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Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
Girl, Interrupted
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Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted is the autobiographical story of the author's time in a psychiatric award in 1967. Sylvia Plath was a patient at the same hospital in the early 1950s so inevitably comparisons have been made between Plath's The Bell Jar and Kaysen's novel--both recounting a... show more
Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted is the autobiographical story of the author's time in a psychiatric award in 1967. Sylvia Plath was a patient at the same hospital in the early 1950s so inevitably comparisons have been made between Plath's The Bell Jar and Kaysen's novel--both recounting a young woman's descent into insanity. This, however, is where the similarities end--The Bell Jar is a haunting and lyrical book; Girl, Interrupted is a more hard-edged, documentary-style narrative. It has none of the beauty and poetry of Plath's prose and is more akin to Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation , an up-to-date memoir of a young girl's struggle with depression and drugs. Both these books offer a brutal and stark image of a life of mental illness. Kaysen's account goes further and questions the standard notions of sanity and insanity. Her plausible voice allows the reader to accept a world where time is distorted, chaos reigns and questions are left unanswered, capturing perfectly the sense of helplessness and frustration felt by these women. The book's gritty realism is also heightened by copies of the author's original medical reports lodged between the chapters. However, it is her penetrating insights into those around her, from those cared for to the caretakers, that make "Girl, Interrupted" so potent. Lacing her narrative with a hard-edged, sardonic sting, she introduces us to a cast of characters from the outrageous Lisa to the chicken-hoarding Daisy to the Martian's girlfriend: Daisy was a seasonal event. She came before Thanksgiving and stayed through Christmas every year ... "Would anyone like to share?" the head nurse asked ... "Me! Me! Somebody who was a Martian's girlfriend and also had a little penis of her own, which she was eager to show off, raised a hand; nobody wanted to share with her. "Girl, Interrupted" is a credible and creditable chronicle of the lives of women in the 1960s who, through the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of society, were contained and monitored for not fitting into the "norm", the mainstream. Nicola Perry
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780676591910 (0676591914)
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Booka
Booka rated it
2.5 Przerwana lekcja muzyki
Przed lekturą „Przerwanej lekcji muzyki” zapoznałam się z opiniami innych czytelników i z niemałym zdumieniem zauważyłam parę negatywnych opinii. Niemożliwym był dla mnie fakt, że książka, na której podstawie powstał tak rewelacyjny film, może być przeciętna bądź słaba. Niestety, przekonałam się, że...
the reading chronicles
the reading chronicles rated it
5.0 Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted
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 McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele -- Sylvia Plath, Rob...
Word Revel
Word Revel rated it
3.0 Girl, Interrupted
Actual rating: 2.5 starsInitial thougths: Given that the author was committed to a psychiatric hospital and Girl, Interrupted is a memoir chronicling that time, I didn't think the book did it all that much justice. Little was actually shared through the book that an observer couldn't have written. T...
Malin
Malin rated it
4.0 #CBR7 Book 12: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
When Susanna Kaysen was 18, she went to see a new psychiatrist for a conversation after what appears to have been a suicide attempt. She swallowed a large amount of sleeping pills, then regretted her decision and wandered out into the street to get help. The psychiatrist claimed to have spoken to an...
hippieed perceptions
hippieed perceptions rated it
4.0
"A lot of mind, though, is turning out to be brain. A memory is a particular pattern of cellular changes on particular spots in our heads. A mood is a compound of neurotransmitters. Too much acetylcholine, not enough serotonin, and you've got depression. So, what's left of mind? " When I firs...
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