Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

An exceptional book, beautifully portraying Sylvia Plath as a real human being: a mother, a wife in a crumbling marriage, and a working poet. This is the book every biographer with an ounce of poetry inside wishes they could write about Plath. Alas! no one is able to freely quote her real words without copyright infringement. And so, Kate Moses did the next best thing and made Plath her own, imagining how it probably went and what might have been said.In reading some of the other reviews, it is true that this is not a book from which to learn anything new, and it is true that it might bore non-Plath readers, especially since Moses takes the high road and doesn't over-dramatize Plath's real-life suicide. That said, if you have interest or love for Sylvia Plath, Wintering helps you to feel it deeply.We already know the answers to the questions ending Plath's poem. Kate Moses has the class to give us the beauty of the life before it."Will the hive survive, will the gladiolasSucceed in banking their firesTo enter another year?What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?The bees are flying. They taste the spring."--Sylvia Plath, from "Wintering"

Kate Moses seems to have climbed into the very soul of Sylvia Plath and brought her vividly to life on the written page with her stunning novel "Wintering." I read the novel in a 24 hour period, with a well worn copy of Plath's poetry by my side. Ms. Moses recreates the haunted last months of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. She researched her subject extensively and seemingly absorbed into her bloodstream all she read. Plath's skeleton is fleshed out from ink on page and recreated, with an artist's eye, into a vital woman determined to write her poems and raise her family alone. Moses' detail, language and imagery is exquisite and so reminiscent of her subject's that her prose reads like poetry.The book begins at the conclusion of Plath's marriage to poet Ted Hughes. Throughout their tempestuous six years together they shared an extraordinary and mutually productive literary life. They were each other's best critics, and inspired and encouraged the other in their writing careers. The couple had two children, Frieda and Nicholas, still in their infancy when plans for a divorce were made. Their idyllic life together in the English countryside had descended into drama, violence and finally disaster. Hughes left his wife for another woman, a mutual friend, and Plath, in terrible anguish, is left to begin a new life for herself and her babies in a London flat, once occupied by William Butler Yeats."Wintering" is set in London in December 1962, with flashbacks to the couple's earlier years. Each of the forty-one chapters takes its title and substance from one of the "Ariel" poems, written during the last four months of the poets life. In spite of the quantity of poetry she pours onto the page, Plath is plagued with reoccurring bouts of clinical depression which she fights desperately. It was bitter cold in London that winter, she and her children were sick with the flu, without a telephone and friends. Having betrayed their marriage Hughes has retreated and is relatively unavailable to call on for help. As Sylvia, weakened with fever, is unable to sleep, her tumultuous mind on fire, she writes her poetry through the night. Dark moods and despair threaten to overcome her in her fragile physical and emotional state. She is left to the mercy of the demons which have pursued her since her breakdown, attempted suicide and hospitalization ten years earlier.This book is almost as much about language as it is about the last winter Sylvia Plath spends on earth. But then, so much of Ms. Plath's being was about language. To separate the two would have been an injustice. The author succeeds admirably in doing justice to the poet's work and style. "Wintering" is also about pain - palpable, terrible pain.It is important to note that Kate Moses does not include the suicide in her novel. This is a story of a struggle for life, independence, art and for family. And Plath fought with all the vitality and energy she possessed. Sylvia Plath was a brilliant and prolific poet, a wonderful mother, and she died too young, at age 30. Kate Moses' novel is a near masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.JANA

This novel is an utterly amazing piece of work. Beautifully written, it goes straight to the heart of Sylvia Plath, a tortured genius whose poetry so aptly depicted the inner demons with whom she fought for all of her short life. The book uses not only the facts of Ms. Plath's life, but also the imagery and symbols of her poetry, interwoven so completely and skillfully that the novel becomes a perfect fictional character study of a real-life person. It would help to have a copy of Plath's posthumously published book of poetry, "Ariel," to refer to as you read the book. The titles of the chapters are those of most of the poems of "Ariel" and the themes, images, and symbols are parallel. As you read her life, Sylvia Plath's inner thoughts are revealed in even more depth by her emotionally charged and intelligent poems.Ted Hughes edited "Ariel" after Sylvia Plath committed suicide, and was criticized for, among other things, leaving out some of the poetry she had written in the days before her death. It is a testament to the power of those poems, Plath's character and of the circumstances of her death that Ted Hughes was never able to free himself of the spectre of his first wife or of her work. The poems of "Ariel" present, with frightening clarity and remarkable directness, the unraveling of a woman's mind and the unapologetic anger, pain, and sorrow she felt when she stared, open-eyed, into her own soul."Wintering" is not a biography. It is a very creative novel which goes straight to the heart and mind of one of the 20th Century's greatest women poets. It is gut-wrenching and poignant, wonderfully evocative of a place and time, and incredibly perceptive in its characterization of a woman who tried to have hope even though she was haunted by death all of her life.Even if you are not familiar with Sylvia Plath or her poetry (and I had to admit, the last time I read any of her poetry was in grad school, years ago), if you appreciate well written literature, and have the courage to look into the soul of a woman who was utterly tormented by the fear that she would lose all she had come to see as the "miracle" of her life, only to have that fear realized, then I urge you to read this wonderful book.

Beautifully written, it shows a descriptive, dark view of depression and heartbreak.

I care very little about whether this novel is true to the precise details of Plath's life. What I care about is how it made me feel and what it taught me about the price of motherhood, and the complicated balance a woman must strike if she is not to betray either herself, or her children, or both. I loved this novel. Moses is a remarkable writer, and she has written a devastating tour de force.

This is a sad novel, almost unbearably raw and painful at times. Sylvia struggles to keep her fragile live and the life of her young children together following the end of her marriage to Ted Hughes. I really felt for her, especially when Ted tries to blame her. I loved the way the book also reflects on Plath’s marriage to Hughes.There are plenty of books about Plath but Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath is well worth a read. There are plenty of non-fiction books about the poet and her suicide. However, these do not attempt to get inside Plath’s head the way this book does.

I have almost every book about Plath and Hughes. I came to this book looking for a different alternative to biography. I wanted to like it. I really did. But reading it at times is like trying to wade through treacle. Others here have noted the overly descriptive narrative, which intrudes too often, with very little point other than for the author to show off. A reviewer here has deemed this book pretentious and I feel regretful that I can only agree. It simply tries too hard. The description goes on and on, sometimes with very little point, sometimes straining to be poetical and original, when in fact in the end it comes across as looking rather desperate.I got over half way through, but couldn't finish it. I wasn't enjoying it and only reading it because the subject matter was something i cared about. There was scant dialogue (Although the little there was, I felt was well done, especially Professor Thomas) no plot and had it not been a book about two well known and infamous literary figures, it's hard to imagine this book would have found a publisher.In terms of a book about a woman's breakdown, the Bell Jar did it so much better.

I thought it might be depressing but it's not.I read it quite quickly and recommend it strongly