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Summary: Don't let the film version fool you.
Review: Kaysen's autobiography is an irreverent but mostly harrowing account of her institutionalization at eighteen. She brings her fellow inmates to life in a way that I clearly remember almost a year after reading the book, and patches together the memory of the day she was institutionalized to demonstrate that it took no more than fifteen minutes for a doctor to sign her off to the institution without so much as a probing question or even a close look at her condition. Considering that this occurred in 1967, it would seem that the major reason for Kaysen's incarceration was merely that she was an unapologetic, sexually active, single woman. But you'll have to read it and decide for yourself. I still shudder at the memory of the scene where Kaysen dines on her own hand out of separation anxiety.
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Summary: Rachel's Review
Review: Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, is a story of true intensity. After a session with a phychiatrist, 16 year old Susanna Kaysen is diagonosed with Borderline Personality disorder, and is immeadiantly sent to MCclean Hospital.Susanna is to spend the next two years in the MCclean Mental Instution for teenage girls. While living in the Instution, Susanna goes through many horrific experiences, and meets the kind of people that you could only imagine in your nightmares. Susanna eventually makes friends with a tempermental patient who has a reputation of being the "boss" of their ward.But in time, Susanna realizes that a friend in a mental instution is very different from a friend in conatct with the outside world.
Explore the world that Susanna beholds. Inspect the very defination of sanity, and view the world from the eyes of a remarkable teenage girl with vivid concepts of every day issues that face our lives.
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Summary: A wonderful (Borderline) life
Review: It is difficult to imagine that somebody with this condition could dig as deep into herself as Susanna Kaysen has done. This is a multilayered book. I read it again after reading The Courtship Dance of the Borerline (by Walker) (AKA Boy, interrupted??) to try and get a sense of the chaos. Girl is certainly a book to read more than once, and to read in different moods (relaxed, hyper, exhausted etc) Doing so sheds different lights on the story. Like the Courtship Dance, another excellent memoir is the movie Gia (for Jolie fans)
Rating: 
Summary: very good!
Review: highly recommended - - much better than the movie
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Summary: I've been there... Almost
Review: I am 13, yet already threatened with in-patient care. I am diagnosed Pathological Liar--like Georgina in the movie--, clinically depressed, and I fantasize too often of suicide. I would never have the courage to push down though; I find suicide stupid, and for the weak, but I have much compassion for those who truly consider it, and I'm there if they need a shoulder to lean on--or, more often, cry on. Anyway, back to the book. She wrote this reflecting on how she was in the "hospital" when she was 18. No criticism should be said about this book; this book is merely opinions and essays. If you don't like it then fine, dont read it; but don't whine about not liking because you want other people to not read it, for you feel it's a waste of time. Susanna Kaysen is one of the best, if not THE best, authors I know of; and I am quite a reader. She expresses her emotions in ways that I've never seen in anyone... anything. Five stars go to this well deserving book about life on the not-so-glamorous side, the life many must face.
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Summary: A Quick, Fascinating Read, but no thinking involved!
Review: Before I read "Girl, Interrupted" I first saw the movie, this is a bad thing because the movie is completely different and actually a little better than the book. I thought Susanna Kaysen was witty at times and able to get her point across about living in a mental hospital for two years but I guess the question that I kept asking myself was "why?" Why did she not like her parents? Why does her first marriage fail? Why does she bond with Lisa? Etc. She provides some insight into her psyche, but not enough in my opinion since I really wanted to know more about her interactions with Lisa, Georgina, and everyone else and instead her audience gets a very nice summary of events without much analysis. So I expected a little too much for this book, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, just wanted more details and analysis.
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Summary: Wonderful Portrayal
Review: The year's 1967 and 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, the book's main character, begins to think that life and reality is just plainly too dense and soon admitts her self, voluntarily, to a mental hospital. She ends up staying there for two years. The book exhibits photocopies of some of her forms. She's shortly labeled as a borderline personality. Throughout the book, Susanna talks about the mind, neurology and her own take on psychology. Her thoughts on hospital-life are very comical. Twenty-five years after her hospital stay at McLean Hospital, Susanna speaks of her doctors, fellow patients and staff at the hospital. Recommended.
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Summary: The thinking-man's subway book
Review: This is a good book. There's not much else I could say that wouldn't belittle the writing or the writer, so I prefer to keep it at that. It's a good book. Despite the fact that it's been made into a movie. It's still good.
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Summary: Interesting psychological read
Review: GIRL, INTERRUPTED is an autobiographical book written by Susanna Kaysen, who was institutionalized at age 18. She writes of her time spent there, and each chapter is either a separate essay on another aspect of her time there, or an essay talking about how that time of her life affected her present life (25 years later). As a study on borderline personality disorder, it was an interesting read. However, as a book I found it a little disjointed. I also didn't feel anything for the author, because of the way she wrote the book. I find I could feel something for the main character if the book is written well. but i couldn't feel a thing for the characters in this book. Susanna goes into detail the different patients at the hospital where she stayed for nearly 2 years. Some of the scenes described are very intense. What i found interesting is that she was narrating what she experienced first hand. This is the story of a part of her life that changed forever who she was and what she was meant to become. I give it 3 stars because although as a whole it was not what I considered a great book, each chapter was interesting unto itself and kept me wanting to read more. But i felt a bit let down when I finaly finished the book. I hope the movie was better than this.
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Summary: So true, so strong, so painful...
Review: Reading Girl, Interruped is not an easy experience, but it's a very good one indeed. Anyone who has wondered 'what the hell am I doing here?' or 'it's only me or the world went Crazy?' will easily indentify him or herself to Susanna.
Plus, there is all the late 60's madness surruonding every single page. It's not hard to close your eyes after reading some pages and just listen -inside your mind- songs by Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Janis Joplin ... and so many others, becase they get alive along with the book.
I suggest to anyone who liked this book to move on to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, because this book is as good and deep as Girl, Interrupted.
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