Book Review: 'Loving Sylvia Plath' attends to polarizing writer's circumstances more than her work

A popular form of writing nowadays is one that involves re-examining the lives of people, often members of marginalized groups, who have otherwise been flattened or short-changed by history. In Emily Van Duyne's “Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation,” the author rejects the trope that Plath was nothing more than a bad mother who struggled with mental illness and a morbid poet, whose life was merely a preface to her infamous self-inflicted death. Associated Press reviewer Krysta Fauria says the book should be seen as supplementary material for those seeking to better understand the circumstances surrounding Plath's final years.