Product Description

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to Mc Lean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles. A clear-sighted, unflinching work that provokes questions about our definitions of sane and insane, Kaysen's extraordinary memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13355 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Read this book, uninterrupted
Quite simply, I found this book an intensely satisfying read. Often I am wary of reading anything even remotely autobiographical because past experience has told me that many "real life" recollections can be badly written. However Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted is an exception. The writing style is fluid, a pleasure to read. I found it difficult to put down. The subject matter (a young girl's experiences in a mental institution) could have made the book an over-sentimental, depressing and self-pitying read. But Kaysen avoided falling into any of these traps. This is a thought-provoking, often humourous book and, months after finishing reading it, I still find myself thinking about it. I would recommend this book.

Raised some interesting questions
I enjoyed 'Girl, Interrupted', it was an easy, quick read.
It was also interesting because I found myself asking a lot of questions:
It did strike me that the difference between Borderline Personality Disorder and modern day teenage angst was a pretty fine line.
If places like McClean Hospital were still around, would they be full of self-harmers, anorexics and ADHD sufferers?
Surely Susanna would not have been interred if she had suffered with the same problems today?
And was she really any better off after her treatment or just more mature and able to face the world. But how can you learn to face the world incarcerated like that?

The day to day running of the hospital was fascinating, with descriptions of many of the inmates and staff and the constant conflicts between the two. The different categories of privileges that could be earned and the various treatments meted out.

My one complaint was that the case histories dotted throughout the book were partly illegible, which was frustrating as I was genuinely interested in their content.
I have not read either of her other novels, but good for her - she wanted to be a writer and that is what she has achieved.

One great read!
I watched the film entitled Girl,Interrupted and was intrigued.The story was such an unnusual yet mystical one. The acting in it was absolutely superb, especially Anjelina Jolie's who, i must say, fully deserved her oscar for best supporting actress. Winona Ryder,also, did a delightful job at playing Susannah Kaysen herself.I went straight out and bought the film, and i watch it atleast once every three days, i find its a film you can watch over and over and still never get bored. I was surfing amazon one day and saw the book for sale, i was really exited as i love good books and knew straight away that this would be a good read. i couldnt have been more right. From the minute i picked it up my eyes were glued to the pages. The writer connects with the reader in a way which is so surreal, i felt as if i was being let in on a dark secret, a journey into the unknown took place before my very eyes. I was on that journey with her, Susannah, holding her hand along the way. Her eyes were my eyes, her thoughts and feelings she told me as i read. I was living her experiance ,meeting the people (charators) ,not only observing the situation but being involved in it.
Its not hard to read as its alll written in sections, like a diary which makes the reading even more ecxiting as you feel you shouldnt be reading it, but just cant stop yourself. The film gives a great portrayal of the book. I found the book to be deeper, more intense.How interesting it was to find out what really went on behind closed doors and peoples brains.Miss Kaysen gives an honest, truthful yet blunt review of what it was like living in a mental assylem in the 1960's.it was a pleasure to read and for a 15 yr old, was gripping reading! i was extremely upset when i finished the book. But as a said previously this book, and film is no one hit wonder.I can assure you, it will last forever. As all the great things do.