Sylvia Plath, Janet Malcolm and our thoughts on writing style – welcome to episode 144!
In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether we prefer writing style to be ornate or simple. In the second half, we compare Sylvia Plath’s most famous poetry collection Ariel with Janet Malcolm’s book about Plath biography, The Silent Woman.
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The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
All The Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner
Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
Tortoise By Candelight by Nina Bawden
The Cost of Living by Kathleen Farrell
Bookish by Lucy Mangan
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford
Henry James
Wilkie Collins
George Orwell
Yellow by Janni Visman
The Trouble With Sunbathers by Magnus Mills
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
Island In Moonlight by Kathleen Sully
The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Barbara Comyns
Beryl Bainbridge
The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
Elizabeth Strout
Anne Tyler
Carol Shields
Margaret Atwood
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel by Mark Hussey
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Bitter Fame by Anne Stevenson
Ted Hughes: the Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bates
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
Fenny by Lettice Cooper
Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee
Oh, Rachel, I hope you end up liking All the Little Live Things. It did feel different for me too, after reading Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. I think part of it is that I don’t relate that much to the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
What saved the book for me is the way Stegner invited me into the mind of his main character, Joe, a grumpy, old, white guy, trying and failing to make sense of the 1960s, his son and his son’s death, and mortality in general. But in his grumpiness and inflexibility, there is tenderness and a striving toward connection. It’s hard not to like him, even as he’s shouting, “get off my lawn!”
Thank you for another very entertaining episode. I really enjoyed the discussion in the first half. I love the simple sparse but very clever prose of Elizabeth Strout and Carol Shields too (in fact today I finished The Stone Diaries which I have been meaning to read ever since Simon reviewed it – that’s my tbr for you!!). However, I also love Woolf’s luxurious mesmerising prose. Rachel’s boat metaphor was very apt; I came to Woolf late in life after being emboldened to try her when Simon advised me to ‘just let the words wash over you without worrying about understanding it all’.
I’m afraid my experience of attempting to read Ariel resonates with yours; I could not see what all the fuss was about and DNFd. Sadly, I ran out of time on the library loan for The Silent Woman but I am not surprised that you both enjoyed that as I have loved all the Janet Malcolm books I have read.
I shall look forward to the book-off between Fenny and Rhine Journey. I have considered both those titles but not been persuaded to read them as yet.
Hmmmm, how to convince you to try Plath again. As you suggested for Woolf, maybe listen to a recording of Sylvia Plath read her poems. Poetry is often better read aloud and who better to read them than the author herself. Plath‘s poems can be difficult but I think Emily Dickinson‘s are even more so – and I admire both for their skill in conveying a message, image, or feeling in so succinct a manner. Tastes differ but I don’t think Plath‘s genius is debatable – Hughes himself acknowledged it.
Maybe listening aloud would help, good idea. Or maybe I’ll just return to the ones I appreciated, of which there were certainly some.