Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz

The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by: Gail Crowther

So, I just began reading this last evening and I am already enthralled, as I knew I would be. I have always loved the poetry of both these women, and to read of their friendship, rivalry and also, per the title, yes — “Five, six, sometimes two martini afternoons with bowls of free potato chips” as Anne Sexton describes it, is, for me right now, THE perfect book to read.

Perhaps not too surprisingly though, “the same old same old” crops up almost immediately and it’s a dilemma that just about every woman I know (myself included) has been subjected to and it is this: “Too much and yet never enough” meaning “Too much this” and “Too much that” and “Not enough this” and “Not enough that” (insert particular adjective here). It’s both strangely comforting and equally disheartening to realize that 50 years on, women STILL are dealing with this, even with #MeToo, it’s still in existence.

Rather predictably, male critics who tended to be the reviewers of their works would often describe their shared “over-emotional, hysterical and down right scary” words of prose as “frightening” because both ladies were *GASP* writing about the real lives of…