Jennifer Lawrence Gives Everything to Die My Love
Lynne Ramsay’s film is an extraordinary adaptation of an intense story about a life unraveling.
Literary Background
Reviewing Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems, Philip Larkin noted that her later works were original and powerful but added:
“How valuable they are depends on how highly we rank the expression of experience with which we can in no sense identify, and from which we can only turn with shock and sorrow.”
About Die, My Love
Die, My Love, the acclaimed debut novel by Ariana Harwicz, an Argentinian author living in France, was published in 2012. The unnamed narrator voices her rage, contempt, and frustrated desires, revealing the harsh realities of her life.
- She is a foreigner in rural France, a stalled writer frustrated by caring for her new baby.
- She despises her husband due to his sexual inadequacy.
- She maintains an affair with a married neighbor.
She declares, “A breath of irrationality had set fire to my existence.” After a hospital stay, she appears calmer but erupts violently at her son’s second birthday party:
“I hope you all die, every last one of you… Just die, my love.”
A diagnosis of postpartum psychosis only partially explains her state. Amid many recent books and films depicting the alienation and struggles of motherhood—such as last year’s Nightbitch—Die, My Love stands out for its raw extremity.
Author’s Summary
This work delivers an unflinching, extreme portrayal of postpartum despair, motherhood alienation, and emotional rupture that challenges readers deeply.