One Day

As you can imagine, the sugary cover art of this romance novel led me to expect something breezy and cheerful. I wasn't prepared for the gritty cynicism and desperate discontentment of the two protagonists, Emma and Derek. In some ways, though, this makes it even more optimistic; Emma and Derek are deeply flawed individuals who still get to experience a romance worth writing about. Makes me kind of jealous... and kind of hopeful.

Nicholls takes us through one day per year -always June 15 - in the lives of Emma and Derek. Sometimes they're together, sometimes they meet only briefly, and sometimes they don't directly interact at all. Their lives are realistically unpredictable, with Derek usually enjoying some extravagant lifestyle and Emma settling for something she despises and scorns, whether a pathetic job or a worthless boyfriend. I can't give anything away about the plot, but One Day is definitely worth the negligible amount of time it takes to read.

The Bell Jar

While I was reading The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, I oscillated constantly between feeling as if the main character was actually describing what goes on in my head, and feeling completely alienated from this unfortunate individual named Esther. Her struggle with depression and suicide is something that everyone can relate to on some level - the ennui, the fatigue, the self-destructive urges - and yet is too profoundly disturbed for a happy, mentally healthy person to fully comprehend.

Esther is a fascinating girl, who sees flaws in society as clearly as she sees flaws in herself. Throughout her struggle, she studies books on psychology and identifies with hopeless cases she reads about. Her courage carries over into her evaluations of feminism, old-fashioned views on male and female roles, and mysogynism. Her thoughts reflect Plath's political views to some degree, but the book isn't exactly feminist propaganda.

As well as issues of feminism, this book reflects psychiatric technology and techniques of the day. Published in 1971, and based on a slightly earlier time period, the Esther's experiences with electric-shock therapy, multiple psychiatrists, and various mental institutions are all fascinating depictions of how mental illness was dealt with in the twentieth century.

The Bell Jar is not a cheery read, but as someone who is fascinated by both history and mental illness, I loved it. Esther and her story are not easily forgotten, and Sylvia Plath's writing makes The Bell Jar a valuable piece of modern literature.