There are better words to describe this collection than the ones I will use in this mini-review.

Reading this was an emotional experience for me, as I identify with Plath in several issues, at the same time it was a raw, beautiful read. These are short stories and journal entries of a woman who ardently tried to find her meaning in life. Searching for one’s identity, the battle between individualism and conformity, examining individuals' false perceptions about society, and growing up are some of the themes Plath wrote about that are predominant in this collection.

Plath struggled to „get out of herself“ out of the subjective, out of the poetic, and into the objective, more lucrative business of fiction writing. She longed to have her stories published and acknowledged by others. Ironically, the stories where she attempts this approach fall far behind, overshadowed by stories with subjective influence – Johnny Panic and the bible of Dreams, The wishing box, Initiation, Ocean 1212 W. Plath’s greatness lies in the subject matter she wanted to steer away from, and it always saddens me to think how she hadn’t managed to win her internal battle. What she had managed instead was to win over many women, inspiring them, and uniting them in the subjective experience of life, that had it not been put to paper, wouldn’t have been known today as part of a universal experience. Sixty years after Sylvia's death, the lines written in her short piece, appropriately titled „Context“are almost prophetic:

„Certain poems and lines of poetry seem as solid and miraculous to me as church altars or the coronation of queens must seem to people who revere quite different images. I am not worried that poems reach relatively few people. As it is, they go surprisingly far—among strangers, around the world, even. Farther than the words of a classroom teacher or the prescriptions of a doctor; if they are very lucky, farther than a lifetime.“

I ate this like chocolate. It's so satisfying in my head to read the journal entries and short stories and recognise scenes throughout her literature and to see where they gathered inspiration. So many times I found myself underlining lines and noting that this scene took place in the bell jar or that she talks about this in her journal entries or this poem is in Ariel. It's like the cinematic universe of Sylvia Plath and all the dots are connecting. Ocean 1212-W was super personal to me, as the details and the story were terrifyingly spot on to my life. She even describes a scene that is identical to where I was sitting and reading the story!! I had to put the book down and look over my shoulder to make sure she hadn't time travelled and was writing about me

Plath has an honesty in her journals that I only wish I could have. You have to be brave to write that candidly, and then to know that it was published after her death? It's kind of eerie. I think you only reach that level when you're under the assumption it's just for you, it's just to release your fears and ego and pain.

But it's beautiful.

Her stories are also beautiful. I was especially taken reading her journal about her and Ted's stay with the Widow, and then reading her short story on it, seeing what details she picked and kept and cultivated.

Borrowed a copy with a lot more novellas from Sylvia Plath with the same name on the collection as this. I'm happy to report that I loved her writing in this as well.
I've only been able to get hold of Johnny Panik and the Bible of dreams. Sylvia Plath is a person I love reading about but have an issue getting my little mittens on her works, but I found this and I was overjoyed. This was wonderful short story and I was a little sad it ended so soon.

i feel as though i’m giving out too many 5’s this year, but dammit i’ve loved what i’ve been reading! plath’s poetry is something that has never resonated with me, i’m not much for poetry in any form, really.
but here, i’ve gotten a greater sense of plath’s feelings than ever before. she’s vile and sick to others at times and at others she’s terribly joyful at being human. the changing nature of her emotions can only be described as human rather than a more negative descriptor like temperamental. when we read of what she’s talking about, even in her harshest critiques of people who may or may not deserve it, we get a sense that she’s not even entirely happy with these thoughts, that there’s a remorse about the way she’s feeling.
we lost you too soon, sylvia, and the hurt here is hard to ignore.

Somewhat conflicted about this collection, only because had she not died and become a major author posthumously, these would have for sure been kept locked away somewhere or tossed out. However, being the fascinated-by-Sylvia-Plath poser that I am, I just loved seeing how her journal entries just writing very descriptively about the day or someone's home or a person she ran into, translates into fodder for a story. The creative process is so interesting, in part because I feel like I don't have it :/ But my favorite story is the title story, "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams". What a great title, first of all! And I think stories coming from personal experience in dark, uncomfortable places seem to make the best ones, or at least, give the best logs for that creative fire to burn burn burn.

Also, Margaret Atwood does a follow up essay about the collection in the end (eek!! I LOVE her!) and says what I think, almost to a 'T'.

Interesting and varied but I didn't grab me. The stories and essays were interesting, the explorations of people and interactions less so.