I recently had Plath’s The Bell Jar recommended to me.  While reading about Plath (and, unavoidably, also about Hughes) and awaiting the arrival of the novel, I stumbled across this book by Malcolm.  I had recently read her Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory and been impressed by her critical perceptiveness.  Having made the decision to read more of her work, and embarrassed that I came to it only after her death, I jumped at the opportunity to combine the emerging interest in Plath and Malcolm by reading this first.  I am still digesting what I’ve read, but my initial response is that Malcolm is a great literary critic and this treatment of biography as a genre is the best I have ever read.  I have a few quibbles with some of her observations, but she makes me think.  Her work is smart and informative, meticulous even, without being stiff and overly academic.  I loved it.  Just what cultural criticism should be.