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Product Description
From Amazon
When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant.
From Publishers Weekly
Kaysen's startling account of her two-year stay at a Boston psychiatric hospital 25 years ago was an eight-week PW bestseller.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
IF YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE YOU SHOULD READ THIS!!,
By "duudettes" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)
I read the book after I'd seen the movie and was disappointed in the movie. It left a lot of things out, added some stuff and really obscured the timeline.The book however was captivating, I really had a hard time putting it down, and it's a very easy read. I enjoyed delving more into Susannna's mind learing what she was thinking during certain events in her life. It also puts a light onto early psychological techniques, which thank God have improved. One of my favorite parts in the book is were she starts to see her hand withouth bones, something that was mentioned shortly in the movie. The characters are thoroughtly mentioned in the book and even some you didn't seen in the movie, the funny thing is that Lisa the Angelina Joeli character didn't seem to play as big of a role in Susanna's life there. The movie seemed to focus maybe too much on the character since she was the more practical Hollywood mold, while the book of course is focused on Susanna. Anyway, it was a fun book to read and an easy one too, if you liked the movie you should read the book to learn more about what really happened to Susanna during her stay at the hospital.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding a Mental Illness,
By Priscilla Sarabia (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)
Right from the beginning of Girl, Interrupted the author introduces herself as an eighteen-year-old named Susanna Kaysen. She encounters a session with a psychiatrist she's never met or spoken to before in her life. The beginning of the book is thrilling and exciting because you're not exactly sure where you're going to end up. Susanna is then sent away in a taxi, which takes her to McLean Hospital. It becomes very real and clear about what is going on if you've had similar experiences in life. She stays in a ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital for the next two years of her life. By this point you really feel like you're right there with the writer. It all becomes very real and a little hard to read. This memoir of Kaysen includes horrible things that go on in the ward and at the same time she gives the readers a very clear description about the other patients in there. In the end the book brings you to a conclusion between mental illness and recovery. This book really showed me that life isn't as bad as I perceived it. I learned that when you think you've got it bad, you might not really know what you've got coming for you-because as you get older the real world can sometimes catch up with you.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Girl, Interrupted Book Review,
By Kylejanelaura SammyJackie (Canton, CT USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)
This book gives a truthful look into the mind of a disturbed young woman who finds herself in a mental hospital due to a struggle with her inner emotions. Ms. Kaysen makes no effort to sugarcoat the conditions or situations involving her and the other patients at the hospital. Everything she writes is honest and extremely vivid. One account in which we see a frightening and true depiction of a patient's situation is in the chapter entitled, "Calais Is Engraved In My Heart." After a girl named Alice Calais has a severe mental breakdown she is sent to maximum security. The other girls go to visit her, and what they find leaves the reader with an unsettling vision of the lives of these young women. Kaysen makes no excuses for herself, or anyone else, she simply tells her story the way it happened. Another aspect of Ms. Kaysen's writing, that separates her from the rest, is her ability to covey abstract thoughts and theories in a very personal way. Using unique metaphors, symbols, and her own experiences, she is able to address such topics as the inner Id, the cause and effect of her condition, and the thin line that divides normality from insanity. In a place that seems so dark and unhappy Kaysen manages to insert light and humor. One of Kaysen's fellow patients, Lisa, while extremely disturbed, is also very witty and sharp. Kaysen herself also has a very humorous side. A weaker point of the novel is that in some cases Kaysen's writing becomes so internal that it seems scattered and is difficult to follow. Another point that may turn readers away is the extremely graphic and unapologetic accounts of the effects of illness in the hospital. However, this book was an informative, creative, and groundbreaking piece of literature that is certainly worth reading.
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