Friday 56 & #BookBeginnings: Pain, Parties, Work

Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953

by Elizabeth Winder

Amazon.com: Hardcover | Kindle Edition 

For Book Beginnings:

Her room was the size of a decent closet -- beige walls trimmed in maroon paint. A dark green carpet, ferny bedspread with rose-patterned ruffles like Snow White's muted forest. 

- p. 5 (ARC, page may change)

For Friday 56:

"I expect a son two and a half years from now," Otto announced to his wife, as he held minutes-old baby Sylvia in his arms. 

- p. 57 (ARC, page may change)

(page 56 is blank)

Synopsis: Pain, Parties, Work by Elizabeth Winder is a compelling look at a young Sylvia Plath and the life-changing month that would lay the groundwork for her seminal novel, The Bell Jar. In May of 1953, a twenty-one-year-old Plath arrived in New York City, the guest editor of Mademoiselle’s annual College Issue. She lived at the Barbizon Hotel, attended the ballet, went to a Yankee game, and danced at the West Side Tennis Club. She was supposed to be having the time of her life. But what would follow was, in Plath’s words, twenty-six days of pain, parties, and work, that ultimately changed the course of her life. Thoughtful and illuminating, featuring line drawings and black-and-white photographs, Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 offers well-researched insights as it introduces us to Sylvia Plath—before she became one of the greatest and most influential poets of the twentieth century.

I finally read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. If you've read it, you probably know its draw despite it being a terrible depressing and heartbreaking read. Check out my review here, if you haven't already. Commenters are obvious Plath fans :)

It was because of this book that I pushed myself to read The Bell Jar. It'll be interesting, to the say the least, to learn a little more about the icon that is Sylvia Plath. Do you think this is something you'd read?