The Bell Jar
"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
I enjoy this book immensely. So much so I gave it as a graduation present to a friend of mine, because, despite the shadow of its author's life, this is an inspirational book.
Esther slips into the dense, muggy atmosphere of her worst mind and barely emerges, but emerge she does. Depression on any scale is a struggle, the worst of it in my experience was the persistent feelings of isolation. This novel, and, in a quieter way, Villette, were what cut through walls I had begun to take for granted. 'The Bell Jar' shook me out of my brooding state and made me realize I wasn't alone, or solitarily plagued, in a way no concerned frown or prying question could.
Call it schadenfreude, but this is a happy book.
