Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Book 3 - The Bell Jar

Completed January 12th



I know the book looks a little shabby. I picked it up in a used book store a while back. Also, the paper inside is my book mark...I take notes when I read.

*is a nerd*

This is a book about mental breakdown. It begins with Esther (the main character) starting a summer internship. She's relatively stable and takes the reader through some of her new experiences. But slowly we see her unravel, losing confidence, becoming more depressed, and eventually being committed.

I loved it. Beautifully written. It's like stepping inside someone else's mind in a way I've never experienced. When Esther did or saw something awkward, I felt embarrassed as if I had had the experience as well. It really sucked me into her world. I felt Esther's confusion, sadness, pain, fear. And it was refreshing.

Some of my favorite passages:

  • I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react. I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.
  • I felt sorry when I came to the last page. I wanted to crawl in between those black lines of print they way you crawl through a fence, and go to sleep under that beautiful big green fig tree.
  • So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state.
  • I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
Rating: 9 out of 10

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