Sylvia by Leonard Michaels

Sylvia is a fictionalized memoir / short novel about a couple living in New York in the 60s. The narrator (Michales) meets Sylvia through a friend he visits soon after he returns home from college. Sylvia is mentally ill, although she refuses to see a doctor and is never properly diagnosed. Judging by what he says about her college activities, she is quite an intelligent woman. He ends up marrying her even though he's not certain it's what he wants to do. He expects his father would oppose the marriage, however he just points out his son’s duty not to abandon the poor orphan girl. They live in a tenement they share with cockroaches and an occasional rat, which they don't seem to mind. Their life is full of quarrels, drugs, jealousy and emotional blackmail. I didn't like Sylvia and I didn’t like the narrator for various reasons I am not going to go into to avoid spoilers in case you didn't read the book and would like to. Even though I didn't like Sylvia I somehow felt sorry for her. I see her behaviour as a cry for help. However, since her husband was happier when they were apart, which he notices after observing his handwriting on the letters he sends her, help somehow wasn’t what he was able to give her. 

It's a slim book, I read it fairly quickly. I liked Michaels' writing style. I still don't know if I like the book, though I'm not sorry I read it. It was sort of thought provoking. I think we all knew a Sylvia at a time, or knew of a person with emotional blackmail as a weapon, not necessarily in such an extreme form. I remember asking myself if it could end differently for Sylvia if she married somebody else. I don’t think so. No matter who she ended up with, I think it would be the same type of person. It’s a two way street. Like the psychiatrist in the story says: “you feed from each other”.

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Sylvia je novela oz. romanizirana biografija, ki govori o paru, ki živi v New Yorku v šestdesetih. Pripovedovalec (avtor) sreča Sylvijo preko prijateljice, ki jo obišče kmalu po njegovem povratku z univerze. Syvia je duševno bolna, vendar noče k zdravniku, zato nikoli ne dobi prave diagnoze. Sodeč po tem, kar avtor piše o njenih uspehih na študijskem področju, je precej inteligentna oseba. Poroči se z njo, čeprav ni prepričan, da si to resnično želi. Na pol pričakuje, da bo oče nasprotoval poroki, vendar oče samo poudari sinovo dolžnost, da ne sme zapustiti uboge sirote. Živita v stanovanju, ki ga delita s ščurki pa še kakšna podgana pride pogledat, vendar ni videti, da bi ju to pretirano skrbelo. Njuno življenje je polno prepirov, mamil, ljubosumnosti in čustvenega izsiljevanja. Sylvia mi ni bila všeč, njen mož / pripovedovalec ravno tako ne. Razlogov za to ne bom posebej obravnavala, da ne bi preveč povedala o zgodbi, če slučajno še niste prebrali knjige pa bi želeli. Ne glede na to, da mi ni bila všeč, mi je bilo Sylvije po svoje žal. Njeno obnašanje vidim kot klic na pomoč, ker pa njen mož ugotavlja, da je bolj srečen, ko nista skupaj, kar opazi iz oblike pisave na pismih, ki jih ji piše, pomoč ni nekaj, kar bi ji bil sposoben dati.

Sylvia je kratka knjiga, ki sem jo precej hitro prebrala. Michaelsov način pisanja mi je bil všeč, še vedno pa ne vem ali mi je bila knjiga všeč ali ne. Ne glede na to, mi ni žal, da sem jo prebrala, saj mi je dala misliti. Vsi smo na neki točki poznali neko Sylvijo ali vsaj vedeli za nekoga, ki čustveno izsiljevanje uporablja kot orožje v odnosih z ljudmi. Spraševala sem se ali bi se za Syvijo drugače končalo, če bi se poročila s kom drugim. Mislim, da ne. Mislim, da bi si v vsakem primeru izbrala isti tip človeka. Taka razmerja so dvosmerna cesta, tako kot je rekla psihiatrinja v knjigi: drug z drugim se hranita.