Contains:
Mothers --
Ocean 1212-W --
Snow blitz --
The Smiths : George (50), Claire (16) --
America! America! --
Charlie Pollard and the beekeepers --
A comparison --
"Context" --
Rose and Percy B. --
Day of success --
The fifteen-dollar eagle --
The fifty-ninth bear --
The daughters of Blossom Street --
Sweetie Pie and the gutter men --
The shadow --
Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams --
Above the oxbow --
Stone boy with dolphin --
All the dead bears --
The wishing box --
The day Mr. Prescott died --
Widow Mangada --
That widow Mangada --
Cambridge notes --
Tongues of stone --
Superman and Paula Brown's new snowsuit --
In the mountains --
Initiation --
Sunday at the Mintons' --
Among the bumblebees.

Excellent collection, can't believe I hadn't read it before now. ( )

I'm not a poetry reader, so I've never really read Plath's poems. But like any self-respecting depressed female teenager I read her memoir The Bell Jar. This collection doesn't contain any of her poetry either, its short stories & articles of varying strengths, along with notebook entries. Its interesting to see how some of her journal entries later became short stories, & I enjoyed this book a lot. There were a few dud stories, but even with those you can understand her ideas & as she never published any of these dud ones herself its likely she knew they weren't as strong as the others. ( )

I love these stories. Johnny Panic is my absolute favorite. I've read these over and over. ( )

I'm not sure what the point was in including excerpts from her journals, particularly her Cambridge Notes. The essays and stories easily stand on their own. The stories are a mixed bag from the hopeful romantic "Day of Success" to the dark, disturbing title story "Sunday at the Mintons'" seemed the most representative of her poetical themes -- a woman whose life is overshadowed by a domineering man and the helplessness of such a life, yet the spirit is alive in the woman. Most were good stories although some were too dark for my taste. ( )