Sunday 19 January 2014

Read in 2014 - 1: The Bell Jar

After she saw the kind of reading material I reviewed here on my blog during December, my sister decided it was about time I read something of a better literary quality, and lent me "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath.


The wikipedia entry about this book, the only novel by the author (she was a poet first and foremost), says that the story is semi-autobiographical and mirrors Plath's own experience with clinical depression and the kind of health care mentally ill patients received in those days.

"The Bell Jar" starts in the summer of 1953, when 19-year-old Esther Greenwood is on an internship at a fashionable New York magazine. But what she expects to be the time of her life turns into the beginning of her problems with herself and the world around her, eventually leading to a suicide attempt after she returns home and a long stay in various mental health institutions.

I do not want to tell too much of those events, or the effects her depression has on her relationships with her family and friends, and I am not going to reveal how the book ends, but I recommend "The Bell Jar" to anyone who appreciates the telling of a dramatic story without the need to recurr to overly dramatic language. 

For me, depression has always been something I found hard to understand, and still do after having read this book. On the surface, Esther (or Sylvia Plath in real life) has many more reasons for happiness than for the paralyzing sad numbness she feels. Yes, her father died when she was a little girl; she does not really love the young man who sees himself as her fiancé, and she is not accepted for a writing course she wanted to attend. But she has a mother who loves her, friends who are interested in her well-being, is a reasonably good-looking, physically healthy young woman with no hard-pressing financial worries and a bright mind which can lead her to a fulfilling university career and beyond.

Don't we all have both good and bad things happening to us in our lives? How come some people plunge into black depths by something others get through with more strength they would have believed themselves to have previously? Why are some of us more resilient than others?
Although clinical depression has been scientifically examined for a long time now, and continues to be at the centre of attention for many great minds, it remains a puzzle to me. Can it really all be down to a chemical imbalance in the brain?

Thankfully (and there are so many things I am thankful for in my everyday life!), I was never given to depression myself. Maybe that is the advantage of being so shallow.

Anyway, "The Bell Jar" was a good read, and I am sorry for the author and her loved ones: Sylvia Plath commited suicide mere weeks after it was first published in the UK.

29 comments:

  1. I think I read it way back in the past (decades ago), with feelings of not really understanding it either. I guess depressions can have different roots, or a mix of them, and therefore all can't be treated the same - and not everyone expected to react the same to a certain kind of therapy. (Even if there is a chemical imbalance in the brain, it still resembles the classic question of which came first, the egg or the hen...)

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    1. You are right, Monica, there is certainly no "one size fits all" cure for depression, but each case must be looked at individually.

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  2. I know someone who suffers from this and I believe it is a chemical imbalance in the brain. How it begins, I do not know.
    But I do not think it is possible for people to just cure themselves by a more positive attitude.

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    1. No, I do not think that is possible, either; otherwise, there would be a lot less of it around.

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  3. I can remember reading this book many years ago and found it very interesting, it's hard to describe it as a good read because of the subject matter. I have trouble understanding depression too even though several members of my family suffer from it. They say it's a chemical imbalance, and I guess that's as good an explanation as any.

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    1. Indeed, to call it a "good read" may sound strange, considering the subject matter, but it still was one in the sense that I can recommend it as an excellent piece of writing by a very talented author.
      Thank you for admitting that you have trouble understanding depression, too. I thought it was just me.

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  4. Yes its really a disease; an insidious one . Depressed people are missing something, someone explained it to me as a connecting bridge in the brain, among other things, they do not have this and often feel a sense of despair and loss.
    I seem to know many people who have this disease in varying degrees. Medication is a life saver. And of course kindness and understanding. She was such a wonderful poet too.

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    1. An aunt of mine has clinical depression, too. I don't know how her husband copes with it, but he (my Dad's cousin) is one of the kindest people I know, with a sense of humour he hopefully will never lose.

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  5. I tried it years ago, aand couldn't hack it. Maybe I should give it another go...So many books, so little time...

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  6. I have never read it but once again thought I should because I passed the house where Sylvia Plath lived (a very nice one). I think depression strikes like a physical illness does. It is just the same to wonder about it as to wonder why some people get allergies, I think. I do think also that some people are more excitable and up-and-down than others, even if they're not mentally ill. But all kinds of mental illness are horrible I feel because you can't get mental control over it.

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    1. It does not take very long to read, so if you get the chance, I recommend it, Jenny.
      Yes, I am sure mental illness can strike the same as physical illness; sometimes, the cause is clear (as with some allergies) and sometimes it isn't. Good job we live in a day and age where (at least in "Western" society) mental illness is not treated like curse from God anymore, but a lot is being done to understand such illness better, and treat it accordingly.

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    1. Thank you very much for your open words, Carol.
      I am glad that there is medication (and medical help in general) to treat depression nowadays. Possibly one of the most difficult parts is to recognize the illness as such, and then seek help. From your description (like having to attend family and other events on your own, and sometimes not daring to leave your husband on his own), it sounds very much like my close experience with alcoholism (my late husband was a binge drinker). You never knew when it would strike, although there were known triggers, and it was not always easy to put on a brave face to the outside world.

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    3. On the funny side, Meike, at one point I attended so many of our daughter's sporting events on my own that one guy thought I must be divorced and started hitting on me. I'm so dense that it took me about fifteen minutes to realise what was happening! I beat a hasty retreat and told a fib about having to go pick up my husband at the airport. Never saw the guy again.

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    4. Meike, I have deleted my original comment, as I feel rather embarrassed -- as if I were telling you this in an attempt to gain sympathy at the expense of being indiscreet. Sorry for the inconvenience. Love to you, xoxox

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    5. Dear Carol, I took your comment not at all for an attempt at gaining sympathy but as a valuable addition to the topic of depression, which has attracted so many comments and is so "big" a topic in so many people's lives, as I can see now. It was very brave of you to write about it here, I think!
      You having been hit on by that guy at your daughter's sporting event made me smile. I can just imagine how his alarm bells rang when you said the words "my husband"!
      Love & hugs to you, too
      xxx

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    6. Thanks, Meike. I'd love it if we could meet in person one day. 'Til then -- more love and hugs. And thanks for the book reviews. I always enjoy hearing about books which I may or may not have time to read. xoxox

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  8. Having been seriously depressed more than once, and refused treatment, i cannot tell you whether it is an imbalance or not, but i can tell you it is a monster to deal with, and very real. May you always be spared the ravages of it.

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    1. I hope that, too. I know it is none of my business, and of course you don't have to answer, but I am confused by you having refused treatment for something you call a monster to deal with.

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  9. A very real disease - an enigma and one that can't be easily dismissed as a mood or a sadness. You are indeed fortunate not to suffer from it. Julie says it so well - kindness and understanding as well as medication.

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    1. Hello littlemancat, I think this is the first time we meet, welcome to my blog and thank you for reading and leaving a comment!

      You are right, depression is more than just being in a sad mood, and I hope I never have to find out first-hand how bad it really is. I also hope that I can be a kind and understanding friend to whoever in my circle of friends (and family) suffers it.

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  10. I have a number of close friends who suffer from clinical depression controlled by medication. They all hold (or held) good, responsible, well paid jobs and live comfortable existences free of children or money and, so far as I can tell, relationship worries. When the illness strikes, though, the effects on them and others can be severe. The one thing I can do, though, is understand them. For that I have to be thankful for something I was not thankful for at the time: post-operative depression when I was 16 and had just had much of one of my lungs removed. I've never suffered since but the effects of the experience of those few months have never left me.

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    1. You must be a very valued friend to them, Graham. Thank you for mentioning my post on your blog, and writing more about the subject. Yours and many other comments here help me to understand a little better what depression means.

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  11. Thank your lucky stars for not suffering from depression. It is not something you have any control over, other than medication. I have got better at coping and the disease has eased with age too, but I still get it thrown at me occasionally. All I can do is ride it out and hope for the light at the end of the tunnel.

    As for reading material: listen to your sister. She obviously has a different taste in literature from you and it does no harm to broaden ones range.

    I have been wondering, do you ever recommend German writers?

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    1. I know I am very fortunate for not having to struggle with any major health issues (apart from very weak eyes and skoliosis), mentally or physically, and am indeed grateful for that.

      My sister is quite the intellectual and has refined tastes in music, reading and art, much more than I. The reading material I have been reviewing on here does, I'm afraid, not really represent what I most enjoy, but mainly what I read merely because I had the occasion to get those ebooks for free or paperbacks were sent to me by my mother-in-law.
      I rarely read German, and if I do, I review those books on here as well. My favourite contemporary German author is Walter Kempowski, who sadly died in 2007. I was lucky in having met him once at a reading in Marbach, and have read nearly all his works.

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  12. I remember reading that book a long time ago. I suffered from a serious depression once in my life for two years and I'm never going there again. For me that also means avoiding books and movies that will make me feel sad or anxious. I've become very discerning in what I read and I don't care if it's good literature that I'm avoiding. :) I read quite a few shallow novels last year and they made me laugh and were perfect entertainment... xoxo Silke

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    1. You do well in avoiding things that you know could trigger depression again. As you know from the reviews on my blog, I am not averse to shallow, entertaining reading myself - sometimes it is really all I want from a book, especially after a demanding day at the office.

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