The young Esther Greenwood won a fashion magazine contest, and now she spends a lovely summer in New York where she can contribute to that same fashion magazin, go to dinners and photo-shootings and the lot.  She stays in a ladies-only hotel called the Amazon where she and Doreen, one of the other winners of the contest, become friends.  Doreen takes her out to several places, and on one of those places they meet Lenny Shepherd, who invites them to his flat.  Over there Doreen and Lenny become more and more intimate, and Esther returns to the hotel.  Later that night Lenny brings Doreen back, not too sober, and though Esther had sworn that she'd never have anything to do with Doreen anymore she takes care of her.

The next day everyone except Doreen, who is still suffering from a hangover, attends a banquet for the magazine she works for.  Afterwards she has a meeting with her editor, JC, who wants to know what she intends to do after College, and Esther can't really answer that.  JC's mild reprimand for that attitude shakes Esther quite a bit.  She feels she isn't fit for much, all she can do is manipulate people so she can win scholarships, and a date with an interpreter at the UN lets her see her own future rather empty.  She also sees she hasn't been really happy since she was nine years old.  At a photo-session for the magazine they worked at, Esther breaks down and starts to cry.

Back home in Boston her mother tells her she didn't make it to the writing course where she had hoped to spend the rest of the Summer.  So in stead Esther decides to work on her thesis and read Finnegan's Wake.  Then she is miles ahead of the others in her final year.  She could even skip that year, and try pottery.  Or be a waitress in Germany, JC had said that languages are important to differ yourself from the rest.  Soon however she finds herself unable to do anything, not even sleep or eat.  Her family docter, where she went for sleeping pills, advises her to see a psychiatrist.  She loathes the electro-shocks she receives there, and she starts to think more and more about ending her life.  There are some helf-hearted attempts before she locks herself in with a jar of pills after having left a note to her mother, saying she's going for a walk.

This novel about a young girl that cannot deal with the pressure she perceives, pressure she only puts on herself, and the depression that evolves from this is seen as Sylvia Plath's own story.  There is a remarkable resemblance indeed, and probably she who suffered from a depression herself would be excellently placed to describe what it is like, what goes on in the mind of Esther, how one slowly and almost unnoticedly slides towards this condition.  Pressure is not the only cause for her depressive condition though, her views on sexuality don't exactly make it easy on her either.  Partly it is something that divides people in her view, divides them between those that have and those that have not done it.  Partly it is something she sees as an almost violent occupance - illustrated by her views on how she witnesses Doreen and Lenny become more intimate for example.  Her relationship with Buddy Willard is similar to her view on sexuality: either sugary romantic, or almost grotesque, there is no room for anything in between.

The first-person narrative makes this novel focus on what it should focus: the emotional and mental evolution of Esther Greenwood.  What happens is really just illustrative for her state of mind.  It may explain as well, but since this is told by Esther it also means that it is her view, her memories, her perceptions we hear.  Undoubtedly a lot of those perceptions and memories are coloured by her.  The best illustration for this is when she wakes up after her suicide attempt, where reality is mixed in the dream, and the dream slowly fades out of reality.  What is real and what not?  Who cares?  The title of the novel, "Bell Jar", comes from this, from Esther's perception that she lives inside a bell jar, it preserves her, but it also filters, it suffocates her, it alienates her.

Should you read this?  Up to you.  I didn't know what to expect, I had only read the short description on the back of the book, and that wasn't even close to what this novel was about.  My translation is just over 200 pages, short enough to give it a try.  You'll find a very clear description of a girl's descent into the darkest caves of her soul, fascinating both as a spectator and as the one experiencing it, bundled in a strong story that's easy to read.