The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I loved this book! I was iffy about it based on some of the reviews I read, but after reading, I determined they were idiots.
This book follows Esther Greenwood, and her downward spiral. I don't know that I would label her depressed, just apathetic. Then again, I am not a psychiatrist. Anyway, Esther is indifferent about everything, or so it seems, but then something happens, and she loses her sense of self. Once that happens, she decides to kill herself. After one particularly intense failure, Esther ends up in a mental institution or two, and receives shock treatments.
While she is in the mental institution, there are many similarities to Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, both the book and the movie. Now I am not saying that the things Kaysen portrays in her book didn't happen, but it's a little to convenient for me that they are so similar to Plath's work. Particularly since Kaysen would have had access to this book prior to her own experiences.
Anyway, I can't recommend this book enough. Particularly if, like me, you are drawn to stories about broken people.
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