The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (2006, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

Sylvia Plath’s autobiographical novel, which details her first suicide attempt, her struggle with depression and her breakdown as a young adult in the 1950’s, is both a testament to how far medical science has come in the treatment of mental illness and a somber reminder of the double standard that still, though to a far lesser extent, handicaps American women. Esther Greenwood is a high achiever, garnering scholarships and awards without much effort. She has a coterie of close friends and a medical student boyfriend who wants to marry her. But enviable and likeable as she may appear from the outside, she is in turmoil – an extraordinarily complex woman who yearns to be as simple as what she perceives around herself, even as she finds that simplicity boring, revolting, and hypocritical. Plath’s genius lies in making Esther’s inability to cope seem entirely rational, using haunting poetic imagery to suggest a very recognizable world which is far more out of joint than is her doomed protagonist. Gyllenhaall’s detached and jaded tone strikes the perfect note. A short, sanitized biography follows the novel.