The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. is an evocative novel sure to enchant lovers of historical fiction as well as fans of Sylvia Plath. Lee Kravetz's tale is part literary mystery and part poetic rivalry--and wholly fascinating. It's told from the points of view of three women: a present-day master curator who works for a famous Massachusetts auction house; a young psychologist employed at an asylum in the 1950s; and Boston Rhodes, a poet of the late 1950s and early '60s, whose genius is eclipsed only by her vituperative streak.
Journalist and psychotherapist Kravetz (Strange Contagion) skillfully weaves the narrative threads into a depiction of the complicated life of a literary genius: perfectly balancing intrigue and poetry, he uses the women as windows into the life of Sylvia Plath. The curator is presented with a set of journals that seem to be an early handwritten draft of The Bell Jar. The psychologist encounters a new patient, a young woman named Sylvia, who has just had a mental breakdown. Meanwhile, Rhodes is angry that a new female poet has joined her poetry workshop, one who threatens to overshadow Rhodes's own writing.
Kravetz's debut novel, perfect for readers who enjoyed The Paris Wife or Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, is both lyrical and plot-driven, a difficult balance for any author to strike. Intriguing even for those who have not read The Bell Jar, it is perhaps even more gripping for longtime Plath loyalists. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Flagstaff, Ariz.