OK, Camille, I'm in high umbrage and feel that I must take issue with you on several points. You see, I built a very large house in SylviaPlathLand and live there frequently. First, Bell Jar is in No Way a "female catcher". If a Salinger connection must be made, let's say that Bell Jar is The Long Debut of Lois Taggett taken to extreme. Secondly, although like Salinger, Plath drew upon her experiences with being committed, etc., Bell Jar is, ultimately a work of fiction. Plath herself was the first to stand up and say that the cruel, controlling mother that she wrote about was not her mother, who she was very close to. Yes, there is insight into Plath in that book, but careful how far you take that. Lastly, "mediocre"? Well, no accounting for taste, I suppose. I will grant you that her writing style was not the best that I've read. That was not her primary talent. But the characters, my God, the characters. When I read Bell Jar, every time, the characters rip themselves from my pages and they are transmogrified into my own bleeding angst. Sorry you didn't like it. Namaste, Thor P.S. Please check out my web page & let me know what you think. http://www.uscolo.edu/TAC/ > Akemi, I think what we really know of most authors is what they write, but > it's harder to know something from fiction than from memoirs and other > forms of reporting...what we learn of salinger regarding love or the > way many of us are vulgar from his writing says a lot more about the man > than what has been reported...will I find that straight autobiography also stands very much in the way of good fiction. It rarely, in my experience, turns into anything totally satisfying - Sylvia Plath's `The Bell Jar' is a case in point, which I had leaped into (after reading several Plath biographies admittedly) after hearing it described as the female Catcher in the Rye, and found very mediocre. I think a good novelist knows where to draw the line; what of his or her life to include in their fiction. Which is why, I suppose, people like Salinger get so irritated when they are pushed by force over this line. Camille ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com