Girl, Interrupted

Rating:
Summary: Greatest Book In A While!
Review: I think this book is a must have for any female with borderline persoanlity disoder. i think it is well written in the comical and heartbreaking sence that all women have felt somewhat like this before, and if you have the disorder you know that pain is only gonna get better if possible in your case. I loved this tale of Suasana Kaysen, a young woman who tries to OD on Asprin and ends up losing two years of her life in a mental hospital. i loved it's true to life heartbreaking madness unleashed into words of healing and lament all at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated -- Read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Instead
Review: I picked up this book at the airport, hoping to read something that would pass time and keep me interested during my journey. The book was short on length as well as other things -- like depth. I felt like the book had a lot to work with at the beginning -- a woman committed to an institution because of a man's idea of gender roles, crazy characters, weird doctors/nurses. Unfortunately, the author never goes really far with her topic and leaves a lot to be desired with the book. Overrated -- Read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Instead Only read it if you like these coming of age, depressed teenage girl books.

Rating:
Summary: Deceptively simple
Review: I saw the movie version of "Girl Interrupted" when it came out last winter in spite of the mostly negative reviews it received. I loved it, mainly because it highlighted how women can support each other through the toughest of circumstances. I then bought and read the book. The differences between the two are startling: the setting and most of the characters are the same, but the tone is quite different.

The book is mesmerizing from its first paragraph. Susanna Kaysen uses deceptively simple language to describe her experiences and the people she knew during her 18 months stay at McLean's mental hospital. We slowly come to understand the lack of humanity showed to these girls, and the confused world they came from. Ms Kaysen's spare, poetic prose is interspersed with copies of actual hospital records written at the time she was a patient. The records appear as confused as the patients they detail. They seem to detail Susanna's social interactions and levels of ease with others, as if this alone depicts signs of strong mental health. Some of them appear incomplete and neglected. One is left to wonder what exactly the professionals at this hospital were looking for: mental health or acceptable female behavior?

The book is brief, and leaves the reader with more questions than answers. How have we changed in the way we view certain types of female behavior? How have we changed in the way we view those suffering from mental illnesses? Do patients need to be cured or does the world need to be cured?

This is a remarkable book. It manages to raise awareness without giving in to self-pity. I would recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Wanted more story..not a psychology lesson
Review: I never saw the movie, but I can only hope it is better than the book. Maybe I just didn't know what I was getting into but I didn't not care for this book. Luckily it was short and quick.

I was hoping for more of a story. I wanted to learn more about the characters, how they got to the mental institute. I wanted to learn more about Susanna's marriage and why it didn't work. I felt this was more of a book on psychology. I would have rather had the lesson through a more visual story told through the characters, thus portraying the psychological aspects of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Not memorable
Review: I've read many books that have a similar style to this one and this was the worst. I don't even remember half the book, that's how uninteresting I felt it to be. If you're looking for memoirs of mental patients and things of that sort, read "The Bell Jar" (Sylvia Plath) or "Prozac Nation" (Elizabeth Wurtzel).

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, fascinating thoughts on near madness
Review: Susanna Kaysen in Girl, Interupted provides several fascinating and thought-provoking ideas and thoughts on the anatomy of near-madness, in a the form of this slightly jumpy book. The skips from time to time and subject to subject between chapters in a slightly unorthodox way of telling a chronological tale can be a teensy bit difficult, but are well worth it for the insight and general good read provided. At times funny, at others serious, Girl, Interupted shouldn't be missed, if only for the candid and refreshing takes on diagnosed insanity it provides.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasure to read
Review: I love the movie and so I hunt for the book. It's really a great book, though I am a bit disappointed by the fact that it is separated into very short chapters. It gets a bit loose because of such an arrangement, though it is still a good book without a doubt. I like the part about not having bones. That sounds so real. But since I've watched the movie first, somehow scenes from the movie appear when I read the book and sometimes it's a little disappointing to find that the movie gets into more details than the book (no matter whether they're true or not) Anyway, I'm glad to know from the book that Lisa ended up having not too bad a life. Frankly, I'm attracted by her, just like the teenage girls in the institution did...

By the way, I like this book far more than the Bell Jar, despite that they are in some ways similar.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: If you are a female, you have to read this book. It is as simple as that. It is absolutely fanstastic. Kaysen has a way of drawing us into her world and make it seem beautiful and calm even behind the brick and mortar that is McLean Hospital. Also, if you read the book, you much watch the movie. Both were the best of their respected media that I have read/seen in a long, long tinme.

Rating:
Summary: Very Boring
Review: I found this book to be a very boring read. I had watched the dramatized "Girl Interrupted" in the movies so I borrowed this book from the library. Susanna tells us NOTHING in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Susanna Kaysen
Review: After seeing the movie, I decided that such a story could never be justified without the proper first-person account. Now that I have fulfilled that curiousity, I am wondering how I could contact Susanna... Whether by email, regular mail, or any other form, I am very interested in asking her some questions. If anyone has an idea of how I could do so, please email me at [e-mail] and let me know.

Thank you,

David Lorch