Euphoria

October 1, 2022
Loosely based on the life of the poet Sylvia Plath, this accomplished novel from Swedish author Cullhed begins with a Plath-generated list of seven reasons to live. The novel then flashes back to the year before the list's composition and recounts, in the character's evocative, first-person voice, the quotidian events of the year, which she calls the "greyness of everyday," that result in the creation of the list. Although the author calls her book literary fantasy, the particulars of Plath's life are so well known that there are few surprises here. What is original is the vivid, highly dramatic treatment of the intimate details of Plath's troubled life and marriage to the poet Ted Hughes. Her lifelong battle with mental illness comes to painful life here, too, especially in the account of Plath's discovery of Hughes' extramarital affair and the clinical depression that follows. The voice that tells all of this is, appropriately, poetic ("only my brain was quick as a lizard"; "my skeleton was charred wood") while delivering a superb portrait of an essential poet.

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Starred review from November 1, 2022

DEBUT Swedish YA author Cullhed has written a sophisticated stunner of a novel with Sylvia Plath as the main character. In the months before her suicide, Plath is heavily pregnant with her second child and stuck in a Devonshire village as husband Ted Hughes slowly extricates himself from their marriage. The novel is all interiority; clearly a Plath expert, Cullhed is in control of not just facts and dates but the tone, even the vocabulary, of Plath's voice. We are in Plath's head as she attempts to balance wifely expectations--constant childcare, gardening, cooking the Sunday roast--with her own desire for recognition and fame, always in competition with Hughes. She edits her Bell Jar manuscript and writes her Ariel poems in stolen moments and manic bursts. Lurking beneath it all is her madness, driving away Hughes and the remains of her support system. Her interior monologue is so intense it's hard to take, no less so because we know what's coming. VERDICT Cullhed's rendering of Plath's voice will haunt readers. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Sylvia Plath, feminist fiction, and powerful prose.--Reba Leiding

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