I found a good new book review of Decoding Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” today on GoodReads. I love any and all thoughtful book reviews, because they challenge me and show me where I need to clarify things.
This guy was terrific in specifics and clearly paid attention to what he was reading. I also love that he took the extra step and checked out some of these connections I made. Regarding the Scutum constellation, I should clarify two things: one, that I am using primarily the (outdated) books that Plath read and used for my resources. We since know a lot more about stars and planets today. The other thing is that Plath is doing a Joycean thing here with connections, puns, layers of meaning and such. She studied from the master of dimensionality (James Joyce in his Ulysses and Finnegans Wake), and she read about how he did it (A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by Joseph Campbell) and other books. And there were of course, other masters who did similar things, such as Yeats, Blake, Chaucer and Shakespeare.
If you’ve written a review for one or some of my books on Amazon, would you be a love and copy it over to Goodreads too? One can’t have too much discussion! And wherever you’re reviewing, your reviews help me grow as a writer, and they tell potential readers if what I have written is right for them. Sometimes negative reviews are very helpful, because they show what the reader expected and that the book is not that. In this age of so many online purchases, all reviews count. And the thoughtful ones could not be more highly appreciated by yours truly.
I hope to have another Plath’s Library book review for you soon. It’s been a busy week with more traveling, and of course continuing to read through Finnegans Wake, which will take me a lifetime.
Happy New Year! Thanks for being here.