Customer Reviews

BITTER FAME PA

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I wish I could give this book two reviews--four stars for the author's perceptive criticism of Plath's poetry, and one star for her depiction of the poet's life. I was stung by her condecending portrayal of Americans in general--one would never guess that the author was an American herself! I was infuriated by the weasel-like way that Ms. Stevenson portrayed Ted Hughes's affair--that he "made contact" with the woman who became his mistress, and that Plath's jealousy essentially "forced" him to be unfaithful. I had always heard that Ted Hughes's sister had a great deal to do with the final book, and I feel that her spectre shadows almost every word. Never have someone who dislikes you write your biography--particularly if she is hiding behind another person! More fuel for the Plath-Hughes controversy, which will rage on into the next century, even though both protagonists are now dead.

Why would Stevenson, with her apparent lack of knowledge and compassion regarding mental illness, choose Plath as her subject? Stevenson provides great details of Plath's life and adequate criticism of Plath's work, but loses credibility when she begins to blame Plath for behaviors clearly attributable to Plath's mental illness. Many of these behaviors are certainly offensive (i.e. irrational jealousy and rage). But I find Stevenson's attitude much more offensive, when she chastises Plath for her "sardonic refusal to accept limitation." In her final struggle with mental illness, Plath reached out desperately to all who could have helped: family, friends, physician. To compare her to the "Edge" heroine who "has freely chosen the perfection of death" is irresponsible. No one chooses mental illness, or its often dire consequences.

This is one of the better biographies of Sylvia Plath (as is the Wagner-Martin biography, though Stevenson is much more thorough). Supposedly Stevenson comes down on the side of Ted Hughes, but to me the biography seems objective and fair. Even in those biographies written to make Plath look like a victim, she still comes across as tempermental and difficult to live around. I think Stevenson's biography is fair, if at times a bit ponderous to read. I'd suggest Silent Woman as a companion piece (it's a biography of Stevenson's biography). Bitter Fame has three appendices--memoirs of Sylvia written by others--Lucas Myers, Dido Merwin, and Richard Murphy. You get a sense of dread as you approach Dido's little memoir. I'm sure Plath was difficult and I'm sure Dido has her reasons, but you get the impression that she wrote her memoir just to 'get back at' Plath. To show her up so to speak, even though its tone isn't much different then what else you'll find in the book. Anyway, regardless of what type of person Sylvia Plath was, difficult or not, you cannot deny her genius, which is far greater than those who she came in contact with or have written about her.

The best thing that I can say about this biography of Sylvia Plath is that it offers previously unpublished letters and interviews with several of her Cambridge friends. As an American student of Plath and literature, I felt constantly misinformed and oppressed beneath the weight of Stevenson's obviously anti-American bias.

Anne Stevenson begins this book with a real dislike for Plath and her bi-polar or as she puts it "psychotic" fits. What she fails to see, (or maybe she just does not want to admit), that Ted Hughes is just as guilty of feeding Sylvia's jealousy, her unstable behavior. He never "puts his foot down" to Plath's behavior or insists that Sylvia seek help with her depression, etc. Instead he leaves Plath after starting an affair with a friend of both of theirs without any concern for leaving his children with a woman he knows is unstable. Plath is a brilliant poet, but she suffers from bouts of depression, aggression (she destroys the book Hughes is working on in a fit of jealousy), and is prone to paranoia.

The job of the biographer is to lay out the facts and let the reader see into the life of the subject of the book. Stevenson takes sides, mostly with Hughes' sister. The book comes off interesting (as Plath is an interesting subject), but tainted. Overall, it left a very bad taste on my palate for this author's work.

Janet Malcolm's superb THE SILENT WOMAN makes this book a must-read for anyone interested in biographical studies. Stevenson's book famously (or infamously) was written with the cooperation of the Plath estate--that is, Plath's windower Ted Hughes and his fearsome sister Olwyn, the latter of whom was berserkly antipathetic to Plath's memory--, and the result is a biography curiously hostile and judgemental of its subject. For good measure, Stevenson included in the book the hilariously bitter memoir of Plath (fittingly entitled "Vessel of Wrath") by W.S. Merwin's wife Dido, who seems to have been angrily sitting around for twenty years waiting for nothing more than to uncork her fury regarding how Plath once wolfed down some foie gras she had prepared for guests "as if it were Aunt Dot's meatloaf." (The memoir seems to embody everything that American guests fearfully fantasize about foreign hosts judging their every innocent gesture as malicious, selfish, and outrageous.) The result is a fascinating portrait of how, as Malcolm explains in her book, bearing resentful witness against someone else harms the bearer more than the subject of the rant.

Stevenson's attempt to write a biography of Sylvia Plath was made more difficult because Plath's surviving husband Ted Hughes controlled the copyrights to Plath's work. (This may not be as difficult now because since Hughes's death, the copyrights presumably have been inherited by their children.) Thus, at the time this book was written, the coorperation of Hughes, and his sister who seemed in charge of making sure that Stevenson got things right, was essential. This led to charges that the biography was unbalanced in favor of Hughes. Some of the reviews were savage. Moreover, as a later book by Janet Malcolm demonstrated, Stevenson had a difficult time dealing with the Hughes.

Nevertheless, Stevenson provides useful information for those who only know Plath from "Ariel" and "Bell Jar." She shows the dual nature of Sylvia Plath -- on the one hand, the almost too-perfect young woman and on the other hand a deeply disturbed person with enormous rage. Sylvia Plath is probably one of those persons of whom the the definitive biography can never be written. However, Stevenson has made a very credible attempt.

As BellaOnline's Journals host, I've delved deeply into the life of Sylvia Plath after reading and writing about her journals last year. From there, I began to read all the literature I could find, consume as much information as I could. The problem with biographies about Ms. Plath, as Janet Malcolm explains in her book The Silent Women, is that many writers about Ms. Plath's life have taken sides with her, are trying to write to prove that Ted Hughes or Olwyn Hughes, or whoever, are a certain way, according to the way Ms. Plath sees them. They are the antagonist, she is the protagonist. Unfortunately, life is not so easy to dictate sides of good and evil.

Ms. Stevenson has gotten a lot of flack for her portrayal of Sylvia Plath in Bitter Fame, and many of her detractors allege she is "too sympathetic to the Hughes side of the story." It is my opinion that not enough sympathy has been given to the Hughes side of the story, that Ms. Stevenson tries, and comes very close, to bringing us the other side of the argument, their version of the events. For those who can realize that life is not one black and white, cut and dry version of events, but a complex collage of experiences and opinions, this is an incredible book presenting a side of the Hughes/Plath marriage that most authors are afraid to present, and with good reason. The negative publicity Ms. Stevenson has recieved for her book is astounding, considering it has become one of my favorite biographies in the past year. Only "Chapters in a Mythology" by Judith Knoll and "The Silent Woman" by Janet Malcolm come close to giving us an unbiased, complete version of how others viewed Ms. Plath.

The amount of secondary material on Sylvia Plath is enough to make anyone feel a bit queasy about her myth, and makes you question the motives of anyone who's adding to this morbid little industry. What is their agenda?
Undeniably, Plath fascinates, and not only because of the glassy, chill violence of her last poems. Ann Stevenson's biography does justice to both Plath as poet and as myth, though she tries to avoid salaciousness and does not ask questions that perhaps need answering. The thing is, Plath just becomes more and more mysterious the more you learn about her, and her death more bewildering and shocking. Does Stevenson subscribe to the chemically unstable theory? Or was Plath just an unstable personality? Stevenson never really delves into this murky but crucial territory.
The most interesting and poignant part of this biography is actually about Sylvia's early womanhood, in which Stevenson seems to have a particular feeling for her subject (perhaps because Sylvia's journals are available to her through these years). Stevenson seems to become more hesitant, more uncertain as she approaches adult Sylvia and her fabled Ariel poems, the Hughes marriage and suicide, preferring not to speculate too much on Plath's psychology and focus instead on Plath's poems, which is theoretically fine, but makes for less interesting biography because Stevenson does not write about the Ariel poems with particular insight. (She's competent enough and suitably admiring, but does not probe as deeply as is perhaps necessary.)

Still, this is a readable, if finally dissatisfying, biography. That said, it would be hard to write an entirely dull biography of Plath. I haven't read any of the other biographies available, but I can vouch that at least this one is balanced and scrupulous, if a bit over-cautious. My only other gripe would be
pictures, which are very shadowy and rarely show Sylvia herself.

Sylvia Plath's poetry was the first poetry I truly tried to understand. After reading this book I came to understand her words a bit more than one wanted to for personal reasons. But, the telling of Plath's early beginnings was an important step in measuring her real success, or perceived lack of in 1963. I have become more aware of how the process works...meaning to be a writer, especially one who draws from inner struggles and with blood creates such wonderful work.

Anne Stevenson's perspective draws on Plath's poetry through years of struggle to gain a voice of acceptance, which Plath so desperately needed. As do we all in some form or another. The timing of Plath's death also hammered home that once we achieved our "summit" it may just not be enough.

Being a huge fan of Plath's work I am glad I read this. Yes, there is the author's interpretation here and there but the references from those who knew the poet make this book believable and true to life I think. Read it. Then you decide.

I also recommend:

The Bell Jar