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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary., February 9, 2003
Most readers who come to this book will already be familiar with the basic story of poet Sylvia Plath, her doomed marriage to author Ted Hughes, and her suicide at age thirty. In "Wintering," one of the Ariel poems, written in the four months before her death in February, 1963, Plath depicts the "real and bloody sacrifice" of this marriage, according to author Kate Moses, "not bodies piled in a mountain pass but her life...the truths fanning out a page at a time." Kate Moses recreates the heart, soul, and psyche of Sylvia Plath in her extraordinary debut novel, Wintering. In preparation for this novel, Moses read virtually every piece of Plath's writing, and most, if not all, of the resource material about Plath. So completely has she distilled this material and incorporated it into the book that the reader feels as if s/he is actually entering the mind of Plath, a Plath who is speaking and reminiscing, conjuring up events, aching, dreaming, and hoping. Astonishingly, Moses achieves this without ever deviating from a third person narrative and without ever speaking as Plath herself. Organizing the novel around the poems which make up the Ariel collection, all written in the last four months of Plath's life, Moses creates a fictional narrative using as chapter titles the names of poems from Ariel, each chapter including some of the imagery from these poems and the subject matter from Plath's life which parallels them. Moses does this naturally, without calling attention to this specific image in that poem, or this event at such and such a point in Plath's life, simply letting the narrative unfold in parallel with the essence and imagery of the poems, a process which feels, remarkably, as if it's unfolding of its own accord. The poems which serve as the impetus to each chapter live on after forty years, continuing to speak to the reader across time and space, and Moses wisely keeps her own narrative in the present tense, suiting her style to that of Plath's poetry. Like the poems, the chapters sieze on images and events in random order, making Moses's achievement in creating a real and memorable narrative out of the creative chaos truly daunting. This not really a novel about Plath, so much as it is a novel in which Plath reveals herself, something she does to even greater effect in her poetry. Because of this, I would strongly urge the reader to find a copy of Plath's Ariel to read in concert with Moses's Wintering. Images from the poems take on added significance when they are repeated and expanded in Moses's narrative; likewise, events from the narrative shed light on some of the intense but sometimes unfocused feeling in the poems. When one knows about the lives of Plath and Ted Hughes and can see the significance in their lives of the repeating images of bees, apples, the moon, food, the earth, and life cycles, their symbolic importance in both the poems and narrative grows, and the reader gains new insights. This is a remarkable novel based on the life and poetry of Sylvia Plath, one which will undoubtedly bring new readers and new appreciation to Plath on the fortieth anniversary of her death at age thirty. Mary Whipple
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for Plath fans. Casual readers will be bored., October 10, 2003
As someone who has studied Plath's life and work for a long time, I was intrigued by the notion of someone having taken on Plath, Hughes, and their friends and families as characters for a novel. The chapters of "Wintering" are each titled after one of Plath's "Ariel" poems, in the original sequence Plath had planned for the book -- the manuscript was to begin with the word "love" and end with the word "spring." "Wintering" author Kate Moses has clearly done a lot of excellent research -- this is apparent even before you get to her notes at the back of the book. Readers who are familiar with Plath's life and work will find the characters' thoughts and the book's settings dressed with details from Plath's poems, journals, and letters -- the six jars of honey, the "lurid skins" of balloons that appear in an "Ariel" poem. It is on this level that "Wintering" succeeds as "A Novel of Sylvia Plath." Kate Moses has immersed herself in the wealth of material that's out there, by and about Plath, and has produced a crystalline snowglobe world out of what had been chunks and fragments. It's also interesting that the novel appears not to take sides. Plath and Hughes are human, each with strengths and flaws. Even Dido Merwin and Assia Wevill are fleshed out, rather than left as flat villains of the piece. But herein lies what dissatisfied me about "Wintering" -- there doesn't seem to be any villain or, if a villain, per se, isn't necessary, there's no fire, no thrill, none of the crash and bang and intensity one gets from reading Plath's actual writing, whether it's her poems or journals. Apart from one scene in which a delirious Plath hears strange voices on the telephone and seems to see carrion birds in her house, there is no hint of her irrationality and demanding nature (aspects of her personality that have been under debate for decades, as to whether they really existed) or her intensity (which was an undeniable Plath trait). Even though I was largely dissatisfied with the book (far too many of us Plath fans feel like we own her), there's no denying Kate Moses' achievement. Her creation is believable and incredibly detailed, especially the descriptions of life at Court Green (as idyllic and bucolic as I ever imagined it myself), the interactions of the Plath and Hughes characters (both as newlywed writers goading each other to produce, and as an estranged couple), and Plath's isolation during the winter in London, as she cares for her two young children. I'm giving the book only three stars because, though I feel Plath fans will enjoy it, I can't imagine a casual reader picking it up and pushing all the way through to the end. As far as I'm concerned, a good biography of Plath is still much more interesting, especially with the mystery of "What was going through her head that day?" Though Moses has imagined that in a believable way, the mystery of not knowing is still more interesting. The glory of "Wintering" is in the details -- details that have been picked up from primary source material: the poems, letters, and journals of Sylvia Plath.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Superb Psychological Portrait Of A Phenominal Poet!, December 22, 2003
Kate Moses seems to have climbed into the very soul of Sylvia Plath and brought her vividly to life on the written page with her stunning novel "Wintering." I read the novel in a 24 hour period, with a well worn copy of Plath's poetry by my side. Ms. Moses recreates the haunted last months of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. She researched her subject extensively and seemingly absorbed into her bloodstream all she read. Plath's skeleton is fleshed out from ink on page and recreated, with an artist's eye, into a vital woman determined to write her poems and raise her family alone. Moses' detail, language and imagery is exquisite and so reminiscent of her subject's that her prose reads like poetry. The book begins at the conclusion of Plath's marriage to poet Ted Hughes. Throughout their tempestuous six years together they shared an extraordinary and mutually productive literary life. They were each other's best critics, and inspired and encouraged the other in their writing careers. The couple had two children, Frieda and Nicholas, still in their infancy when plans for a divorce were made. Their idyllic life together in the English countryside had descended into drama, violence and finally disaster. Hughes left his wife for another woman, a mutual friend, and Plath, in terrible anguish, is left to begin a new life for herself and her babies in a London flat, once occupied by William Butler Yeats. "Wintering" is set in London in December 1962, with flashbacks to the couple's earlier years. Each of the forty-one chapters takes its title and substance from one of the "Ariel" poems, written during the last four months of the poets life. In spite of the quantity of poetry she pours onto the page, Plath is plagued with reoccurring bouts of clinical depression which she fights desperately. It was bitter cold in London that winter, she and her children were sick with the flu, without a telephone and friends. Having betrayed their marriage Hughes has retreated and is relatively unavailable to call on for help. As Sylvia, weakened with fever, is unable to sleep, her tumultuous mind on fire, she writes her poetry through the night. Dark moods and despair threaten to overcome her in her fragile physical and emotional state. She is left to the mercy of the demons which have pursued her since her breakdown, attempted suicide and hospitalization ten years earlier. This book is almost as much about language as it is about the last winter Sylvia Plath spends on earth. But then, so much of Ms. Plath's being was about language. To separate the two would have been an injustice. The author succeeds admirably in doing justice to the poet's work and style. "Wintering" is also about pain - palpable, terrible pain. It is important to note that Kate Moses does not include the suicide in her novel. This is a story of a struggle for life, independence, art and for family. And Plath fought with all the vitality and energy she possessed. Sylvia Plath was a brilliant and prolific poet, a wonderful mother, and she died too young, at age 30. Kate Moses' novel is a near masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
JANA
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