Man is a ranking animal. He is not content for there to be a multiplicity of greats, all of roughly equal worth. No, there must be a No. 1, a No. 2, a No. 3… Man must rank.| freebeacon.com
When someone emerges from a challenging childhood to become a successful adult and writes a memoir about the experience, one of two narratives usually emerges: The first, and most lucrative in today’s market, is what might be called the "wallowing" narrative. Such books settle personal and familial scores; recount excessive drug use, promiscuity, and other poor life choices; and leave readers with a voyeurism hangover.| freebeacon.com
When Sylvia Plath appears on college syllabi today, what follows is depressingly predictable: She becomes either a martyr for patriarchy or a case study in mental instability. What’s lost in this ideological tug-of-war is any serious consideration of her formidable craftsmanship. Sarah Ruden’s incisive study of Plath, I Am the Arrow: The Life & Art of Sylvia Plath in Six Poems, aims to correct this imbalance, redirecting our attention from biography to artistry with the precision of an ar...| freebeacon.com