Welcome to #NewTitleTuesday at the Johnson County Library where we take a closer look at a new book that's hitting the shelves. In THE LAST CONFESSIONS OF SYLVIA P., author Lee Kravitz constructs a dazzling literary mystery revolving around the perspectives of three characters, all with a connection to author and poet Sylvia Plath, who died tragically by suicide in 1963. Interweaving fiction and reality from different times of Plath's life, Kravitz's novel is going to be in heavy demand from book groups.
The book kicks off with the story of Estee, a historian and curator of a small Boston auction house in 2019 who uncovers what looks to be a previously undiscovered handwritten manuscript of Plath's "The Bell Jar." The action then shifts to the 1950s where the novel is told from the point of view of a classmate and fierce rival of Plath as tehy battle through literary workshops and poetry readings. Finally, the narrative is taken up by a young psychiatry resident who treated Plath but was unable to prevent her from taking her life toward the end.
Not only meant for fans of Plath, but for fans of well-constructed literary mysteries, where multiple points of view and multiple timelines draw stark and sometimes surprising connections between characters and events. The real-life Plath remains tantalizingly in the background, and readers might want to pick up "The Bell Jar" immediately afterwards.