Red Comet

The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath

By: Heather Clark

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The highly anticipated biography of Sylvia Plath that focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual achievements, while restoring the woman behind the long-held myths about her life and art.

“One of the most beautiful biographies I've ever read." —Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times Bestseller, Untamed

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century

With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer even before she became a star at Smith College. Refusing to read Plath’s work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath’s world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her troubles with an unenlightened mental health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes; and much more.

Clark’s clear-eyed portraits of Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath’s suicide promote a deeper understanding of her final days. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark’s meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over.

The Narrator is The Problem

Whoo boy, this was a ride and a half. Sylvia Plath is a lot of things: creative genius, intellectual, an alltimer in the poetry game. Heather Clark's book will not shake you of this idea. However, it will flesh this idea out further, removing the tragic veneer from her life. For example, did you know that Ms. Plath was hella messy in college. The amount of research in this book is PHENOMENAL. It is amazing. This book is excellent. Easily one of the best biographies I've ever read or heard.

The tragedy is that they chose a terrible narrator for this book. Ms. Jennings mispronounced so many words that it became distracting. While there is an expected level of mispronunciation, she went far beyond that. As a result, this magisterial book was dragged down. I think the book is still good enough to overcome this, I must warn all listeners of this reality.

Puts you I in the world of Sylvia Plath completely.

The details of her life , her inner workings , background, relationships with her family of origin her desire to have it all and the difficulties in doing so . The explanation of all the medications she was taking at the time of her death explains a lot of the “whys “ she was becoming so desperate of course, having a cheating husband did not help.

Love the book, not the narrator

The book itself is fantastic for the wealth of data weaved together about it’s subject. Despite my hesitation with the sample, I still decided to give the Audible version a listen. While I will eventually make it through this, the narrator ruins it for me. The details I would usually love in biographies in general and did love while reading the actual book, are really hard to listen to here. The delivery is always monotonous and there are the occasional mispronounced words.

Good story, bad reading

The narrator mispronounces uncommon and a few common English words. The French words are a disaster. A little more preparation would’ve been good.

Exceptional

I truly enjoyed every bit of this biography which is never boring. The narrator is pleasant and easy to listen to without causing the listener to dose off! I did catch one or two mistakes, but, in a tome like this , I felt overall she did exceptionally well. This biography is well researched, yet, reads like an interesting story. I liked the references to the other poets of the time. The ending of course is the deepest, most heart-rending part. Recommended.