Pain Parties Work

<p><strong>Winder has painstakingly sketched a fully fleshed out portrait of Plath's life during that hot seminal summer offering a glimpse into the raison d'etre behind Plath's revered 1963 <em>roman a clef The Bell Jar.</em> . . . Winder goes into the dizzying delightful detail. --<em>USA Today</em></strong></p><p><strong>A compelling look at a young Sylvia Plath and the life-changing month that would lay the groundwork for her seminal novel <em>The Bell Jar.</em></strong></p><p>In May of 1953 a twenty-one-year-old Plath arrived in New York City the guest editor of <em>Mademoiselle</em>'s annual College Issue. She lived at the Barbizon Hotel attended the ballet went to a Yankee game and danced at the West Side Tennis Club. She was supposed to be having the time of her life. But what would follow was in Plath's words twenty-six days of pain parties and work that ultimately changed the course of her life.</p><p>Thoughtful and illuminating featuring line drawings and black-and-white photographs <em>Pain Parties Work: Sylvia Plath in New York Summer 1953 </em>offers well-researched insights as it introduces us to Sylvia Plath--before she became one of the greatest and most influential poets of the twentieth century.</p>