Interrupted......(similar in a way)

and also Teh Bell Jar......

it seemed so cold and clinical in its assessment of the book (and I was thinking about not reading it)

I much prefer your reaction and your experience.......so yes, I'll try to read it......

thanks for answering.......I'm looking for autobiographies of crazy women to get tips on writing my own.....hehehe......(that might seem a bit irreverent......but that's teh logic at the moment)

I just read Eat, Pray, Love this weekend.......

it really was brilliant......

The Bell Jar freaked me out, but I'm glad I read it.

I read Girl, Interrupted a long time ago. Thanks for reminding me of it. After I finish the stack of books I got from the library today I'll order it and read it again.

I just finished an autobiography of a crazy woman (bipolar); you might want to check it out. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. Very acute descriptions of her mania and depressions.

thanks, Constance - I've read that one - I read it a few years ago - it was very good........

It seems like an excellent book , but I have only skimmed it. I ordered it for my brother a few years ago . He enjoyed it.

so far nobody at work has it......two people said they had been thinking of buying it recently......

I might wait a while as a Kindle purchase might be in the offing......

thanks, Dharma.....

seems like a sweet angel has provided me with an online copy.......thanks, babes

bump

A new author for fans of crazy women writers. Marya Hornbacher. Check out her autobiography of growing up bulimic/anorexic called Wasted, published in the early 1990s. She was only in her early 20s when she wrote it and was still in recovery. Quite a shocking book. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

More recently she has written Madness: A Bipolar Life. She has had quite a broken life but writes about it with verve, sensitivity and imagination.

I received it as a Christmas present. I am about three quarters through. I am finding it an excellent read but very sad.