The Bell Jar

I guess that The Bell Jar is probably a disturbing book for any healthy mind that has never known true depression (either first handedly or by coming into contact with it through someone else). It takes you by the hand and leads you through the paths a troubled mind travels on its way to breakdown. Perhaps "it grabs and drags you" is a more correct way of putting it, as the experience is not pleasant. It is a bit autobiographical: Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide when she was still a young mother of two small children, had a similar experience in her early adulthood. I read it when I was coming out of a major depression myself. Looking back on it, I realize that reading it made a difference: it marked one of the stages of my prolonged "snapping out of it" period.

Synopsis
A student from Boston wins a guest editorship on a national magazine, and finds a new world at her feet. Her New York life is crowded with possibilities, so the choice of future is overwhelming. She is faced with the perennial problems of morality, behaviour and identity.