The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath

Every time that I look at 'greatest books' lists, I seem to come across this book. Therefore I decided to give it a go and see what it was all about. I have to be honest that I went into it totally convinced it was a feminist work that men were not allowed to read.
I almost felt like a bit of a voyeur, thinking that I was not allowed to be present.

Well I should say that all men should read this book. It is clearly a book about relationships and how men treat women, but it is above all a book about mental illness.

The allergy of the fig tree, where life's choices are related to the fruit of the fig tree is quite an experience.

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

Sadly, I would think that each and everyone of us can relate to someone we know or indeed are, after reading this book.

It is totally thought provoking, sad and true to life.