We follow Esther Greenwoods personal life from her summer job in New York with Ladies Day magazine, back through her days at New Englands largest school for women, and forward through her attempted suicide, her bad treatment at one asylum and her good treatment at another, to her final re-entry into the world like a used tyre: patched, retreaded, and approved for the r We follow Esther Greenwoods personal life from her summer job in New York with Ladies Day magazine, back through her days at New Englands largest school for women, and forward through her attempted suicide, her bad treatment at one asylum and her good treatment at another, to her final re-entry into the world like a used tyre: patched, retreaded, and approved for the road ... Esther Greenwoods account of her year in the bell jar is as clear and readable as it is witty and disturbing.