audiobook Pain; Parties; Work: Sylvia Plath in New York; Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder in History

Review

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful. "People are like boxes. You would like to open them up and see what's inside; but you can't."By Amelia GremelspacherIn this eminently readable book; Syliva Plath is quoted as saying this to her startled friend Laurie after a day at the zoo. Her friend thought she might have been referring to the people watching they had done; but I think Sylvia meant herself. This book centers around the dream job of junior editor at Mademoiselle given to Sylvia and nineteen other girls. Curiously; a covert hand writing expert had warned her staff that she was likely to suffer a breakdown; something she found out by accident. Her editor saw her to be all facade. "You might be there another day and find an entirely different personality."Interspersed within the discourse are a multitude of quotes and observations made by the people who interacted with this brilliant young woman. Her own journal is quoted where possible. And her works at Mademoiselle are cited. This technique should make for boxy and irritating flow to the prose; but in fact achieves just the opposite. And I believe this interspersing of stories emphasizes the inner contradictions suffered by Sylvia. If nothing else; she experienced the conflict of needing solitude to write while working in a deeply social setting.The "normalcy" of the bright and shining writer has long confounded readers. She adored fashion; ate to satiation; and enjoyed luxury. When not pulled back into herself; she could be entertaining and wryly funny. To me this work actually seems to complete a piece of the puzzle of the illness of the golden girl. Now; years later; psychiatry is well acquainted with the tragedy of the young person glinting with potential returning home from college and or work in complete breakdown. At the age of twenty; Sylvia was ripe for the breathrough of genetic predisposition or for the expression of neurochemicals or for the appearance of whatever theorized function of this breakdown that can occur in early adulthood. While the stress of Mademoiselle probably hastened the process; it seems unlikely to have caused it.This interpretation of Plath's illness added a dimension to this novel for me. But one certanily can find contradictory meanings to mine and still feel trememdously fulfilled by the skill of this work. The author has taken a risk in format and I think it paid off well. The prose is deeply compelling and one can almost feel that you can put down your book and find yourself in the newly stylish New York of the middle of the century. I highly recommend that you read this book.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Kind of relished it.By Ada ArdorThis is an account of both the era and the time in Sylvia Plath’s life; when she spent the summer in NYC as a guest editor for Mademoiselle. The book was very well-researched; and the guest editors’ stories were rendered in such a way as to make each of them fascinating. I just wish there were some photographs of them; and I also wanted to know what became of their lives.Also included were opinions and direct quotes about how the other guest editors felt about SP. Janet Wagner failed the third grade; was the nonfiction writer winner; was discovered by Eileen Ford; and she thought SP was an Ivy League snob. Carol LeVarn was from Sweet Briar with white-blond hair; she was the “Doreen” from The Bell Jar; she feels betrayed by the depiction of her in The Bell Jar. Ann Burnside thought SP rude for hogging the caviar. Margaret Affleck thought SP nice; very pretty; refined; and liked her immediately.For me; the best parts were the anecdotes about SP – her feelings about her body and makeup; her embrace of hangovers; her adoration of Marilyn Monroe; her strange fear of bobby pins; her diverse crushes including a Japanese emperor; as well as writers and politicians; her food preferences; and so many other little bits not included in other biographies.I wish the author had just let the title be; “Sylvia Plath in New York; Summer 1953” instead of the peculiar title “Pain; Parties; and Work.” Again; I mourn there were not more photographs. Even the star configuration of the guest editors should have at least been accompanied by their names. But I don’t want to take away from Elizabeth Winder’s thorough research; her presentation of the other guest editors; and the charming and bizarre habits of SP.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. DEFINING MOMENTS IN TIMEBy Laurel-Rain SnowIn the summer of 1953; Sylvia Plath and several other college girls were chosen as guest editors for Mademoiselle Magazine; to work on the college issue.A month long frenzy of activities; from work in the bull pen; to photo shoots; to luncheons; and to a round of parties; would ultimately become a series of defining moments for the young women.Entering her senior year at Smith following that summer; Sylvia's plans to write her senior thesis on James Joyce came to a screeching halt when she found herself struggling with the readings; her comprehension seemingly gone.Self-confidence was at an all-time low when she attempted suicide; and subsequently spent time in a psychiatric hospital. But afterwards; in the Platinum Year of 1954; Sylvia seemed "golden" again; with her newly blonded hair and her revitalized attitude.In later years; Sylvia would plumb the depths to write about the "hottest summer of her life." Those experiences; fictionalized; would become the core of The Bell Jar."Sylvia's experiences in the city that summer ignited her already harsh eye. The Bell Jar burns with a merciless bathing-suit-in-the-dressing-room fluorescent light. But this same garish illumination can be fresh; perversely flattering in a truthful/trashy way--like a snapshot where the skin has too much shine on it and there are too many dark shadows and everyone looks like a deer in the headlights; caught in the moment of reliving some recent humiliation."The 1950s in America were a time before the big changes that would come. Before Betty Friedan's book illuminating "the problem that has no name." Before the protests and fervor of a generation discovering freedoms previously unexplored. I remember these times well. And the fashions of that summer of 1953 were some that I recall with distaste. The fabrics; the styles...they spoke of a hobbling of a woman's self as well as her physical being. Unattractive and binding; the subsequent decades could not come soon enough for those of us living then.One of Sylvia's friends during that summer; Neva Nelson; summed up their experiences: "We were all immature adolescents--products of the middle 1950s; pre-Pill; pre-Feminine Mystique--expected to do something extraordinary; but left with the ambiguity of the female role; with its stress on home and family."Pain; Parties; Work: Sylvia Plath in New York; Summer 1953 (P.S.) is a time-out-of-time series of experiences that revealed the girlish Sylvia Plath; still self-confident; for the most part...still golden. A portrait of the young woman; encapsulated in this moment in time; the story elicits sadness for the lost girl and the life cut short.