AUDIO

American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath

by Carl Rollyson
9 CDs. library ed. unabridged. 10½ hrs. Tantor Audio. 2013. ISBN 9781452641850. $39.99; 1 MP3-CD. library/retail eds.; digital download. LIT/BIOG
COPY ISBN
Rollyson's (Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews; Norman Mailer) biography of Sylvia Plath (1932–63) draws material from newly released portions of the Ted Hughes archive. Not for those looking for analysis of Plath's poetry, this biography focuses on her correspondence and presents the poet as "the Marilyn Monroe of modern literature." Engagingly read by actor George Newbern, and with occasional over-the-top phrases such as "primordial child of time," this audiobook both perpetuates the Plath myth and provides at least a glimpse of the woman behind the mythology.
VERDICT Recommended for those interested in a general biography of Plath. ["Plath does come across here as a complex, complicated individual, but not as a great one. The author's comparisons to Isis and Monroe are speculative and not really supported by the text. An interesting read but one that does not add much to the scholarship on Plath," read the review of the St. Martin's hc, LJ 12/12.—Ed.]
Reviewed by Wendy Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn , Jun 01, 2013
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