Title: The Bell Jar

Author: Sylvia Plath

Genre: Semi-autobiographical

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review:

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar was one of the books that I read during my episodes of depression, and there is no other book that could depict just how vague, complicated, and difficult  mental illnesses are.

Esther Greenwood's decline to depression, and eventually suicide, speaks volumes about the complexity of the human psyche: that even the smallest and minute events can lead to the dwindling of one's self-worth and will to live, that no one can really pinpoint the one and true reason for someone's depression. I, for one, keep people's minds boggled why I have succumbed to depression: I have a wonderful family, I have a job, I have a blossoming love life, I have great friends, and I have a generally good life—but I am still depressed. So why? 

I don't know. And this is how Plath portrays Esther's story: the reader cannot fully understand the root of her depression, why she decided to die, and how she still fears that the "bell jar" of depression will cover up and invade her world again. 

Plath describes depression as a bell jar: it hovers over your head, covers you under its dome, and keeps you trapped in a prison of sadness, emptiness, and solitude. She clearly describes the pains of going through electric shock treatments for her illness, her attempts at ending her life, her constant inner battles, and her days in the asylum.

Plath's writing is spontaneous, one that really depicts just how unpredictable life is—that life is a series of events that one cannot expect to happen in spite of how much you plan it so. When you read The Bell Jar, you cannot guess what happens next, unlike most novels where each and every plot is carefully laid out to create a climax and a resolution. The Bell Jar parallels Plath's life and her personal experience on her treatment for depression, and this is where the true beauty of the book springs from: it is a story of a life.

Title: Nectar in a Sieve
Author: Kamala Markandaya
Genre: Semi-autobiographical
Rating: 4 out of 5


Review:

Nectar in a Sieve is a poignant tale of a woman’s life, set in a time when urbanization sprung to life amidst a resistant but hopeful rural India. The story revolves around the life of Rukmani, the youngest daughter of a village headman, who was married at the age of twelve to a tenant farmer, Nathan, whom she has never met until their wedding day.

Child bride—this was what caught my attention when I read the synopsis of the book. With the recent news about the eight-year-old who died on her wedding night in Yemen, the concurrent issue of child marriage has resurfaced with higher intensity than ever before. I expected more gruesome details about child marriage in Nectar, but as I read along, I discovered that it tells much more than that—much more harrowing, more touching, than being married at a very young age. 

Nectar tells about a young mother’s struggle in an impoverished area in India. It tells about how Mother Nature is indifferent to the livelihood of people that are dependent on weather. It tells about the destructive effects of infertility in marriage. Markandaya has woven a wonderful, graphical picture of poverty, of the menacing promises of modernization, of the dark pleasures of prostitution, and of the heart-breaking eventuality of children growing up and leaving their parents. 

A slight warning, though: Nectar can be, at first, depressing. Of all the hardships that Rukmani and her family has gone through, it may be hard to believe that someone can have so many misfortunes in life—but it’s real. There is no other book that can pull your heartstrings without having to use the mushy theme of romance. It can leave you both aching and hoping, crying and gushing, with a satisfaction that you have read something worthwhile.

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This review is also published in SunStar Cebu, thanks to Fiona Escandor. You can view the online version of the article here.