Marking the 50th anniversary of Plath’s death, poet Winder, in her nonfiction debut, sets out to reveal a lesser-known side of the iconic poet/novelist, paradoxically by chronicling one of the best-known periods in her life. The summer Plath spent as an intern at Mademoiselle magazine’s Manhattan offices, which inspired The Bell Jar, provides the heady context for Winder’s case that Plath was more than the “tortured artist” who committed suicide at age 30. Instead, Winder presents a woman who was an active participant in her midcentury cultural moment and pre–Feminine Mystique peer group. Extensive quotations from Plath’s fellow Mademoiselle “guest editors” reveal a fiercely ambitious young writer and a high-pressure workplace. We also visit the Barbizon Hotel, Grace Kelly’s one-time residence and the interns’ home for the summer—a “debutante’s pretty flophouse.” The former interns’ words are complemented by a lovingly detailed inventory, as Technicolor-vivid as a Douglas Sirk film, of the fashions and foods that filled Plath’s summer. Winder convincingly shows that Plath should be recognized as much for her enjoyment of life and her enduring works as for her tragic death. Readers already familiar with the starkly unromantic facts of Plath’s biography may be thrown by the glamorous, nostalgic picture of the author given here. Agent: David Kuhn, Kuhn Projects. (Apr.)
In this accessible, eye-opening new biography, which focuses exclusively on one crucial month of Plath’s life, June 1953, when she traveled to New York City to take up residence at the Barbizon Hotel and work as a guest editor for Mademoiselle magazine, it is the fun loving, Dylan Thomas-stalking, daiquiri-drinking Plath who takes center stage. . . . Winder’s biography reconsiders the familiar portrait, illustrating what makes Plath, for fans of The Bell Jar, ‘as Holden Caulfield is for young men.’” — O Magazine
“An illuminating biography . . . which floods clarifying light on a chapter of the poet’s early life that Plath painted in jaundiced tones in The Bell Jar.” — New York Times, Sunday Styles Feature
“Winder resuscitates a young woman who, while sick, is electrically alive to her first real adventure, running through Manhattan, jumping into cabs with strange men, trawling the racks at Bloomingdale’s and experimenting with cocktails…is captivating…as she struggles with her choices, anxiety, and hope for the future. [Winder] makes a compelling argument that in New York…Plath moved closer to finding the voice that would define her writing.” — Slate
“The world of ’50s NYC, in all its glamour, is irresistible reading.” — Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings
“Will recalibrate your mind and heart. . . . We knew about Plath’s ambition - and angst - but her penchant for flaming-red lipstick and princess heels was a bit of a surprise” — More magazine
“A pixilated gem of a book. . . . In prose as delightful and lively as the champagne Sylvia liked to sip at the St. Regis ball, Winder has made Pain, Parties, Work a prose poem of the senses, and a true account of The Bell Jar.” — Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, New York Times bestselling authors of Furious Love
“A lovingly detailed inventory, as Technicolor-vivid as a Douglas Sirk film, of the fashions and foods that filled Plath’s summer. Winder convincingly shows that Plath should be recognized as much for her enjoyment of life and her enduring works as for her tragic death.” — Publishers Weekly
“Winder poignantly captures a snapshot of a time that directly inspired one of Plath’s most famous works. She also captures Plath as bright, vivacious . . . For fans, particularly devotees of The Bell Jar.” — Library Journal
“Reading this book sparks feelings of impossible nostalgia for someone who didn’t live through the fifties; in this way, it is an experience akin to watching Mad Men . . . The book is like a little jewelry box of fact-lets. . . . Winder’s Sylvia, young, tan, ‘more California than New York,’ sensitive but biting, literary but wrapped in earthly delight, is delightful to be with.” — Bookslut
“The book offers a new perspective on Plath’s life courtesy of Winder’s exhaustive research.” — Women's Wear Daily
“Winder has painstakingly sketched a fully fleshed out portrait of Plath’s life during that hot, seminal summer, offering a glimpse into the raison d’etre behind Plath’s revered 1963 roman a clef, The Bell Jar. . . . Winder goes into the dizzying, delightful detail.” — USA Today
