A review by fembloggingcat
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill

Did not finish book. Stopped at 69%.

The beginning portion of Hemphill's portrait of Sylvia Plath is quite captivating, especially for someone who knows little about her, but I think that charm is lost as you get deeper into the book (probably at the point where she graduates from postsecondary school). It becomes very banal, she is unsatisfied with the life she has picked from the fig tree, there's no introspection, no hope, and no plot. While there may not be something to be gained from suffering in life, this is a fiction book.

Perhaps contradicting my comment on fiction, I dislike how this book furthers the idea of Plath as a mythic femme fatale tragedienne. She is only ever biting the man's cheek, stunning her peers, or caught in the prison of her mind. Maybe it's a commentary on how we view others without quite knowing the full story that I just don't quite get.