The Death Notebooks Author:Anne Sexton Anne Sexton a brilliant controversial poet who took her own life at age 46, in 1974. Sexton was an impressively accomplished woman, her writings appearing in the New Yorker and Harper's, and she also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966. Anyway suffering from bouts of mental breakdowns, and guilt from having committed adultery, she was in an enormous a... more »mount of pain. Mental illness, like cancer does not care who you are, it just attacks. Most of the poems are about rage and, desperation that represent most of the time some kind of repressed depression.
The Death Notebooks are beautifully written, however Sextonalready had a plan to commit suicide, as she was writing them and was preparing for the Day. Most of the poems in this book embody difficulty since she mocks in a spiritual way her own depression and towards the end of the book, she begins to write "Psalms". She asks for mercy, through her prose, for all the 'dirty little sins' she had committed during her lifetime. She writes about heaven and challenges her readers with Christ imagery, she assumes there is a heaven where things are better wherever that may be. She prays and rejoices of wonderful things to come, painting a delightful portrait that makes you wonder if she truly believes in it or not.« less