Edward Butscher

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I really liked The Bell Jar and wanted to know more about Sylvia Plath. This is the first biography of her life and work. Several others have been written since, which I have not read.

The title, Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness, tells us the book is about more than her life. It follows closely the development of her poetry. Butscher is a well-respected poet in his own right, so it makes sense that he would analyze Plath's poetry. He begins by reviewing the poetry she wrote in her teens, moves on to how it evolved at Smith, and how it changed dramatically after her marriage to Ted Hughes and the birth of her children. From the beginning, he looks for signs that she is revealing her real self and finds it only sporadically until near her death.

Plath was born to a strong yet remote father and a mother who cared too much about appearances. Sylvia learned early how to put on a happy face, play the part of the all-American girl. Certainly she looked like one. She was attractive, energetic, dressed modestly and tastefully. Her approach to the world as a person was reflected in her poetry.

Butscher says she had different selves, but that one of those selves - what he calls the "bitch goddess" - is hidden away most of the time. I had a little difficulty determining what the definition of "bitch goddess" was for Butscher. It has a different meaning for different people. I think Butscher's definition is of a woman rising above the cultural confines of womanhood, an angry yet clear-sighted woman.

The book assumes that the reader knows about Plath's life already. References are frequently made to events to come in the future in an offhand way. We know the end, of course, but many of us do not know all the details in between. Thus there is a kind of distance between writer and subject. I found it difficult to get to know Sylvia. That, of course, is what Buscher says was true for most if not all people she met.

Butscher dwells on Sylvia's "madness" as well. In his Afterword, he says she was probably bi-polar and of course lived with depression much of the time. I believe such categories are best left on the table, as I don't have a great fondness for psychiatric definitions. Clearly she was deeply depressed at the end. By an accident she never got a referral to a therapist that might have saved her life in that last week, but who can say?

I wondered how her voice sounded, so I have sought out recordings. Lucky us, we can find them easily. I like her voice. It's educated, clear, distinct. These recordings give me a rounder sense of her. I wanted more.

The book offers a good sense of who she was and how she wrote, and how she eventually broke through to revealing her inner self. I continue to find her interesting and may seek out other biographies and read more of her poetry.… (más)