Module 9: Your Own, Sylvia

Module 9: Your Own, Sylvia

Book Summary:

Told through verse interpretations of the people who populated her life, the short and tumultuous life of Sylvia Plath unfolds in Stephanie Hemphill's Your Own, Sylvia. From her mother's observations of the birth of her firstborn to the boys she dated in high school, the various doctors she saw over the course of her life and her husband Ted Hughes, famous in his own right, and the observations of those around her in the twilight of her life, it is this variety of fictionalized accounts that allow the reader to meet Sylvia Plath via all the people around her throughout her life. The author also channels Plath herself, writing some poems in the style of Plath's most famous works. The author goes chronologically working from birth to death, filling in as much pertinent and relevant detail as she can create entries for, basing them on people around Plath, but fictionalizing the actual words.

APA Reference of Book:

Hemphill, S. (2007). Your own, Sylvia. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Impressions:

I was surprised by how much the setup of this novel intrigued me. The idea of writing about the life of a poet in verse should not be revolutionary, but I was excited at the prospect of reading a book set up in this format. While much of it is fictionalized, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. I did not know much about Sylvia Plath before reading this novel and I had assumed she had a much darker persona in general based on the few facts I did know. However the author gives a more well-rounded view of Plath than I had expected. Accounts from neighbors and high school flings rounded out those from family, friends, doctors and teachers. Told in verse, there is much more that can be open to interpretation than if the novel had been written and prose and with a subject like Plath, it only seems appropriate.

When I picked up this book from the library, I did notice it was in the 800 section, meaning it was being categorized mainly as literature rather than in the 92 section which usually denotes biography. As it is mostly fictionalized yet based on true events and real people, I know it shouldn't be used as a reference text for biographical purposes such as obtaining facts. However, it would be an interesting piece for someone researching Plath to examine, especially a young adult audience. I feel that this text is more approachable than other biographies about Plath and also is more approachable than Plath's works on their own. While Hemphill's verse sometimes feels jerky and broken, overall I think the interpretation was well-rounded and provided a good introduction to Plath's life and works.

Professional Review:

With her brilliance, marriage to a famous fellow poet, and dramatic suicide, poet Sylvia Plath quickly became a legendary literary figure. Hemphill tells the story of that legendary life in poems, many of them closely modeled on Plath's own verses, written from the viewpoint of the people in Sylvia's life or in a third-person imagining of Plath's own experience. Though there's an un-Plathian grammatical carelessness to some of the writing, the poems are generally capably executed, especially in their technical underpinnings (the explanatory notes attached to each poem are inclined to be randomly if genuinely informative); the author clearly takes Plath's side, but the poems honestly acknowledge the poet's unlikable tendencies toward entitlement and superiority. It's certainly an intriguing biographical approach, and teen fans of confessional poetry in general and Plath in particular will find it inviting; its main achievement is imitative, though, and readers ready for these verses will reach to their originals, so the book is likelier to contribute to young writers' own experimental projects than to a readerly understanding of Plath or poetry. End matter includes a note to the reader about Hemphill's own interest in Plath, a description of her sources for the biographical information in each poem, and a list of further resources; a spread of photographs of Plath is included.

Stevenson, D. (2007). [Review of the book Your own, Sylvia, by S. Hemphill]. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 60 (9), 369. Retrieved from: http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/

Library Uses:

Have a poetry contest for young adults at your library - have different categories for judging and publish the best in your library newsletter. Offer the book as an example.

Host a poetry slam for young adults at your library - they can perform someone else's work or their own original composition.