The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath (Heinemann, 1963)
audiobook read by Maggie Gyllenhaal (Faber & Faber, 2015)
Heavily descriptive, albeit the slathered-on imagery (a poet throwing herself at prose) does serve as a tracing agent in charting mental illness. An unsatisfying novel, difficult to separate from its affecting autobiographical content. Gyllenhaal’s audiobook reading renders it at least somewhat accessible.