The Bell Jar

By: Sylvia Plath

Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

©1971 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. Copyright renewed 1998 (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

A classic done right

Maggie Gyllenhaal was the best choice to narrate this wonderful classic. Her smooth yet demanding voice made me not want to stop listening. If you loved this book in print you will love listening to Maggie tell you the story as well

A remarkable achievement; the perfect narrator.

I believe that most people, at least most of the Boomer generation, know this book as a true classic of the 20th century. Few books have tackled the harsh realities of a suicidal decline by the author. This alone, the fact that the book is largely autobiographical, is an important part of what makes it such an overwhelming accomplishment. The first half of the book is much lighter than the second half. During the first half Esther Greenwood, the protagonist/stand-in for Ms. Plath, has some enjoyable moments, particularly in a month that she spends in New York City, working as a kind of student intern at a fashion magazine. There are maybe twenty of these "girls," in the program, all of them staying at a hotel that is called the Amazon but is, I believe, a very thinly disguised version of the Barbizon, a proper hotel for women in which no men are allowed in a woman's room at any time. This part of the book is not light-hearted fun: Esther clearly demonstrates the very early signs of the depression that eventually claims her life. However, she and a couple of girlfriends enjoy the city and its amazing gifts in ways that are occasionally fun, if rather grim fun. One particularly grim fun episode is a luncheon at which the girls all eat a cocktail made from an "avocado pear" (I believe that here on the Left Coast we just call this an avocado). The cocktail features a scooped-out avocado half that is filled with crabmeat, mayonnaise, paprika and so forth. Either the crab or the mayo or both is "loaded with ptomaine," and the poor girls throw up their insides for an entire night. If comedy is tragedy plus time, then this episode is a good example of how we can laugh at something which was truly horrendous in the moment.
The second half of the book is much rougher. Esther begins to come apart, and there is no room for denial on anyone's part. Her mother tries very hard to provide for Esther, and to get the "right" kinds of treatment for her. Some of what she gets is the perfectly wrong treatment, i.e., hospitalization and shock treatments at a private hospital run by a psychiatrist named Dr. Gordon. While it is true that electroshock treatment can be helpful in the cases of treatment-resistant severe depression, the experience that Esther endures is so painful and so intimately described that one can just barely listen to the words without yelling "Stop!" at the callow psychiatrist. During my training I actually administered EST at a Veteran's Hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina. Nothing will make you think a thousand times about its so-called efficacy as having to administer this awful procedure to a patient. Even when the process was improved to the point where a grand mal seizure was suppressed, no one could mistake the profound shock, literally and figuratively, that the patient was going through. Needless to say, the treatments didn't work for Esther, and so she continued down the slippery slope into the abyss.
The good news about this audiobook is Maggie Gyllenhaal. She is one of my favorite actors on the screen. I didn't know that she narrated audiobooks, but I am thrilled about it. If you saw her and James Spader in the deeply troubling movie "Secretary," you hold the image of Maggie portraying one of the most challenging parts anywhere in either literature or movies. I won't go on about this except to say that the relationship between the two leads (Spader is a lawyer who is his usual extremely creepy self, and Maggie is his secretary) quickly progresses from brand new to a spanking connection. Quite literally. Maggie Gyllenhaal pulls this off perfectly, with her extraordinarily expressive face and her stellar abilities as an actor. She applies these same skills, without the visuals, in The Bell Jar, and I think that I will remember this performance for as long as I will remember the tortured young woman in "Secretary." From this point forward, I will gladly listen to almost anything that Maggie narrates. Jake may get more work, but IMHO Maggie is the superior sibling by leaps and bounds. As Esther descends, Maggie's depiction of the awful metamorphosis is spellbinding. Even though we know that the end is coming, somehow the nutty optimist in all of us keeps hoping that she will by some miracle be saved. We think: she's just too good and sensitive a person to die like this.
Buy this book. Although it is quite difficult in some parts, the sheer talent on view, so to speak, is towering.

Why All The Hype?

I'm still trying to figure out what I seem to be missing because clearly, everybody but me loves this book. Despite the story being based on the author's real life, I honestly found the story itself to be rather boring, with very little ever happening in Esther's actual life. With regard to her psychiatric treatment, even that part was not in the least enthralling. I kept thinking there had to be so much more to come. However, the narration was pretty good, though once again, not what I would call outstanding. There are plenty of great books to choose from that are far more worth your time! 😉👎🏼

THE ANNOYING MUSIC

Maggie did a good job. She wasn't the problem. But what the hell was that music? And why was it so loud?! The most annoying thing was to have that music in the middle of the chapter while I'm listening to this in bed trying to relax before bed, and it doesn't help how loud it is. Horrible.

Everything was great except… that music?

What? Why? I don’t understand. It was so unnecessary and I had to turn my volume down every time.

Esther Greenwood, unforgettable hero

An exquisitely poignant tale. This novel touched me as few others have. The hero, Esther Greenwood, is both bard and hero of her own epic. She tells the tale of her descent into madness, her journey through its dark landscape, and her possible reemergence to the light. When the book ended, I was hopeful for Esther, and also craving more of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s voice. Ms Gyllenhaal’s sensitive performance gave life to the tale’s many voices and especially Esther’s.
The prose is lyrical, the work of a great artist.
Outstanding

Poetic in nature, well done like a oven top Salmon

She went though, step by step almost, of a nervous break down, reflecting on her life though the glass of a bell jar.

I felt I coul felt I could see the world through her eyes!

Each chapter drew me in wondering what would happen next.
Loved Maggie' reading.
Wonderfully written. I chuckled, I felt sad, I didn't know what to think sometimes.

Perfection

Please have Maggie Gyllenhaal perform more novels - the performance is engrossing, the novel made better by her reading it

Only Sylvia Plath Book I've Ever Read

Was not sure what to expect from this classic - but Maggie Gylienhaal had the perfect voice to guide you through the time period. Plath's matter of fact writing style made this book and the story easy to visualize. Too bad she left us before her time.