This book is a fascinating glimpse into what the author argues is the most
transformative time of Sylvia Plath's short life- the summer of 1953, she
interned for Mademoiselle.
For fans of Plath, it offers a look into the true
stories behind her only novel, The Bell Jar, and paints a portrait of Plath as
an ambitious, high achieving woman, and gives the reader a look at Plath through
the eyes of her contempories- the models for the characters Betsy, Doreen, and
so on.
While much of this material has been unpublished, there is not a lot
of substance to the book, and I wouldn't recommend it to a reader who wasn't
familiar with at least The Bell Jar, but it is an excellent addition to any
collection of works about Plath.
Some excellent tidbits of information- the
background to the poem A Mad Girl's Love Song (one of my favorite pieces of
Plath juvenilia) was a treat to read.
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