Interrupted, Girl

Author Susanna Kaysen lets the world into her mind in "Girl, Interrupted." For someone who was suppose to be "nuts" and in a mental hospital this tale of her time there is very clear and brilliant. She's wonderfully poetic and compelling. I found this book frank, honest and deeply funny in some areas. She pulled no punches and truly drove into her own mind and those who she shared her time with at the hospital. It's a tough and powerful novel that is told so honestly that you want to be so careful with it and be respectful. Kaysen is a talented storyteller and very honest. I really enjoyed this book.

I have had a simular expierience to Susanna Kaysen. I have been hospitalized twice since the beginning of 1998. I read this book after my first hospitalization, and found a lot of simularities in our thinking. I was amased by the way she was able to explain what it is like to think in an "insane" world. I have a personalty disorder, but my Dr. has not told me wich one. This book gave me hope that no matter what I have and no matter where I end up I can get better and enter back into the world of "sanity".

Susanna Kaysen has an incredibly captivating writing style. Her attention to even the most minute and often overlooked detail is especially appreciated. I like to read the story that is behind the story and she tells just that.
What I can't understand is how obtuse the staff of the hospital seemed to be. I felt more connected to the patients than I did to the staff, they actually seemed more "normal". What exactly is normal anyway? Kaysen sounds as if she would be a great person to know. Personality is everything and she has plenty of it.

"...it is easy to slip into a parallel universe. Thereare many of them: worlds of insane, criminal, ...
These wordswithin the first few pages of Susanna Kaysen's book, Girl Interrupted still ring within the deep crevices of my brain only a mere day since finishing her memoir. An emotional journey with Kaysen reveals that we are all on the "borderline" of having an emotional breakdown. Who hasn't been depressed and not known exactly why? Who hasn't wanted to escape from all responsibilities in life? We all feel a little crazy sometimes, and this book reminds us what makes us crazy is crossing the line; the line of not just being depressed, or dazed, or apathetic, but the line of wanting to live. Susanna Kaysen crossed the line. She swallowed fifty aspirin before realizing that it wasn't what she really wanted. She lined them up and took one by one, counting them as she went. This lands her in the local mental hospital with some not so run-of-the-mill people. To name a few, There's Lisa, and later Lisa number two are both sociopaths. Then Polly, who lit herself on fire, Daisy, who eats only chicken, rids her body of the nourishment with laxatives, and saves the chicken carcasses in her room, and Alice, who decorates her new high security room with feces. The analogies that Kaysen uses are amazing. So many times will you find yourself siding with her and at times the hospital almost seems like a vacation from life and sounds like a good idea. Then she quickly jerks you back to reality by reminding you that in the hospital you got plastic silverware that is locked up only for usage when accompanied by a nurse or how there is someone who busts into your room and "checks" in on you every five minutes, whether you like it or not. Being a teenager during any time period is not easy. Heck, if it were up to all the psychologists, psychoanalysts, and a large majority of parents, every teenager would be put into some kind of mental hospital or "mental health" program. I remember clearly asking myself at the age of 16 if I was going insane. I too felt as though I were standing on the gray line between parallel universes: between the "sane" world and the "insane" world. Even within the first few pages of her book, I felt the walls closing in on me. She makes her audience smell the hospital smells; the way the institution felt to this young woman. Susanna knew she really didn't belong there, but the longer she was there, the safer she felt behind the locked doors and bar-covered security windows. Ms. Kaysen brings to light the humor in her diagnosis: Borderline Personality. I understand the humor in this diagnosis, especially in one of someone of a mere 18. Ms. Kaysen defines this in one of her final chapters: "An essential feature of this disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of self image, interpersonal relationships, and mood,....................................." Doesn't this sound like a normal teenager going through the phases to adulthood? Who, at the age of 17 or 18, glanced in the mirror and thought they were ugly; or who was one day in a cheerful, loving-life kind of mood and the next nearly suicidal? Even after she was released from the hospital, her world followed her into the new life she tried to acquire. She continued therapy and psychoanalysis. Her therapist had to write letters permitting her to acquire a job, a driver's license: things we, who were never "locked up," take for granted. She mentioned that every time she tried to apply for a job while still at the hospital, she was looked down upon by any future employer. No wonder she felt as though the hospital was a safe haven. No one on the inside saw her as though she was crazy. Everyone was equal. But on the outside, she realized life was much different. Even the prisoners of Alcatraz wanted to find a way out of their prison cells, to visit the City by the Bay. But if they had ever gotten that chance, I think maybe they would have realized it was a safer world on the inside. By the end of the book, you are not a changed person, you are not reborn, but you are enlightened. Yes...Other people do feel as stressed out as you. Never before can any of us really say we know what goes on in a mental hospital. We all know someone who has been committed to one, or have heard of celebrities being committed. And it makes us realize how everyone suffers and it is okay to not always be happy. But it is not okay to let that take control of your life.

It's very short, and I do wish there had been more detail or development through most of it (it's very lacking), but it's brutally honest and raw, which I enjoyed. Characters are introduced quickly, and only some are easy to tell apart. It feels like an abridged version because of how fast it moves, but that aids itself to the overall mood, but it does leave the reader wanting more. The timeline doesn't come across very fluid, so by the end, it does feel messy.

The story GIRL INTERRUPTED is a story about a girl named Susanna Kaysen who goes to a mental institution in 1967. The doctor diagnosed her with borderline personality diorder. Her therapist said that she had to spend at least two years in the hospital. Susanna met a lot of new friends at the hospital. She was usually with one in perticular. Her name was Lisa, and Lisa was a bad influence on Susanna. They get into a lot of trouble together and this was not helping Susanna progress in her thrapy or problems. Lisa had been in the hospital for many years and there was nothing the doctors could do with her. She just kept getting worse and worse. Although Susanna had fun with Lisa she knew she had to seperate from her. When Susanna was away from Lisa she got through her problems and was out of the hospital within a matter of eight-teen months.
I recommend this book very much. I enjoyed reading it and thought it was very exciting and thrilling. It made me think about all the problems that so many people have. It was a wonderful novel and I hope many more people get the opportunity to read it

I loved the movie so I had to get the book. Glad I did. The book is even better. Its more real and honest about what happened to Susuanna. You see that she was really a normal girl who figures out who has the power to see who is insane or sane. Doctors don't know it all, they can misdiagnose. Many doctors did back then in McLean Hospital and many across the world are doing so now.
Susanna and Company have their ups and downs but through it all they have TRUTH and Friendship. Trough this they suceed in what the "Sane" people outside the McLean ward can't ever truely have.

Many novels that are written have a happy ending. In the book Girl, Interrupted, this is not the case. This memoir, written by Susanna Keysen, is the darkly humorous story of an 18 yr old girl trapped within a mental institution. She introduces characters that come and go in her boxed life and explains their history, along with an analysis of each. While out of order and slightly confusing at certain points, the book quickly straightens out and gives it a more personal feeling and being like thoughts, not a textbook.

After seeing a new doctor for only 20 minutes, Susanna becomes committed by him to a mental institution. She becomes friends with Polly, a girl who had covered herself in gasoline and lit herself on fire, Lisa, the insomniac who is desperate for escape, no matter how poorly she could handle the 'real world', and Daisy, a beautiful bullimic girl who gets full chickens from her dad and keeps every carcass. Among these girls, Susanna desperately searches for sanity, knowing that she was not meant to be kept locked up here.

Keysen uses simple, straight forward words that can not be misunderstood. This helps us easily understand the moods that each passage is supposed to give off because each word has more value and impact. Along with this, she uses short sentences that are to the point. In the book, there are no hidden meanings behind her words; what she wants you to know, she tells you instead of letting the reader figure it out for themselves. An example of this is how on the first page, Keysen asks her roomate about undergoing shock therapy.

"And then what?" I asked.

"Darkness," She replied.

This quote, in few words, captures the eerie darkness of the conversation. This is something Keysen does phenomonally throughout the book. The more you read, the more you can comprehend about her, and you learn what to expect language-wise from her. The diction seems to come out just as an ordinary person would speak, allowing you to connect better with the character because all the answers about what she means is laid out right in front of you.

This book would be best recommended for women over the age of 13. The book talks about psychoanalysis and requires a certain amount of maturity to understand the nature and importance of the book. Also, this book can be recommended for those who have a dark sense of humor or like morbid books. The book describes all the disorders that each of them have and has the ability to make some of them seem comical. If you enjoyed the movie Girl, Interrupted, they will most likely enjoy reading the book, also. Two similar books are White Oleander and She's Come Undone. While White Oleander has a similar writing sense and inner conflict within the character, She's Come Undone revolves around similar ideas.

Susanna Kaysen, the main character and author of this book, simply went for a doctor's appointment one day and the doctor, not letting her know what was going on, shoved her in a taxi and sent her to Mclean Hosptial, where her stay was about 2 years. Through that year, she experienced many new friends,yet problems, but also discovered new paths and a new way of life which led her to a world of seeing the real Susanna. Susanna entered the mental hospital still having no idea why she was there, but what she soon came to realize was that she was the most normal one out of all that were staying there. The hospital was a very strict facility with locked everything. There was no leaving the hospital except for when the nurse would take 6 lucky patients to get ice cream, but that was hardly ever. Nurses checked on you every 10, 20, or 30 minutes, depending on your behavior and diagnosis. Susanna also had a therapist, with whom she met weekly and told him about her problems and thoughts about everything. Susanna's diagnosis was something having to do with depression, and even though she was in an environment full of friends like Georgina, Lisa, and Cynthia, she felt out of place because they all had seriuos problems and she didn't. All the other characters made the book so lively and humorous, even though it was talking about a serious issue. Susanna was a big thinker and this book showed great analyzation of her every thought. It was so greatly analyzed that it not only taught her something, but everyone reading the book. What happens at the end of the book is for you to find out. Don't miss reading Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. It shows such good -real experiences and how some people just don't have life so easy as others and how they deal with it so well.

After Susanna Kaysen is sent to a mental hospital in 1968, at age 18, she begins to "vent." The entire book is her outlook on the hospital, giving the reader an image of what the hospital is like. There sometimes seems to be no real plot, that she is doing nothing but putting her feelings onto paper, but that what makes it so beautiful... so poetic. She vividly defines the group of odd characters, bringing then to life.
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read.

Kayson's novel was a harsh breath of reality to what it is like inside a mental institution. It was a short account of her self-admitted stay in a mental hopsital in 1967. The book was just what the cover said, a personal account, and not a short and sweet story like so many people expected. Her anecdotes were precise and to the point, often darkly funny. I haven't seen the movie, and don't plan to because this is not the type of work that can be portrayed on screen. The movie simply can't give it the justice that it so much deserves.

"Girl....." was good, although I must say the movie was 10 times better. Susanna analyzes herself a bit too much in the book. I guess seeing the movie first was a mistake! I expected the book to be the same. Some of the parts were similar but others made no sense. I especially was messed up because the movie was filmed where I live in Pa. It was hard to imagine our State Hospital as her hospital in Mass. All in all, it was a good book. Just read this BEFORE watching the movie!

When I first saw the preview for the movie, it seemed interesting, but nothing in the story really jumped out at me as anything special. But a few weeks later, when I needed a good book to read, a friend told me that the movie was actually based on the book "Girl, Interrupted" by Susanna Kaysen. I decided to give the book a try, so I picked it up, and it wasn't until I read the back cover that something special jumped out at me: this was a true story; a glimpse into Ms. Kaysen's life. This immediately drew me toward the book, and once I opened it and started reading, it was hard to stop. The story is very suspenseful and interesting, and at the end of each chapter it leaves you wanting to know what will happen next. In the novel, Susanna vividly decribes her experiences while enrolled in the treatment program at the McLean Mental Hospital. As and eighteen-year-old girl just starting to grow up and to contemplate life for the first time, she finds herself quickly diagnosed with a mental condition and thrown in an institution. Her experiences there are unlike anything I had ever seen, heard, or read about. The people she meets and the conditions they have are astounding, and it is amazing to think about all that they have been through. Susanna is a bright girl and is very contentious of her surroundings, her condition, the people around her, and what is happening to her. It is interesting to see her deal with her peers in the hospital, and it is extremely moving to observe the bonds they establish, as sufferers of the same cause. I highly recommend this book, as it takes you along on the journey of a young woman forced to conform to what others think of her. As you read this, you may think about the question: Is Susanna really insane?

This novel, Girl Interrupted, by Susana Kayson, was a lot different than any other book I have read. It was a true story about a young woman living in a mental institute, and those are topics I'm not used to reading or even hearing about. Nonetheless it was a good story. It was a lot more realistic and raw than most stories I'm used to reading. The author, who was actually the young woman this story was all about, was very honest and detailed about her experiences during her stay and about her emotions. She was very open about how she felt about her mental illness, herself, and the other girls she was living with. I would definitely classify this story as a dramatic non-fiction book. It really gave me a clear picture of what it would be like to live in a mental institute, and to me personally, it seemed very scary. Not only scary, but at times lonely. I felt sorry for these girls, but I also couldn't understand all of them. Even though the author detailed everyday life for her and the other girls very well, she could of detailed the illness's they all suffered from a little bit more. Some of the girl's personalities confused me because I didn't understand the state of mind they were in. It was obvious that the author was resentful towards her parents for putting her in the institute, and at times in denial that she even had a problem. Although, it seems a lot of the girls were in denial. Overall, the story was thrilling and informative at the same time. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys an intriguing and exhilarating story.

After attempting suicide in 1967, Susanna Kaysen voluntarily admitted herself to the psychiatric ward at McLean Hospital. The setting is what I found the most interesting and is what made me want to read this book. I thought it was a great book. People, including myself, have always wondered what goes on in mental hospitals and in the mind of a mentally ill patient. Susanna Kaysen explains and describes both of these things in such great detail that the reader can almost imagine the actual setting and thoughts of the characters. One thing that confused me was how the author skips around between events in the novel. At first, I was confused by the lack of chronological order, but as soon as I figured out what was happening, I was able to follow along. This book is a fast read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good book. I would especially recommend it to a teenage reader. Teenage readers can really identify with the characters in this story because we all feel different or isolated from society more than than once throughout our teenage years. I know that I related to the novel. I wouldn't say that I am "crazy," but I would admit that I have felt my fair share of alienation from society. This book is a fast read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good book.

"Another odd feature of the parallel universe is that although it is invisible from this side, once you are in it you can easily see the world you came from. Sometimes the world you came from looks huge and meanacing, quivering like a vast pile of jelly; at other times it is miniaturized and alluring, a-spin and shining in its orbit. Either way, it can't be discounted. Every window on Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco." -Girl, Interrupted
Susanna Kaysen's poetically written memoir has become my bible for survival during the rough times in my life. If I ever feel depressed or that I just can't make it through another day, I pull out my well-worn copy of 'Girl, Interrupted' to remind myself that it can always get worse. And that everyone is just a little bit crazy.
Ms. Kaysen recalls her experience in McLean Hospital with humor and articulate insights into her life in the mental institution. The emotions she expresses; anger, resentment, love, furstration, and depression hit home with readers and you share her feelings with her. She expresses herself so completely and with such clarity that it urges you to read it again and again. She questions the definition of insanity and leaves the unanswered question of our own sanity up to us: are you crazy, or are you just the only one sane?

If you are a teenage girl, who is struggling with your emotions, than this book is for you. It is a story of an 18 year old girl named susanna who is suddenly shipped off to a mental ward in a taxi, and she is diagnosed with a "borderline personality". She Doesn't even know what that is, but she deals with it. The people are a little rough at first, but she finds out that the other women in the hospital are actually more connected and even more sane than some of the ordinary people in the outside world. She makes a connection with one of the girls, who sticks out as a fear-nothing-rebel. They go on an emotional rollercoaster with eachother, and susanna lets all of her screams and cries out into her little journal. The journal is her ticket out of the institution, and she eventually uses it. She grows up to be a writer, like she always dreamed, and writes the story i am talking about right now.
I personally thought this was an excellent book. I don't read much. When I saw advertisements for the movie on TV, it seemed interesting. So, since I didnt want to bug my parents to pay money to go see it with me, I checked the book out at the library. Since I am only 14, some of the things confused me. But, I understood the storyline, and deeply connected, end felt as if I could relate with susanna kaysen. After reading the book, I waited until the movie came out on TV, and I watched it. It was very powerful, and I wanted to see it again and again. I read the book often, and I understand things more as I read them. Well, Please read the book, or rent the movie. You will be deeply moved.

For Susanna Kasen, her life was too interrupted. Reading Girl Interrupted, you get to read Susanna's thoughts and feelings while going on a trip with her mind. Reality and perception is what this 18-year-old battles against. Finding it easy to focus on the book, just like Susanna, you are faced with concepts about life. You may find it difficult to be content with your own thoughts. Reading this book might make you unhappy with your own thoughts as this kind of poetic form of writing traps you in her mind. You become engaged and vulnerable to the ideas of life and it's reality. You might find yourself questioning, or often wondering, trying to analyze and observe what you can not comprehend. You at least try to understand her thoughts. At first, Susanna doesn't express herself and she is in denial about her problem. She didn't think that she had a borderline personality, she just thought that it was the world with the problem. Slowly, but surly, she pieces together her life in a psychiatric hospital.
If you are looking to read a book that grabs your thought and pulls you into a different dimension, and is full of different perceptions, then this is the book for you. Susanna Kasen's insanity will give you an idea about what it's like for her and others like her.

Set in a psychiatric hospital in 1967, it is told by 18-year-old Susanna, who is living under a blanket of depression and spending her days in McLean Hospital near Boston. We see the hospital and its occupants through her eyes, while trying to understand her mental illness (Borderline Disorder).

For a difficult subject, this book has a somewhat playful tone. It's as if the halls of McLean hospital are typical corridors of an apartment complex. ("It was a perpetual picnic, our hospital.") and a "seclusion room" ("Freedom was the price of privacy"). Through other characters' stories, Kaysen pieces together the reasons for her own suicide attempt. With each flashback, she reveals more details about her own attempted "premeditated murder." She discusses her fears and delusions, wondering if others see them, too. This makes us question ourselves and feel a bit closer to the comfort of being called crazy. Kaysen escorts us on a journey to a "parallel universe," creating a direct and clear route in case we travel there ourselves one day. I am hoping that I experience no one going down the same path Kaysen does in the book but I am sure I will. To overall put a score on the book was I would rate it a 9 out of a 10. One thing that was a disappointment was how the film-version of the novel strayed from the truth. I wish the film had been an accurate portrayal of this real life novel.

I vaguely remember a time when being institutionalized for being human was an okay thing. I read Kaysen's "diary" of mental illness with interest. We're all a little nuts somehow... I was blown away by the idea that someone with a good deal of youth and a little naivete could be locked up for life with no way back. The thought that the experience would leave one questioning their own sanity for life is a jail sentence in and of itself. The book was very well written and sometimes outright funny. I look forward to seeing what they've done with the movie.

This book, Girl Interrupted, can be classified many different ways. For the person who wants insight into a person's true-life account of their two-year stay in a mental institution it is a gem. This is what was I was looking for. This was a detailed, well-written book that gave me a different side of writing skills. I want to share why this book was so good. I would give this book four stars. It was good and I couldn't put it down. The only reason for my deduction of a star was because it wasn't really about the mental institution. It was about why she got there, and what she was doing that classified her as crazy. This book gave me a glimpse of what it was like in the 1960's to be 18 and in Mclean Mental Hospital. The descriptions were vivid and real. Another aspect of this book was Susanna's peers in the hospital. They formed bonds which were strange yet somehow moving. They had to go through the same experience, which made them close. The clarity of the writing made you really think about your mind and what goes on inside it. This book has given me a craving to find more books about true-life experiences. I hope I can find more books about people who experience life altering changes because it makes you think about your own life. This book has shown me different signs of myself and I hope that I can find more books as good as this one.

I DON'T LIKE THE WAY IT'S PRESENTED : JUMPING FROM A LITTLE STORY TO ANOTHER ONE ; I PREFER WHEN THERE IS A CONTINUATION IN A BOOK & MAYBE THIS WHY I HAVE DIFFICULTIES FINISHING THE BOOK... HOWEVER IT'S A GOOD "REPORT" ON HOW SOME DOCTORS & HOSPITALS ARE ABUSING THEIR POWER ! ESPECIALLY IN THIS AREA ! THERE IS AN HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN MY FAMILY AND BELIEVE ME DOCTORS WHO SEE A PATIENT FOR 5 MINUTES AND DECIDE THAT HE OR SHE IS NOT "NORMAL" DO EXIST ! SO FOR THIS AND OTHER THINGS I'LL MAKE AN EFFORT TO FINISH THE BOOK ...

This is a book that can (and likely will) be read in one sitting. Gripping in an unlikely way; I could not put it down simply because it wrapped me up in its tale, not because there were any particular surprises. There is a lot more here than in the movie, and for plot purposes some things were added to the movie that never happened in the book. Although the film was an 8.5 on a 10-point scale, seeing the movie before reading the book will rob you of the joy of visualizing the patients and workers on the ward in your head, and it is interesting to see how the characters were interpreted on film.

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.

The book Girl Interrupted is a book that is very different from the rest. The main character, Lisa, is an eighteen-year old girl, who has a very complex mind. She was hospitalized for eighteen months during the sixties for a borderline personality disorder. The author had really descriptive and realistic details about what Lisa was going through. Then closer to the end of the book when Lisa was getting much better the author starting picking up the pace of the book slowly. If you would like to read this book and understand it and really like this you should really be interested in psychology and how the minds of others work. If your not then you might not understand this book and you would find it confusing and pointless. This book is very peculiar and unique because not to many books tell about what goes on in other peoples minds, especially minds that are in need of psychiatric help.
The author used a very casual type of language and a lot of street language and swearing. Her style of writing is different too because the book started out real slow and told millions of details about every little thing. Then the pace started to pick up once you were getting into the meat of the book. At the end of the book she was flying through the rest of her life after she got out of the hospital. About 7 out of 10 people liked this book that I saw on other posted reviews. I personally found it to be an all right book. It interested me to know what was going on in that persons mind because her mind thought a little different than the average persons' mind. It wasn't my favorite because I didn't like certain parts of the book where the author would talk about things that you really didn't have to know. This book was interesting and confusing at the same time but it was worth reading once!

I was very interested in the book and film after finding out it was written by a women diagnosed with BPD, which I have. However, it doesn't talk much about her mental condition, it's more about the mental hospital and the other girls that are there. It almost reads like a book of anecdotes, with pieces of her medical records interspersed. It skips around quite a bit in time. I saw the movie first, and was not very impressed with it. I sat down and read the book all in one sitting, and found it an easy read and very engrossing, although definitely not the best book if you are wanting to learn about BPD.

As a 17 year old who is bipolar type 2 and has been in a psych ward, this book was very real to me. Painfully so at times. I think that everything in life is relative and sanity is no exception to the rule.
One thing I did wish was that the author told more about how she was managing these days.
All in all, it was an excellent book. I would reccomend it to anyone who is bipolar or is striving to gain empathy for those who are.

I have people I care about who are mentally ill. This book was an almost beautiful way to show me how they may have viewed the world. None of it was easy. Most of it was downright horrifying. But the insights into it were agonizingly clear. Ms. Kaysen alternates the 1st person viewpoint of living in an asylum for two years with the clinical paperwork that accompanied it. The result is disturbing. But . . . the last few chapters, dealing with her life since that experience, hands out a vision of, not hope necessarily, but a sense of horizon, for those of us who have loved ones struggling with mental illness.

One cautionary note though. This is not a book for children. There are levels of sexuality and violence not appriopriate for the young.

In Girl,Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Kaysen goes back to 1967 to relive the McLean Hopital. The hospital was a maximum-security crazy house. Kaysen had gone for her weekly session with her doctor and was plopped in a taxi to McLean. When Kaysen got there she quickly became friends with all the warders. They spent their time in the ward by torturing the nurses and absorbing the television. Kaysen realizes that she cannot be in the ward forever, she soon gets a job after being turned down many a times. She then got married.
To get through the years the girls came up with many methods to entertain themselves. They would harass the nurses everyday just to see them open every lock on the ward, when they found nothing wrong the nurse would go back in the office and the cycle would happen again. But most of the girls time was spent smoking and consuming TV.
I would greatly recommend this book to people over the age of thirteen. The subject of what goes on in a mental hospital is not a subject one reads about everyday. It made me understand life in a different perspective. The strong characters added to the memoir greatly. Just the idea that Kaysen could go back into such a deep, dark past was amazing. Through the pains and problems of the girls, their stay a McLean made an unexpectedly funny memoir and it was written with the greatest detail possible.

The sixties was a confusing enough time for anyone, but throw in the turmoils of being a young woman and you have what psychology of the times called borderline personality. Susanna Kaysen was diagnosed with this disorder, one which doctors slapped on anyone they didn't have a category for, and she was sent to live in a mental institution for two years. She wasn't really crazy at all, and that's the irony of this true story: that if you are labelled as troubled, or insane, or whatever, people will look at you that way, especially if you are in the right environment for that kind of behavior, even if you are perfectly normal. It's enough to make a sane person go nuts. This book amazed me, brought me to tears, made me laugh, made me want to punch through a wall. Since the people described by Kaysen are all real, there is a kind of awe you feel at knowing what they went through, and you feel as if you know them. This book is easy reading and I would recommend it to anyone, especially someone who feels like they sometimes live on the fringe of reality. Because we all are, at least some of the time.

This is one of my favorite books of all time - if you're even *considering* buying this book, please do it! If you're a fan of The Bell Jar, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden or other books dealing with psychology, you'll love it.

Girl, Interrupted will made me laugh, cry, and feel everything between! Delving into the mind of Susanna Kayson, she describes in her memoir what it was like to live in Belmont - an expensive mental hospital - for almost two years during the 60's. Each character is so unique and engrossing, I wasn't able to put the book down. Now, even though I've read it so many times that the spine is wearing out, I still can't put it down once I stop! You'll love this book to death - and knowing that it's a true story makes it that much more facsinating.

I liked it but sometimes they jumped back in time and totally surprised me. Overall, it was really good.
I felt for the author. It has to hard to be in a mental institution. And for 2 years? Wow. She must've been brave.
But one thing hit me. Almost everyone has some feelings like theses people did. (I know, I know, not everyone wants to kill theirselves) but some of the feelings are feelings people experience everyday.
So does that mean everyone's a little crazy... :)

I first heard about this book a year ago, when a friend told me to read it. I had been deeply depressed for some time, and this book just saved my life. It really spoke to me. Susanna seemed to be feeling everything I was and I came out with a deeper understanding of my illness. The movie was so faithful to the book, and I have to thank Winona Ryder for that. This book was so incredible, I read it straight through in about 2 hours. You must read it!

I am a person who thinks in great quantities. A lot of time in my life is spent analyzing things- little things, peculiar things, random things- and this book became a part of me. It helped me to understand myself and my thoughts. If you are the type of person who doesn't analyze minute details of everything, then don't read this book. Most likely it will annoy you. But if you're like me- read it over and over and over again. Never stop thinking, never stop learning, never stop LIVING!

This is a very short book, which is actually great, because if you're on the fence about getting involved with it, by the time you've made up your mind you'll have already finished it.

I read the book because I watched the movie and I was curious. The book fulfilled my curiosity but not much else. It adds snip-its of details to the characters and definitely has a more viable believability than the movie did but if you've watched the movie you already know all the dialogue. Nothing in the book was spared when they made the movie it seemed.

I enjoyed the book. It was short and I wish it was longer and more detailed. I def recommend to borrow it from the library though instead of buying it. My two cents.

I could really relate to this book. That could be kind of scary since it took place in a mental hospital... It was a really good story though. It gave me a different view of something I never really thought about. I read it after seeing the movie. There were several major differences between them, so seeing the movie does not mean you know the story. I like both of them a lot. I highly reccommend this book to anyone who's ever felt a little insane.

In the year 1967, the world seemed to tumble down for 18 year old, Susanna Kaysen. She had a bumpy life and felt nothing could go right, so she attempted to kill herself. Unfortunatly, for her, the attempt failed and she was hospitalized at McLean Hospital. Would you want to end up like this? Not me! For a book that talks about suicide as much as this one, it was an excellent book to read. If your a person who likes books that are fast-reading and hard to put down, you will surely enjoy Girl, Interrupted. I found it interesting to read about several different girls and their problems, each one very different. The book was very dramatic and true. It made me realize how easily I take life for granted sometimes. I often felt sorry for the characters in the book, because their lives are so totally different from mine. It's sad really. I'm able to go out into the world and be free to do almost anything I want. Unfortunatly, the characters in the book have it totally opposite. This book is worth reading and I would recommend it to anyone. It was a good experience for me to read and hopefully it is a good experience for someone else.

I am only thirteen years old, and I read this book and related to it completely! I know what it's like to feel like you're all alone in this world much like Susanna Kaysen did. I have an anxiety disorder, but it is not nearly as serious as any of the mental illnesses in this book! However, the basic idea that people who are viewed as "crazy" may just be as normal as the next person you see going to work or running to catch the bus. It's great that somebody has pointed that out. When I was first diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, I too felt that I was crazy and that no one would understand what I was going through. Although, I never got to the point where I wanted to commit suicide. The book was not only dramatic, it was kind of funny in a dark way. One page I was laughing at for about a half hour. SPOILER: The part where Lisa came into Daisy's room with chicken and laxatives, that cracked me up! I recommend this book to anybody who's every felt they were "crazy".

I got this book as a Christmas gift from my American friend in 2000. I wished for this book, because I couldn't get in anywhere from Finland. I saw the movie before I read this book, and I just loved the movie so much.
This book describes the life in the 60's so well, that if you took a little too much something and flushed it with some alcohol you were crazy. Susanna wasn't crazy, she just didn't know what she wanted. Partly for the reason why she ended up in the hospital, can be used her parents. She learned a lot about life in the hospital, she made everyone else little better there, she was kinda like a teacher to the rest of the people in the hospital and the others taught her. Like in the end of the book, most of them were out in the 70's, most of them were fine, most of them she met, some of them ever again.

Once in a while you read a book that leaves an aftertaste like good cognac would. Girl, Interrupted is such a book. The writing is simple and so good. I was laughing as I was reading it and reading passages again and again, because they were vital and written with just the right amount of cynicism. The story in itself is witty and ironical. This book is one of the best I have read in a very long time. This author knows how to say what she wants to say without using superfluous language.

Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her stay in a mental institution is well written. I like the way she moves from chapter to chapter, not in a chronological way, but in a topical one. Each chapter discusses a different character or aspect of the experience, and the details are captured in a startling, real way. I wish it had been longer and more of the gaps had been filled in, but it was a satisfying read. I finished it on a two-hour flight.

This book is crazy and also good in that sense. It got a little depressing from time to time. The thing I most liked about this book is it's synoposis, "You can either go on with life, or give up." Ans Susanna Kaysen did not give up, she was brilliant with writing as phsycological manifolds kicked in her curiousity of being crazy! That's why I think we should see her as a Girl Interrupted by madness, and that's why we should give this book credit!

The book was an emotional story that involved the reader to a point where they felt like they were Susanna. The story taught readers about the distress of mental hospitals and how lucky peoploe are and how they should appreciate life and what they have. Susanna Kaysen brought i humor to her story to try to lighten the mood but at the same time gave the readers her perspective on life and craziness. She often asked herself what defines craziness? Am I just as crasy as the next person? Her ideas about the first interpreter vs. the second really messes with the readers mind because we can all relate to what she was asking.Does it mean your crazy when the voice of the second interpreter doesn't interfere with the voice of the first?

While the movie gets lost somewhere in the midst of big name actresses and the urge be historically accurate, the book cuts a path though the dark forests of mental illness. Susanna's memior is formatted as several short essays, not chronological, and therefore is able to communicate beyond the actual words the changes in mind and memory. This is a beautiful book.
This book challenges assumptions commonly held by juxposition of concrete images and anticdotes. Who decides one is crazy? How can a fallible being decide? Why are some ideas deemed inappropriate, thus thoughts of a crazy person, when everyday sees even more outragous ideas put into place everyday by leaders or celebrities.
Reading this book was a revelation that other people have the same thoughts, doubts, and fears as I do. I was assured with the realization that there is life beyond mental illness. Life doesn't stop, but you can still be part of it. I recommend the title "The Magic Daughter" in addition to this one.

Susanna Kaysen has produced one of the masterpieces of first-person narratives of struggles with mental illness. Forget William Styron's Darkness Visible, which only takes you as far as his decision to seek treatment. Kaysen's book takes you inside the treatment process (an out-dated one, though), inside a real psych ward, and inside a brilliant but troubled mind. Not only that, but Kaysen is a writer of the first order, and while her two novels are not equal to this incredible narrative, they show that she has more than one story in her, and that she will be one of the authors to watch.
If you have ever struggled with depression, either in yourself or in someone close to you, or if you want to know what a psychiatric hospitalization is like, read this book. While the specifics of treatment have changed somewhat, the fundamentals of Kaysen's account of her two year hospitalization are as true now as they were then. It is one of those books that is really dangerous - it just might change you.

I never say this, but the movie was better. For a memoir, the book lacked the depth of someone institutionalized for over two years. The characters were not developed, and their back stories were lacking. If you want to read this because you loved the movie, skip it.

i really liked this book. where "prozac nation" is long, wordy and full of drama, "girl interrupted" is short and less full of drama. the author is "crazy" yet seems pretty normal. she writes about her experience of going to a mental institution and making friends with all the crazy people. learning about these people is very interesting. it makes them seem more human, and perhaps more "normal."

I have had a similar experience to Kaysen. After about twenty minutes interview (though I have not checked recently) a professional who did not know me decided to have me put in McLean, the same institution as Kaysen. At 18. The same age of Kaysen.
There I had some very bad experiences. I don't believe I should ever have spent any time there. I don't have time to detail them all but I had very hurtful experiences. They diagnosed me with some iffy psychiatric diagnoses out of the current version of the DSM and also with a neurological syndrome which I do have.
They never explained or told me about the neurological syndrome. (I choose to use the language they use.) Apparently I could not learn from or help myself in knowing that I had it. So they kept this to themselves.
Her commitment happened in the late 1960's. The book says that she began to write it circa 1990. (Unless she had taken notes earlier.) She managed to compress two years of experience into a novella-length story. In the space of twenty-plus years you lose some memories and bad memories do tend to fade with time.
I think Kaysen can write well but also over-writes though. She lyricizes her own experiences. Prettifies them. She criticizes psychiatry and at the same time seems to accept it. She accepts herself as mad. I don't accept this experience as a spiritual journey or a chemical imbalance or anything except a judgment made by other people and judgment made about the self.
"Victims. Therapy. Borderline personality disorder. "
Enough. No more. Away with them.

The writing style of the author is very special; it feels strange at first, but after a few pages you get used to it. I liked the style. It was surreal and portrayed the chaotic emotional world of young Susanna perfectly. My favorite charakter from the book was, of course, Lisa. She was so intensive and I simply loved her. My favorite part of the book was when Lisa wrapped toilet paper all around the furniture in the living room. That was so funny, but touching. You won't know what I mean if you haven't read it. Only the ending was disappointing, I think. It was too sudden and very hard to understand. But after all, read it! It's the money worth, and you will wonder if you're crazy yourself after reading it...

If you've seen and liked the movie Girl, Interrupted then you will like the screenplay. There are a good collection of pictures in the back, and in the front an interview, which is quite interesting.
Set in 1968, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is sent to a mental hospital for "having a headache" (she "cured" it with a bottle of asprin and a bottle of vodka). She meets pathological liar Georgina, sociopath Lisa, and many others.
Very good story.

Whether or not you believe that young Susanna Kaysen should have been in a mental hospital at age 18, you have to sympathize with how she feels about it. Society, as a whole, treats anyone with a mental "problem" as a freak and social leper. The book really shows how a normal, very nice human being, is seperated from the rest of the world and stamped as a "freak". Most of the second half of the book really concentrates on how other people unfairly lable anyone with a problem. People diagnosed with mental disorders end up seeing them as shamefull, because that's how society feels. That isn't true; it's a disease like any other, and the author really shows it and explains it. You can related in every way to Susanna and her friends, and the book really gets you thinking about who is crazy and who is "normal"?

Very dissapointed. I really liked the movie so I was hoping to learn more about Ms. Kasen and why she was in the hospital and her individual treatment. The book was just rambling gibberish. The story telling was non-linear and I often double checked my place in my book because from one chapter to the next, I felt I had missed something. Nope, just bad story telling. The book seemed to be even lighter on character descriptions and mental illnesses. The movie really had to embellish to make it a story worth telling. This is probably the first time I would say skip the book and see the movie instead. If you must read the book, at least it is short and you won't waste too much time.

This is a thought provoking book told from the perspective of a mental patient, not a scientist who has collected his observations on a case study and published them. it's simply written and completely irrational, which provides a compelling insight into a mind most of us can not understand. its funn at times, makes no apologies and sees things in a truly different perspective. read this book!

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.

In the book Girl, Interrupted there are several characters that attend McLean hospital. It is a hospital for the mentally ill. One day, on June 15, 1967 a young of 18 years was assigned by her therapist. Susanna Kaysen is not only the main character of the book but also the author and narrator. Kaysen gets a roommate named Georgia. They then make a small, crazy group of friends who share the same ward. The group have none but to talk about gossip that goes around. Susanna has an internal conflict between herself and whether she is truly ill. That then leads her to thinking if she is an actual human or something of other species.
Girl, Interrupted is an amazing book if your looking to face other people’s conflict. The story goes in between chapters of different plots and point of views. I liked the main character, Susanna Kaysen because she is trying to find her persona just like I am. She is young and facing many internal values. Also, I enjoy how Susanna understands the basics of being what she is, ill. “Insanity comes in two basic varieties: slow and fast…” page 75 This describes that Kaysen is not like the rest and different, which may lead to foreshadowing. I recommend this book to the persons who are struggling to find their rightful selves, because the story goes through any obstacles, life.

Susanna Kaysen's memoir, Girl, Interrupted, was very insightful and taught a lot about mental illnesses and their affect on other teenagers my age. It talked, in detail, on how the different illnesses change everyday life and the process to fight off certain mental or even physical disorders. Especially readers who take a special interest or who might be interested in mental disorders and/or psychology would appreciate and enjoy the story. The book paints a clear picture of what the author went through because there is no censoring and she isn't afraid to say what all happened to her. It's such an honest story and it's hard to put the book down once you start.

It all starts when Susanna, the author, is sent away for a couple months to a mental facility after being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder but actually ends up staying much longer. The most interesting part of the book is that a lot of her case study reports from psychiatrists are included and are very neat to read. The theme was clearly presented through the struggles of a young girl eager to "find herself." Despite the depressing mood of the book, it was an amazing story of real life situations that almost anyone can relate to in some way. Also, the book was made into a movie that was really enjoyable, whether you read the book or not.

I really enjoyed "Girl Interrupted". I thought it was very cute in the way that each chapter described a person or time in the hospital. Despite that she was mentally ill, she was able to put humor into her story. I read this in one day because its just one of those great books that you don't want to put down. I did really like this book & it was deserving of 5 stars, I would recommend it.

I usually don't read fiction but Columbia pictures is in our town to make this book into a movie starring Winona Rider so I decided to read it. I volunteered to help them find some locations for the film and thought I'd have a better idea of what they might be looking for if I read the book. It will be interesting to see how the movie will expand on the author's narrative. Some of the author's description of her mental processes hit home. Several times I found myself thinking "I thought about that" or "I reacted that way at one time or another". My nineteen year old daughter read this book while in Middle School on the recommendation of a friend of her's who was/is anorexic. It is frightening to think that many of our young people might possibilty find understanding in the author's experience. But then there is hope. I highly recommend this book to parents of teenagers especially. It is fairly easy reading. I couldn't put it down.

Girl Interrupted by:Susanna Kaysen was an excellent book which I would reccomend to anyone . In most books there is just one plot but in this book there is lots of little plots , like what goes on in the seclusion room, and the actionms of what some characters take and how they think . This book was very realistic not only because it is a non-fiction book but because of the details put in it . It had great character development because like everytime a new character came the book would tell you when and why they were there.This book was not very fast paced but it was not boring either . It had both humorous and dramatic spots . What makes this book different is that you actually feel kind of like you are one of the characters in the book . The author's style of language was excellent , and very understandable . I really thought the book was good , but it did have a few parts that I could not understand . The characters in this story deal with alot of things including a death of one of the characters to find out who it is you will just have to read the book !

Although film scripts are always fun to read and compare to what actually got into the movie, please take this adaptation of the masterpiece Girl, Interrupted at face value (or less). The book far surpasses the movie... you lose so many scenes that bring out the true essence of each person, who are not "characters," but real people! In the film, they are reduced to characters. By the way, the ending in the film (Angelina backing Winona up with a knife in the basement) is completely false and the book ending is much better. True, the movie has its priceless moments -- my favorite scene is in the ice cream parlor -- but please just read the book. It is divided up into sections, some that are just 2 or 3 pages long, and it's such easy reading.

In the late 1960s, the author of this book spent about two years on the ward for teenage girls at McLean Hospital, a renowned psychiatric hospital. She was diagnosed with a mental illness, "borderline personality" disorder and depression. Her first psychologist sent her there after trying to kill herself with a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka. When she got to the hospital and checked herself in she met some of the patients she would be living with in her ward. She roomed with a girl named Georgina who went crazy and was a pathological liar. Other girls she got to know was Polly who lit herself on fire and the most influential girl she met was Lisa, she was clinically a psycho but loved challenges and escaping, she loved her freedom. Every time they would catch Lisa after leaving they would give her shock treatment. The girls were parentally damaged from the word "checks" and would do almost anything to have sexual relations. They were not allowed to have anything sharp so the girls would rarely allowed to shave unless a nurse watched them like a hawk to make sure they were using the blade correctly. This book had dark humor and a page to page insight on what is it like to be in a hospital.

The book was about the author. She grew up in New York in the 1960s and had a bright life and had potential to go far until this incident happened. I think by far this book was one of the weirdest made you think kind of book I have ever read. I would defiantly recommend it.

I found Girl, Interrupted a compelling book. Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her stay in a mental hospital was a page turner. I have to agree with another reviewer here however, though I found her philosophies on mental illness interesting, I would have liked her to have written just a little bit more about her stay and the people she encountered while at the hospital. I wanted to make sure I read the book first before venturing out to see the movie version.

I had a lot of hope for this book but I was disappointed by the lack of emotion for the main character. My biggest problem with the book is that it lacked any depth, it was far too scattered. For example, the main character meets her future husband, gets a marriage proposal, gets married and divorced all in one chapter with no explanation as to what happened? We don't even know the man's name or more imporantly how her illness affected this important relationship. I was left wanting more explantion time and time again throughout the book. The characters were not fully developed and I felt no connection to Susanna. The clinical explanations of mental illness were all of a sudden thrown in between chapters and did not not relate to what was previously written. I'm not sure if I'll see the movie now, but it might be interesting how they turn such disjointed book into a film.

Susanna Kaysen gives us an inside view of mental health treatment in the 1960's. Her intelligent, yet humorous explanation of mental illness as simply an alternative reality had me nodding my head in agreement at some points, and questioning my own sanity at times.

I picked up this book in Early August at a used book store in San Fransisco. I read it in one sitting. The way that Kaysen puts together her thoughts on the page is a way in which I think all young women can relate. She is a little mixed up, as to why she is where she is, and throughout the book there is no organization, no sense of time, nor is there a sense of reality. But that is why the book is so amazing. I think all of us at one time have been somewhat confused about who and where were were in this world, as well as depressed, and this book sent me a message that, if I just work my way through the little everyday things and look at my life in a less serious way, things may become clearer. The book also taught me that relity is not always the same for the people around you, and you have to try and feel what others are feeling to get a better understanding of yourself. Simply put, I think this book speaks volumes to all women, but then again, that is just my opinion, in my own biting reality.

Alright, I know this book has been around for awhile and it was made into a movie but I only recently came across it. As usual, I typically go by recommendations of people that I know. Since this book has been extensively reviewed, I will just indicate that I really got myself hooked on this book and anything that I read that I don't want to put down gets 5 stars automatically. That's just how I feel about it. This one is a gem so if you haven't read it yet, go for it.

I loved this book. It captivated me from the very start. Ms. Kaysen not only recorded her memories, she also cleverly included commentaries on the worlds of both the "sane" and the "insane". She also included copies of records like her admittance form. I read the book first. Last week, I saw the movie with some friends. I kept turning and whispering to them, "This never happened!" It actually quite annoyed me. I suggest that you either choose to read the fabulous and skillfully written book, or see the movie. This novel was one of the best that I have ever read. I feel that Ms. Kaysen is an author of the same league and talent as Sylvia Plath and other great woman authors of our time. This is an exceptional book. I recommend it highly.

The book started out telling a sad & funny story but somewhere in the middle lost it & went down hill from there. It seemed like the author forgot she was writting a novel & got lost in her own thoughts. The 2nd half of the book is non-sense and her evaluating her diagnosis years later. More of a reporting than a novel. For once, the movie will be better - it has to be! : )

I don't think any book can seem as realistic as "Girl Interrupted." When I first bought the book I thought I was in for a very interesting story. I was wrong. Rather than being a true life story about Susanna Kaysen in a hospital, it showed more of what it was like to be in a mental institute and what fears, friends, and encounters you may come upon. Before reading this book be prepared for a very honest and intriguing lifestyle of a patient who is diagnosed with "borderline personality." I do have to admit, I did learn many things just by reading this book.

I read the whole book, it was quite short, and it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. It wasn’t all that bad though, there was swearing, someone committed suicide and not too much else. I read the back of the book, and got a small portion of what the book would be like. I like action, so I figured she might get seriously hurt or have a major problem, but all I got was Susana Kaysen with other nimrods in a mental hospital. Then again, I am not a fan of reading, so I will try to do my best explaining the characters and what they’re like.

The book starts out with Susana Kaysen going to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist sends her to McLean Hospital which is where most of the story takes place. While she is in the hospital, she meets other patients. Their names are: Daisy, Lisa, Georgina, and Valerie. Daisy was a girl who was depressed and she ended up committing suicide, the reason why is, you’ll have to read to find out. Lisa and Georgina are always swearing at each other, or always getting into arguments that always bother the nurses. Valerie is the head nurse at the hospital, and she is sometimes helping take care of all the girls. So, Susana is sent to the hospital, and it just talks about what the hospital is like, what she did, and all the stuff that I personally didn’t want to hear.

In conclusion, this book kind of upset me because it just talked about life in the hospital. If you like learning about McLean hospital, and what women’s life is like there, then this book is right up your alley!

Me, I liked the "smart-ness" of the book. I liked how the character picked apart things ... detailed them .. even at the boring parts.
Descriptions were full and possibly over flowing with imagery. And maybe I'm slightly batty myself, but its hard not to picture some of the settings, people, etc.
What I didn't really like were the interaction (or lack thereof) between some of the other characters mentioned and the main character. While I know its commone to in passing mention one person, and then go on about things ... but the way the people seemed to be described from the main characters view point, you'd think there would be a whole lot more interaction ... even if they were confined to the walls of an instituion .. or ice cream palor.
I figure, after you finished reading the book, chunk for chunk, random character after another, descriptive paragraph(s) one and two; You're either relating and thinking, or you're cursing the author. It's definetly the type of book thats "to each his own."

A great read! "Girl, Interrupted" is not one of those wildly popular memoirs on mental illness in which the author exposes his/her most intimate feelings and sufferings. I think a lot of the people who reviewed this book and disliked it were expecting a heart-breaking memoir on how a person feels when she's "insane". Instead, I got the impression that the author was poking fun at the ridiculousness of some of the procedures in the Mental Health field, how a lot of people were (and still are) diagnosed with a mental illness more readily if they were women, and how psychiatric hospitals are so very regimented that they stop making sense. Susanna Kaysen criticizes a growing obsession with sanity and insanity, in a nation where pills are giving freely and "defects of character" are quickly diagnosed as "personality disorders".

I don't care if I'm in the minority, so I'll have to agree with everyone who gave this book one star. I can sum up the entire plot in one sentence: the author just chronicles the mundane actions of a bunch of one-dimensional characters, herself included. As reviewers here stated before, this story has absolutely NO depth whatsoever. There is no build to a climax, and no real conflict is ever presented.
I found myself skimming over the long paragraphs where this woman tries to rationalize why she's a fruitcake, which she does with annoyingly abstract metaphors. However, in the 1st chapters, she tries to convince readers why she DOESN'T have a disorder. The problem with this is that Girl, Interrupted is written after everything is said and done- it doesn't coincide (like a diary). So what makes Kaysen suddenly change her mind about her mental health? She clearly has unresolved, unexplored opinions about herself. Anyway, 1/3 through this book, I tossed it on my shelf. It bored me that much. And because past reviewers reveal "the end", I'm satisfied to know I ain't missing a thing. I'm an avid reader and HATE not finishing things, but why should I put myself through any more voluntary masochism?
I know that different people like different literary proses, formats, etc., so I have nothing condescending to say about any reviewer who gave 5 stars. But I'm used to reading books that stress human emotion, character motivation, and a THEME (not just cause-and-effect plots). If Kaysen and her friends didn't have these things in their lives, the story wasn't worth telling in the first place (any real writer knows that). I picked this book up in Barnes & Noble because I felt that if they spent a budget making a movie based on it, it must really be worthwhile. Boy, I'll never let Hollywood influence my choices in book reading again!
The only thing this irritating story interrupts is time that could be better spent. Check it out of the library if you want to read it that badly, but don't make the mistake of spending money on it.

Susanna Kaysen wrote this book about her life while she checked herself into a mental hospital for a couple of years. This book is very interesting. Giving full detail of the other girls committed to the hospital, nurses, and other workers that helped out at the hospital. This book gives you a feel of what life would be like inside a mental hospital and how the other women and nurses interact with each other.

The theme of this book is about finding ones self. Do not be discouraged by the title of this book. Guys can read this and end up liking the book. This book may help someone recovering from depression and insanity. Susanna is very courageous for committing herself, she realized that she needed help, and this book delivers her journey along the way. Through the good times, like getting ice cream, and the hard times, such as death.

Sylvia Plath was admitted to McLean Hospital in 1953, fifteen years before Susanna Kaysen's two year stay there, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was published in 1963, twenty-nine years before the publication of Girl Interrupted. Both books are about young women on the verge of both adulthood and madness. However, Plath's novel is told with depth and substance, whereas Kaysen just skims the surface.
While Girl Interrupted paints a vivid portrait of Kaysen's stay at McLean hospital, it doesn't do much else. It's a quick and easy read, despite it not being told in order. It muses on and on about having a mental illness, and while at times the text is engaging, it's never enlightening or beautiful.

Kaysen's writing is adept and manages a startling episode of autobiography. Hers is not a "look-at-me" proposition, but an invitation to an introspective re-evaluation of psychological health. Her super-sanity as an author offers, if not hope, insight into the parallel yet distinct worlds of we, the wierdos.
Am I making any sense

I found the book to be very well written with concrete detail. It was very straight-forward without any symbolism, metaphors, etc. To me, the plainspoken style failed to leave any open space for the reader to imagine and create his/her own themes and interpretations. Don't get me wrong, the story line is quite intense and very serious, but at least to me, the movie had that slant to it that didn't just give you the facts; it left you guessing and interpreting on your own. It could be because I fell in love with the movie before I read the book. Girl, Interrupted is very honest and thought provoking, causing the reader to look inside themselves as well as the common nature of humans. The characters are round, colorful, and vividly blunt, giving the story its open and upright themes of sanity, human nature, insecurities and fears, as well as the longer journies we all mistakably take in life.

Girl, Interrupted is an autobiography about a teenage author in the 60's who was admitted into a mental hospital for a borderline personality disorder. We found this book to be an interesting story of the psychology of the mind. We felt that this book was well-written, serious, and, at times, ironically funny. As teenagers, we found that the author's mind was revealed in a dark labirynth of a teenage mind. We recommend this book to anyone from teenage girl-age to adults, or to anyone who is interested in the challenge of the woman's mind. One thing to keep in mind is that the book is written out of order, which makes it a bit confusing, until you realize that that is part of her disease. This gives the book a unique flair and an interesting view of her disorder. We highly recommend it.

This is in between informative and deep-inner-feelings sort of thing. Sometimes the book seems to exist just to explain the senselessness of mental institutes, and other times tries to share thoughts on sanity/insanity. If Susanna Kaysen would just chose one, she might have a stronger work. This also, unfortunately, slightly gives off the smell of rebel-teen-questioning-life, which is a lame way to preach to the world. Kaysen has some interesting stuff to say, but she must organize.

In Girl Interrupted , I learned a lot about the real story , not the Hollywood Glamour Movie story .

Allthough this book is insightful , at times I found myself flipping back and forth between chapters to follow the story . For example in one chapter Daisy dies , but several chapters later she is in the story again having a conversation with another person . After awhile , it all falls into place .

The book contains real parts of Kaysen's mental records which are really interesting to read .

A caution to those who are offended easily , this may not be the book for you as there is STRONG language as well as sexual content that may not be suitible for younger children or if you cannot handle that sort of detail .

This book provides and interesting look at the world of the insane. Where older, more famous books look at insanity only from the point of view of the insane, Susanna Kaysen's novel provides the perspective of doctors and those "cured", in addition to that of the insane. The stories of the main character's stay in the institution advance the book. They are emotionally stimulating and feed the desire to see the world of the insane. But the intermittent documentation as well as Susanna's insight into her insanity provide for the reader a measure of his own insanity. It is amazing to see how the habits and idiosyncrasies, the justification of their madness, are so close to our own behavior. This book is both fun and revealing to read.

When I first picked up this book, I thought I wouldn't like it at all. But I sat down on one rainy day and I picked it up off the shelf and thought I'd give it a try! It was one of the greatest things that require reading that I ever did. This book is amazing! It's honest, yet comic in one of those strange ways. You find yourself seeing all the people and understanding that they never wanted to end up there in the first place. I found myself liking Lisa for her strength even though her character was tough and sometimes foul with language. I found I liked the girl who set herself on fire because even though something terrible had come upon her, she still found a reason to love life. I finished it in one sitting, within three hours which is one of the quikest I have ever read a book. Ever chapter was brilliant, every page held magic, and I thought it was wonderful! I recommend it to every girl whose ever felt out of place in the world!

Reading this book was the most pleasurable experience for me - I could NOT put it down and it was easily the best piece of work i have ever read. Susanna Kaysen's direct approach to writing is undeniably fascinating and i was glued to each page. It was laugh-out-loud funny and it romances the craziness in all of us.

Before I bought this book I read reviews that warned that it was not like a narrative. It is not like a traditional fiction book, but that is because it is a nonfiction book. It is a sort of memoir of the author and the book's flow reflects that. It is not laid out in perfect storytelling order, but that actually allows it to feel more realistic and captivating at times.

Very well written book. I think it's great that Susanna Kaysen wrote a book about her expience in the women's ward. It was very brave of her to share her feelings with the world.This book makes you think about who you are and how other people see you, and in my opinion any book that makes you think about any thing at all, is well written. Throughout the book you can read the charts that the nurses and doctors kept on her, I thought it was wonderful you could see what she was thinking and what the doctors thought she was thinking, it was a helpful comparison. I would recomend this book to any one who enjoys learning new and interesting things about other people.

Girl, Interrupted is an adequate memoir full of short stories about Susanna Kaysen's, the author, stay at a mental hospital after being diagnosed with a borderline personality. The reader should not expect much else from the novel than these short stories and a long drawn out analysis of her so-called character disorder. Girl, Interrupted is a quick, semi-entertaining read that includes humor, sadness, and a little bit of adventure, without much closure. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but I felt that at the halfway point the author lost her point in writing this novel. I did find some humor within some of the stories, and in 18 year old Kaysen's contempt for people in general. Overall this psychological memoir was good, but I prefer novels wth a plot, and that follow the plot sequence.

I bought this item to replace the school book I purchased. I chose this one in specific because the cover matched the one I lost, so that's what I needed. Sadly, they shopped me a version with a different cover. Now I have to buy the correct book again at Barnes and Nobles today, so I can graduate.

I thought this book was a very unique, yet fairly good book. It was not quite what I had expected when I read it, but it kept me fairly entertained throughout the book. After reading it though, I am still not completely sure if I would say that I liked it or not! You will just have to read for yourself to see what I mean!

This book gives life to the movie as the reader is allowed to view the script, much in the same way the actors did as they put life to this story. It is fascinating to read the screenplay and compare it to the actual film, noting the instances where the actors improvised and personalized their charactors lines. Most notable is the charactor of Lisa, only Angelina Jolie could possibly get away with portraying such a disturbing charactor in such an alluring and heroic light. If you enjoyed the movie Girl, Interrupted you must read this screenplay, as it will leave you feeling enlightened with a new found awareness.

As the author of Lost in the Mirror, a book written to educate the public about Borderline Personality Disorder, I read with interest Susanna Kaysen's autobiographical account of her journey to healing after being diagnosed with BPD. While somewhat cynical about her experience in treatment, Ms. Kaysen writes with a sensitive appreciation of the metaphor embedded within her emotional suffering. In describing an overdose as an attempt to get rid of "a certain aspect of my character," she illustrated how many acts of self-harm are symbolic attempts to eliminate parts of the self that are seen as bad and somehow separate. In a discussion of "velocity and viscosity" of thought, she poignantly illustrates the flooding of thoughts and feelings alternating with emotional numbness that is typical of the experience of people with BPD.These rich introspective vignettes, the essence of the author's writing,are unfortunately lost in the screen adaptation of the book.
Ms. Kaysen also portrays a bygone era of psychiatric treatment in which hospitals offered a prolonged period of sanctuary during which healing could often occur. While the biological treatment of emotional disorders was still in its infancy and psychological treatment was inexact, more art than science, the hospital offered a safe environment, emotional support, and enough time for healing to occur. Time has always been a crucial element of the healing process. Even with the most sophisticated treatments, wounds take time to heal, a process that cannot be compressed to fit neatly within the several days or weeks of hospitalization allowed today to address emotional crisis. The lost opportunity for sanctuary is one of the great tragedies of modern psychiatric treatment.

Girl Interrupted is a very good book. This book deals with suicide and it really makes you think. It brings up a lot of different issues most people probably never would think about. The beginning is very fast reading. By the end of the story it reads a little slow. It is very interesting to see how this 18 yr. old girl lives her life in the ward. And to see the way she deals with her problems. The book really jumps around a lot from dates and also between characters. A lot of different characters are introduced into the picture so you really have to pay close attention, you can get lost very fast. The book really lets you get an insight into the way the hospital was and also lets you see the different characteristics of the patients.

I read this straight through. I literally could not put it down. It sad to admit I read this because I liked the movie and wanted more information on the characters and their backstories. I was not disappointed.

As i picked up this book and began to read I was drawn into the wold of 18 year old Susanna Kaysen. This is a stunning book, it will keep you on your feet wanting more, even when you've finished. I found it very insiteful, and I loved the way it kept changing scene, yet still giving a detailed idea of how her life was when in the hospital. I can assure you that most of you will love this book, and find your self drawn into the world of an 18 year old patient in the 1960's, and wondering what her life was like, and is like now. I would definatly recomend this book to anyone with an eye for a great read.

I made the mistake of watching the movie first, and I have to say, though the movie took extreme liberties with the book, the movie was better. I felt the book was dry and sparse, and at the end of the book, I really didn't care anymore about Susanna then I did in the beginning. Susanna is not a very sympathetic character in the book

This book was excellent. It was a quick read, but it was one that remained in the foreground of my thoughts for a long time afterwards. I am still arriving at new conclusions and I still go back and examine the documents inserted between chapters, looking for new "clues." This is what a good read is supposed to do--challenge our ordinary way of thinking by providing a "case" through which we can determine our individual emotional or moral response. It was not a story, which is why some readers may be uncomfortable with it. Rather, it was a work of literature and thus, like a painting, it requires some synthesis on the part of the audience. I hope the movie is as worthwhile!

Girl, Interrupted is an adequate memoir full of short stories about Susanna Kaysen's, the author, stay at a mental hospital after being diagnosed with a borderline personality. The reader should not expect much else from the novel than these short stories and a long drawn out analysis of her so-called character disorder. Girl, Interrupted is a quick, semi-entertaining read that includes humor, sadness, and a little bit of adventure, without much closure. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but I felt that at the halfway point the author lost her point in writing this novel. I did find some humor within some of the stories, and in 18 year old Kaysen's contempt for people in general. Overall this psychological memoir was good, but I prefer novels wth a plot, and that follow the plot sequence.

I bought this item to replace the school book I purchased. I chose this one in specific because the cover matched the one I lost, so that's what I needed. Sadly, they shopped me a version with a different cover. Now I have to buy the correct book again at Barnes and Nobles today, so I can graduate.

I thought this book was a very unique, yet fairly good book. It was not quite what I had expected when I read it, but it kept me fairly entertained throughout the book. After reading it though, I am still not completely sure if I would say that I liked it or not! You will just have to read for yourself to see what I mean!

This book gives life to the movie as the reader is allowed to view the script, much in the same way the actors did as they put life to this story. It is fascinating to read the screenplay and compare it to the actual film, noting the instances where the actors improvised and personalized their charactors lines. Most notable is the charactor of Lisa, only Angelina Jolie could possibly get away with portraying such a disturbing charactor in such an alluring and heroic light. If you enjoyed the movie Girl, Interrupted you must read this screenplay, as it will leave you feeling enlightened with a new found awareness.

As the author of Lost in the Mirror, a book written to educate the public about Borderline Personality Disorder, I read with interest Susanna Kaysen's autobiographical account of her journey to healing after being diagnosed with BPD. While somewhat cynical about her experience in treatment, Ms. Kaysen writes with a sensitive appreciation of the metaphor embedded within her emotional suffering. In describing an overdose as an attempt to get rid of "a certain aspect of my character," she illustrated how many acts of self-harm are symbolic attempts to eliminate parts of the self that are seen as bad and somehow separate. In a discussion of "velocity and viscosity" of thought, she poignantly illustrates the flooding of thoughts and feelings alternating with emotional numbness that is typical of the experience of people with BPD.These rich introspective vignettes, the essence of the author's writing,are unfortunately lost in the screen adaptation of the book.
Ms. Kaysen also portrays a bygone era of psychiatric treatment in which hospitals offered a prolonged period of sanctuary during which healing could often occur. While the biological treatment of emotional disorders was still in its infancy and psychological treatment was inexact, more art than science, the hospital offered a safe environment, emotional support, and enough time for healing to occur. Time has always been a crucial element of the healing process. Even with the most sophisticated treatments, wounds take time to heal, a process that cannot be compressed to fit neatly within the several days or weeks of hospitalization allowed today to address emotional crisis. The lost opportunity for sanctuary is one of the great tragedies of modern psychiatric treatment.

Girl Interrupted is a very good book. This book deals with suicide and it really makes you think. It brings up a lot of different issues most people probably never would think about. The beginning is very fast reading. By the end of the story it reads a little slow. It is very interesting to see how this 18 yr. old girl lives her life in the ward. And to see the way she deals with her problems. The book really jumps around a lot from dates and also between characters. A lot of different characters are introduced into the picture so you really have to pay close attention, you can get lost very fast. The book really lets you get an insight into the way the hospital was and also lets you see the different characteristics of the patients.

I watched the movie before I read the book, so maybe after watching the movie and seeing everything close up in visual detail, I was disappointed by the book's lack of detail. Sure it had it's moments and cute tales especially about Daisy and her chickens, Lisa and her escapades, and the whole group going to the ice cream palor, but what it didn't have was the complete package that the movie presented to the viewer. Instead of reading the emotional turmoil of the girls in the minimum security ward, you actually witnessed it, and I found that much more compelling. However, I really enjoyed the chapter "Mind vs. Brain", in which the author describes in humorous detail the difference between a sane and an insane person. Watch the movie, and skip the book.

I read this straight through. I literally could not put it down. It sad to admit I read this because I liked the movie and wanted more information on the characters and their backstories. I was not disappointed.

As i picked up this book and began to read I was drawn into the wold of 18 year old Susanna Kaysen. This is a stunning book, it will keep you on your feet wanting more, even when you've finished. I found it very insiteful, and I loved the way it kept changing scene, yet still giving a detailed idea of how her life was when in the hospital. I can assure you that most of you will love this book, and find your self drawn into the world of an 18 year old patient in the 1960's, and wondering what her life was like, and is like now. I would definatly recomend this book to anyone with an eye for a great read.

I made the mistake of watching the movie first, and I have to say, though the movie took extreme liberties with the book, the movie was better. I felt the book was dry and sparse, and at the end of the book, I really didn't care anymore about Susanna then I did in the beginning. Susanna is not a very sympathetic character in the book

This book was excellent. It was a quick read, but it was one that remained in the foreground of my thoughts for a long time afterwards. I am still arriving at new conclusions and I still go back and examine the documents inserted between chapters, looking for new "clues." This is what a good read is supposed to do--challenge our ordinary way of thinking by providing a "case" through which we can determine our individual emotional or moral response. It was not a story, which is why some readers may be uncomfortable with it. Rather, it was a work of literature and thus, like a painting, it requires some synthesis on the part of the audience. I hope the movie is as worthwhile!

Personally, I don't get this book at all. I guess you can say I didn't like it. Ms. Kaysen talks at length about one topic and then in the next chapter talks about another. The actual experiences of being in the hospital were only in a few short chapters. Or maybe Ms. Kaysen just writes in a VERY unique style that I just can't get used to. Anyway I didn't enjoy this book and was pretty disappointed. Maybe the movie will turn out better.

While I found her stories to be interesting enough, the book is not in a chronological order which made it a little hard for me to follow the stories of each individual girl that was talked about. I read this book for my sociology class and would not have read it if not for the class. The hardest thing I found was that early on in one part she talked about a girl that was in the hospital for trying to commit suicide and eventually succeeded, yet later on the dead girl is in one of the other stories. I had to take notes to keep track of everybody and their ilness and treatments and personalities.

When I first read this book, a few years back, I was amazed at how engrossing Susanna Kaysen's story was. Unable to put it down, I read it everywhere I went; in bed, at the park, while eating and even at work. Never have I read a novel, and a memoir at that, where I have truly felt I was part of the action and yet an onlooker like everyone else in the institution. I've recommended this book to everyone I know and have even boughten it as X-mas presents for a few. This is a novel that should be read by anyone who has been through a situation where they felt they don't belong or they weren't 'good enough'. And I think that's pretty much most of us...

A person can read any clinicians theories of what a person diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) thinks, feels and knows but Ms Kaysen truelly illuminates what others have left in the dark. Her emotional murals of sanity and insanity, real and fake and others are very much a poignant insight into the world of mental instability. She does a superb job of analyzing and critiquing the very diagnosis of BPD including pointing out how many of the symptoms are what any person in their adolensce may go through-you just don't see people 30+ years old with this supposed disorder! Fabulous!

This book, Girl Interrupted By Susanna Kaysen, was very interesting, because it wasn't really a follow-the-storyline type book. The book did not have a specific plot to it. It was more like watching a movie about the way her life spent at the hospital was like. Although it is not an easy book to understand, I enjoyed it very much.

I liked the book, and I don't think that she had such a great teen life because she was all messed up in the the head kinda lol. Ok, seriously though the girl in the book had it rough and I think she handled it pretty well.

Review By: Nicole K. Berenguer

I was a little disapointed to find out that the book was really nothing like the movie. Which goes to show that you should read the book before going to the movie. I kept thinking about the characters in the movie and trying to compare them in the book but once again the movie had great amounts of hollywood drama. The book was ok a bit confusing at times but otherwise it was an OK book I finished it in one day in that shows anything? Maybe I didnt like it so much because I was expecting different things.

This book was a big disappointment to me. It was well written (so what?), but any insight it provided on mental illness and mental institutions has been done before and better (I refer you to One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest for the shining example). At least it's a quick read.

The only reason I would give this book one star is to comend her on actually being able to get it published. This book is the worst I have read in years. To begin with it is badly written. Secondly, I am astounded by the amount of positive reviews abiut this book. It is neither deep or insightful - it angers me so much when authors suddenly become brilliant and immortalized if they write about mental problems and especially their own mental problems, theyare automatically good authors. It is not true. The same is going on at present with the play 'Blasted'. I am not degrading her right to want to put her feelings into a book, but a book for OTHERS to read....It is simply politcal correctness gone mad. These people who write the positive, even FIVE STAR reviews, would obviously not know a good book when they read one. Try 'The Last Life', by Claire Messued if you want a good book, or 'Junk' by melvin Brugess if you want an insight into a teenagers strives. And if you like mental illness books, dont waste your time with Girl, Interupted, you could read it in half an hour, and it would be better spent if you managed to read only a section of 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath - a real insight and well written NOVEL.

To think that the way I felt and thought at 18 and 19 was considered "crazy" 20 years earlier! I certainly felt crazy and like the author wanted to be locked up somewhere safe. I think the point that the author makes in the end-that what she went through at 18 and 19 isn't a whole lot different than a lot of people feel at that age-is an important message for young people today. Perhaps if I had this book at 18 and 19 I wouldn't have felt like I was the only one thinking and feeling that way. I would have known that I wasn't insane, I was just going through a very tough phase in life. Defining ourselve can be very painful and some of us just have a rougher time than others. I can't say enough how important this memoir is.

I found myself falling in love with the characters in the short book. I could not put it down and finished very quickly. I appreciate Susanna and her allowing us to have a look into her life in the psych ward.

I guess my problem with this book is that I saw the movie first and decided to read it after I saw an interview with Winnona Ryder. While the movie is a continuous story that makes sense, this book is just bits and pieces of Susanna Kaysen's 2-year stay in the mental hospital. I'm sure I would have liked the story better if I had not seen the movie first and had pre-conceived notions in my head regarding what the book would contain and what it wouldn't. That said, it is still a good story and it makes you laugh in some parts and feel terrible for these girls in other parts. It is definitely worth reading.

One of the best books I have read about mental illness and mental hospitals. Very funny in parts, I would love to see the movie and compare the two. Maybe a bit too brief(I wish it would at least have been about 200 pages longer)but still a great book and one of my favorites.

This book can capture the deepest secrets, for a depressed person, for a person who claims to be normal. The story of a stranger sending a young girl to mental institution after only a half hour confrence, reaches out to every heart. I love this book with all my heart, I couldn't put it down. The story's give you examples of the weird life, yet show you how sane the situtions are. This is a must read for everyone, forget the movie, this book is the real thing. I recommend it to all of you and I will not rest until everyone reads it. Susanna, you are truely a great writer and a great woman. I love this book.

Girl, Interrupted introduces you to Borderline Personality as well as to Susanna as a teen-ager. Would you decide not to sign in? Or would you trust that the recommendation for signing into McLean Hospital was the right thing to do?
Throughout this story, I wondered if the main character really was certifiable just as she was presented in the movie. Unfortunately, I walked away with this: truth is what is recorded on papers and reports, no matter what you believe.
This is definitely a book worth reading even if you saw the movie.

Kaysen writes a great representation of the dark jumble inside her head as she does about the hospital routines, the staff, and the patients. All the people (celebrities, patients, and staff) are memorable such as: Ray Charles, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Susan (thin and yellow), and Daisy (laxatives and chicken). Susan Kaysen is able to tell her story with humor and irony. Moreover, it is a straightforward account of the inmantes' experiences, capturing their fears, their quirky bravery and their solidarity as misfit teens. This is a great book for young adults which may be experiencing much of the same.

Girl, Interrupted tells the real life story of Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), the only girl in her graduating class that isn't going onto college. She only wants to read and her decision causes problems. She has to deal with many people, including her parents. After drinking a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka, she ends at a mental institution, where she is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. She realizes that she is not free to leave at anytime and must be cleared by the staff, She meets a girl in the institution and learns to cope with her condition.

This book was an excellent study of mentally unstable and troubled women in the early 60's. I like many parts of the book, but the look into the mind of the main character Suzanna was at times confusing. Without these strange insights into her thoughts, I would rate the novel 4 stars! However, if that is something that you would like to read about, this novel comes with high recommendation. I do suggest that you see the movie as well. I found it to be a great representation of the novel, if not better.

This book, The Girl Interrupted is a great book to read. This book is full of dark comedy and very interesting points that Susanna tells us about here stay at Mclean Hospital.
Susanna was 18 when she was put into Mclean Hospital, she was diagnosed as having a Borderline Personality Disorder. She tells us about the events that ocurred while she was a patient at the hospital. She tells us in detail about the other patients that are admitted there. Susanna tells us sbout her every day activites that took place, and she tells us about how she was in her crazy state of mind.
This book has a very interesting and different plot and the format of the book flows smoothly, I would highly recomend this book to anyone who is interested in a dark comedy book.

This is a must read if you've ever been hospitalized for depression or other psychological diseases. I read it soon after I had gotten home from the hospital and it took away some of the loneliness that I had been having. Some parts are slow, but don't give up because it will truly enrich your life and outlook on other people with diseases similar to Susanna Kaysen's. Oh yeah, the movie is good too!

I like this woman...I think I really like this woman. Kaysen has given me a blueprint for my own memoir. It's well written and it tends to give you her point of view on things, which is very, very good..."normal people" have a hard time understanding us strange ones, lol.

This is absolutely on the list of my favorite books. I couldn't put it down. I blew off my homework and read it all day. I think that the experiences expressed, but most importantly the beautiful and entertaining writing style, make this an excellent book. I read it last week and have already recommended it to several friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. However, I can't help but notice that is basically a re-hash of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". Seriously. Still, it is a good movie in its own right, and its resemblance to "Cuckoo's Nest" can partially be chalked up to its source material.

I really liked this book,it is a very honest account of dealing with depression(I've been there,so I know..) I just wish the book was longer,I guess I was expecting it to be like the film,which was great. A rather sketchy but affecting story.

I was really looking forward to reading this book - espcially since the movie previews looked good. Boy, was I disappointed. It was too short and never really had a chance to develop any meaningful story line. It started off interesting when she gets admitted and talks about some of the people at the mental hospital, but then the plot just stands still for the rest of the story. The book ends SO abruptly that you actually find yourself looking back three or four pages thinking maybe you skipped a chapter or two by accident. The author had the perfect opportunity to write an interesting and insightful story about her past experience in a mental hospital. Instead, she rushed through it and you really don't have time to care about any of the characters.

This was a suggested book that came up when I purchased the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It is a similar topic to the Bell Jar, dealing with a mental hospital in the mid 1900's, but it's pleasantly different. It provides very deep and thought-provoking musings of the narrator/main character. If you like psychology, and are looking for an easy read, buy this book.

I think the title of this review says it all, short and sweet! I read this book in about two hours and LOVED it. I bought this book wanting to see how far off the movie was. I was surprised at the differences between the two. I recommend this book to anyone who watched the movie and wondered what Susanna was writing in her journal, how well the characters were portrayed, and just who made it out "by the 70's".

I think this is a good book to read. i believe if you are someone who is going through these types of problems or have depression, this will teach you alot of how it feels to be in a hospital and what you get out of it. Even if you are not in any of these situations it is a good book for people who think they might be going into a type of career in this field. if you are looking for any other books to read that are simular to this one i would suggest reading CUT and is a little bite simular to girl interrupted.

Girl Interrupted was about a girl named Susanna Kaysen Who went a session with a psychiatrist who she had never met. She spent half an hour with him and then got put in a cab to McLean Hospital where she checked her self in and wouldn't leave for another two years. This book tells about the tow years she spent there and the people who were there with her. The books start with her getting to the hospital and then it tells you a little about the types of people that are there and why they are there. After that it tells about some of the things she saw and some things that happened to her. During the book she watches as one of her friends comes back once a week form shock therapy. She also watches hoe one of her friends Lisa tries to run away and then watches her be dragged back in. It shows you what mental hospital is like what the people are like what a normal day is for them. Her live goes up and down in the hospital some days she is happy watching the outside world go by while she is stuck in the hospital and some day she hates being there. Susanna is in there because she took 50 aspirin. I would say this book was okay. I didn't really like it but it was better then some other books I had read. I would say it's not the feel good book of the year. It is sad and makes you wonder how but some ones live is if they want to kill them self's. In the book she tells you about how she kept thinking about killing her self, but then she thinks that she was trying to kill the tho0ught of killing her self. The book was okay if you like more of a book that is something you wouldn't experience for your self then this would be the book for you. If you like more of a book that makes you feels good then I wouldn't read this book.

I LOVED this book. While it did not have the technical explanations I was expecting, I found the emotional view to be even better. I feel that I got more insight into having mental illness by this book than I could have gotten by reading textbook definitions. Kaysen's insights into borderline personality disorder and several other diseases truly gave mental illness a face. I feel that this is a book that anyone should read if they are looking for an emotional rather than factual view of people with mental illnesses.

I didn't like this book very much. I thought it was kind of shallow reading. I would not recommend it if you are seeking knowledge or an understanding of bipolar.
For me, it appeared similiar to some of the adolescent books my sons have.

I am currently a graduate student in social work, and I am always looking for personal accounts of mental illness/depression, etc. Susana Kaysen briallantly and purposely describes her experience in a psychiatric hospital. Hopefully, readers will finish with motivation to help change current mental health policy that effects how individuals receive treatment, which due to managed care, is many times less than adequate. I highly reccomend this book, I enjoyed the movie, but LOVED the book.

A sad, yet very funny book. A very authentic picture of mental illness (not that I REALLY know though). There are a couple of chapters near the end that are tempting to skip. They have nothing to do with the storyline and are really an in-depth pschyological analysis of mental illness.

I just want to tell you all that this book, is one of the best books I have ever read. Susanna Kaysan is brillant! I really like her writing style. It really makes you think who the real insane people are. I would highly recommend reading this book if you like to be informed of what life can really be like. And you could get into the mind of a "crazy" person. Reading this book would not be a waste of time, it would probably be one of the best books you would ever read.

Girl, Interrupted is a pretty basic book. The author did not delve too deeply into her own depression or accompanying emotions. The writing seemed very basic, and it did not force me to think. I think that the author left a lot of things out-too many things out. I loved the movie, though.

I respect the fact that this is a true story, and you can't deny someone their experiences, but as a read, this book was not all that great! I'm surprised at all the 4 and 5 star reviews. At least it was a quick read, however I did find it a bit dull at times. It has been years since I read it, but "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath (also autobiographical) was a much more intense book about a girl's "descent into madness". If you liked "Girl, Interrupted", then "The Bell Jar" would certainly warrant a look.

It's about a girl who trys to commits suiocide and ends up being checked into a mental hospital. She see'a what's it's really like and even trys to escape a couple of times. It's truly is a book that keeps you hanging a wanting to know what happenes next. I thought that it was good because it tells what real teenagers go through. It doesn't sugarcoat it at all it just gives you the cold hard facts. It gives you the innermost thoughts of this girl and shows that teens don't just have soap opera lives but the have real troubles.

to give it a star-kind-rating feels out of place - certainly susanna kaysen is excellent at describing her period of mental illness, but what is more important are her insights or inspired guesses at the nature of the phenomenon - I decided not to go to the movie because I did not wish to destroy the feeling it left, of being earnest and of hilarious laughter the way it is described in books of zen-teachers.

this work jumps around a lot, and might be difficult to chronologically follow. Bottom line, a great description of two years in the loony bin. A classic, female, 18, anywhere USA, story. Everyone who reads this book is bound to feel a little bit of what Kaysen felt during those tumultuous years. finally, someone wrote what everyone in that situation was thinking, but didn't have the courage to say out loud. Brava, Kaysen!!!

I didn't really think that this book would be a good read. I figured that it would be like many other books about borderline personality disorder--factual, plain, and very uninteresting. However, once I started reading, I seriously couldn't put it down! I loved the way Kaysen described everything, it gives you a glance at the way some people live and think, and at the way they feel. It was definitely worth the read. I recommend this to anyone and everyone.

If I could give this book 6 stars I would! Right from the opening this book grips the reader with facinating therioes of live and incrediable thought process. For example the view of attempted suicide as 'brave and couragous', or even the tag line "Sometimes we have to go a little razy just to stay sane". An amazing book worthy of many awards. A must read for any teenager questioning life.
Susanna Kaysen is a true gift to this world!

An enjoyable, stream of consciousness read from beginning to end. The book, although different from the movie, was in many ways more enjoyable. It was a less glamorous account of this piece of the author's life.

I would recommend this book to anyone, especially teenage girls. Susanna Kaysen is so funny and relatable. She has interesting points of view on people and events that happen to her, as well as a sense of humor. I couldn't stop reading the book as soon as I purchased it!

A sad, yet very funny book. A very authentic picture of mental illness (not that I REALLY know though). There are a couple of chapters near the end that are tempting to skip. They have nothing to do with the storyline and are really an in-depth pschyological analysis of mental illness.

I just want to tell you all that this book, is one of the best books I have ever read. Susanna Kaysan is brillant! I really like her writing style. It really makes you think who the real insane people are. I would highly recommend reading this book if you like to be informed of what life can really be like. And you could get into the mind of a "crazy" person. Reading this book would not be a waste of time, it would probably be one of the best books you would ever read.

This is alot like One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Bell Jar. It is not as descriptive as the other books, but does lend alot of insights in the psychiatric ward's in the 1960's..
all that Freud crap.
Really interesting and easy read.

Girl, Interrupted is a pretty basic book. The author did not delve too deeply into her own depression or accompanying emotions. The writing seemed very basic, and it did not force me to think. I think that the author left a lot of things out-too many things out. I loved the movie, though.

I respect the fact that this is a true story, and you can't deny someone their experiences, but as a read, this book was not all that great! I'm surprised at all the 4 and 5 star reviews. At least it was a quick read, however I did find it a bit dull at times. It has been years since I read it, but "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath (also autobiographical) was a much more intense book about a girl's "descent into madness". If you liked "Girl, Interrupted", then "The Bell Jar" would certainly warrant a look.

It's about a girl who trys to commits suiocide and ends up being checked into a mental hospital. She see'a what's it's really like and even trys to escape a couple of times. It's truly is a book that keeps you hanging a wanting to know what happenes next. I thought that it was good because it tells what real teenagers go through. It doesn't sugarcoat it at all it just gives you the cold hard facts. It gives you the innermost thoughts of this girl and shows that teens don't just have soap opera lives but the have real troubles.

to give it a star-kind-rating feels out of place - certainly susanna kaysen is excellent at describing her period of mental illness, but what is more important are her insights or inspired guesses at the nature of the phenomenon - I decided not to go to the movie because I did not wish to destroy the feeling it left, of being earnest and of hilarious laughter the way it is described in books of zen-teachers.

this work jumps around a lot, and might be difficult to chronologically follow. Bottom line, a great description of two years in the loony bin. A classic, female, 18, anywhere USA, story. Everyone who reads this book is bound to feel a little bit of what Kaysen felt during those tumultuous years. finally, someone wrote what everyone in that situation was thinking, but didn't have the courage to say out loud. Brava, Kaysen!!!

I didn't really think that this book would be a good read. I figured that it would be like many other books about borderline personality disorder--factual, plain, and very uninteresting. However, once I started reading, I seriously couldn't put it down! I loved the way Kaysen described everything, it gives you a glance at the way some people live and think, and at the way they feel. It was definitely worth the read. I recommend this to anyone and everyone.

If I could give this book 6 stars I would! Right from the opening this book grips the reader with facinating therioes of live and incrediable thought process. For example the view of attempted suicide as 'brave and couragous', or even the tag line "Sometimes we have to go a little razy just to stay sane". An amazing book worthy of many awards. A must read for any teenager questioning life.
Susanna Kaysen is a true gift to this world!

An enjoyable, stream of consciousness read from beginning to end. The book, although different from the movie, was in many ways more enjoyable. It was a less glamorous account of this piece of the author's life.

I would recommend this book to anyone, especially teenage girls. Susanna Kaysen is so funny and relatable. She has interesting points of view on people and events that happen to her, as well as a sense of humor. I couldn't stop reading the book as soon as I purchased it!

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.

If you're expecting the Bell Jar or a book like it you won't find it here. Girl, Interruped is definitely a quicker read, and it's generally pretty easy to digest. Although Ms. Kaysen's style is less dramatic than people might expect, the message will hit you pretty strongly. Her views about her experience are a worthy read--fresh and insightful. There are times when I felt the urge to skip chapters (for example, when she goes into the lenghtly monologue) but I stuck it out and enjoyed this book at the end.

I could not put this novel down after I started it, and ended up finishing it almost entirely in one sitting. Kaysen delivers a wonderful novel filled with insightful and intelligent remarks. For me, the book almsot read like I was having a conversation with kaysen herself, and she was re-counting an experience that changed her life. Read it, and then read it again. It's a book that is more than worth the cost.

i am under twenty five years old and was locked in the mental health system for 5 years as a teenager and the world and ideas and perceptions this book paints are dead on. forgeting how to use phones... that is my dominant impression. this is not as strong as the bell jar but better than prozac nation, which was still a great book.

I read this book in one night. I could not put it down. Susanna spends only an hour and a half with this phsychiatrist and he's already sending her off to Mclean Hospital in Mass. There she meets new friends and a new life. With the help of Lisa, Polly, Cythnia and more she discovers what real friends are. This a great memoir and physcology book for anyone.

"Girl,Interuppted" was a beatifully written book.The emotions and thoughts Kaysen expressed thoughout the novel made me actually have the urge to question my sanity. To see the world through a "crazy" point-of-view made me think about the reality that us "sane" people think is hard to deal with- How would we feel if we were "interuppted"?

I read this book in one sitting. There wasn't much fluidity between chapters, but that actually helps the reader to get into the mind of Susanna Kaysen. It was reminiscent of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but through the eyes of a woman. I would definitely read it again, as well as recommend it to anyone.

this was an entertaining, thought provoking book, one that i have quoted many times since i read it. If you've seen the movie, don't expect the book to be too similar, for it is not. I read this over the course of a few days and i am anxious to read it again, to catch more details i missed in the initial reading. pick it up for a good read!

I loved "Girl Interrupted." I think the characterization of everything and everyone was very accurate. The way things were in institutions in the 1960's isn't much different from today. And I know firsthand. If anyone ever dared to wonder about life in the "parallel universe," then I strongly suggest reading this book with an open mind and an open heart.

I think I spent more time reading the documents of Susana's hospitalization than the rest of the book. What is most intriguing is that it's a true story based upon the fact that she didn't belong in a hospital. Read it yourself and decide if she was "sane" or "insane"...or if that is even something you can decifer.

The Book "Girl, Interrupted" was many things. Sad, triumphant, and overall, inspiring to some of the people's reviews I've read. I had this book in my grasp for only two days before I could let go. It is exiting to read, and it really makes you think, of the consequences, and dangers, life offers you. This was a fantastic book. (Ages 12 and above)

I did like the book and her account of what she went through. I never thought I would EVER say this in my life; but, the movie was better. I expected the book to be bigger than it was. Being a Psychology Major, it was interesting to read about one of the mental institutions back in the "60's"

If this book was any longer, I would have had to put it down, I finished it in one day. It started out well, I was excited to hear what happens. Parts of it were really well written, then it just trailed off. You have no idea anything about her parents or her marriage which she summed up in a few sentences. It had a lot of potential, but it didn't really build up.

This book came across as a little too 'teen angst' to me, making it fashionable to be depressed. She sounds like she has a disorder, but thrives on it, almost like she's proud of it. Totally self indulgent. Don't waste your time.

This book is gripping from page one with honesty and a true-life story. It takes the reader through an emotional journey, while staying within the confins of a mental hospital. This book is as real as it gets, which causes the reader to honestly stop and evaulute their own personal lives. It is one book that comes highly recommended.

I guess I fell victim to the media hype surrounding the movie, e.g. Angelina Jolie's Oscar for best supporting actress. As is my custom, I read the written work prior to seeing the motion picture version. I was disappointed in the book because I found it rather ordinary, and I sincerely hope the movie version is better.

I watched the movie before I read the book, so maybe after watching the movie and seeing everything close up in visual detail, I was disappointed by the book's lack of detail. Sure it had it's moments and cute tales especially about Daisy and her chickens, Lisa and her escapades, and the whole group going to the ice cream palor, but what it didn't have was the complete package that the movie presented to the viewer. Instead of reading the emotional turmoil of the girls in the minimum security ward, you actually witnessed it, and I found that much more compelling. However, I really enjoyed the chapter "Mind vs. Brain", in which the author describes in humorous detail the difference between a sane and an insane person. Watch the movie, and skip the book.

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).

Girl, Interrupted is by far one of the best books I have ever read. It is seldom that you get someones perspective of an institution from the inside. Though there were a few boring parts, the book was overall very well written. Another book I reccomend on the same subject is Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy.

I just finished this book this morning, and I found it incredibly entertaining. It's very impressive that someone can write about an experience such as the one Kaysen went through so well. It just goes to show the courage that people can actually posess. I also found it very educational on the subject of mental health. Very good.

This is the greatest book written on mental health and mental hospitals. If you've been in a hospital you will totaly relate.Susanna Keysen puts every aspect of hospital life and "menatal Illness" into this book. Any one who is looking to reminise and find out what happens after the hospital READ THIS BOOK!

I must say I was excited to read this book after seeing the movie. However, I must say that I don't think it was worth the little I paid on Ebay for it. I am surprised at how much better the movie is than the book. I think the book lacks continuity, flow, and organization. It felt like Kaysen sat down and was thinking, "Let me tell you all a random story about something that happened one day...oh yeah now I'm going to tell you another random story." For instance (SPOILER ALERT) one chapter was about when everyone got the news about Daisy's suicide. Then in the very next chapter, you read about another occurrence in the institution where Daisy is still alive.

This book is just filled with random tangents of her distorted thought processes and incidents with the other patients rather than a story. I thought this would read like an inspirational story of one's journey to recovery.

The movie is much better than the book.

After borrowing this book from my friend and reading it, I was surpraised at how good it was. Some may find this boring with all the information it gives about the mind and stuff, but being a teen, I understood it. It tells alot I didn't know before about metal hospitals and people and disorders. Buy this book. It's great.

This book started out as an entertaining and enjoyable read. It was easy to build a relationship with the characters. BUT when you get to around the middle of the book, Kaysen veers off track and loses the 'story line' altogether. Could have been a great book, ended up being a bore...

I wish I had only paid 1/2 the price for a book that was only 1/2 enjoyable.

I don't have much to say other than this was an amazing book. Other reviews will summarize it for you, so I feel I don't need to. I just want to let everyone know how great of a book this is, and I highly suggest reading it. I think that, like myself, you'll have a hard time putting it down.

I'M 13 YEARS OLD AND I WATCHED THIS WITH MY SISTER AND MY DAD I THOUGHT THE MOVIE WAS GREAT! AFTER I TOLD MY MOM HOW MUCH I LOVED IT SHE GOT ME THE BOOK, THE BOOK WAS EVEN BETTER I FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE STORY LIKE I WAS SUSANNA KAYSEN. MY OPINION IS IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THE MOVIE OR THE BOOK YOUR CRAZY.

The book was well written and the non-sequential direction of the story was interesting. The first person point of view allows the reader more insight into the personality disorder of Susanna Kaysen. I enjoyed this book, and found myself longing for more.

I LOVED THE BOOK.. IM GLAD I HAD THE CHANCE TO READ IT. IT MADE ME HAPPY TO KNOW THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE OUT THERE LIKE ME. IT ALSO MADE ME THINK ABOUT ALOT OF THINGS IN LIFE LIKE BEING FREE. BY FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE IT IS THE WORST THING BEING LOCKED UP. THIS BOOK GAVE ALOT OF INSIGHT ON THE "REAL WORLD."

i was very intrested in reading this book because it hink its a very important subject. still, i couldnt connect to the book. it left my with no feelings for the charectars. i could hardly finish the book. it was very unreadable. i know its a true story but still its not intresting

My older brother gave me this book as a Christmas present. I absolutly LOVED this book! I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. It was wonderfully written. I was absorbed in this book. I loved it. I recommend it to everyone.

I read this book in about 45 minutes standing in the local Barnes and Noble. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this book sucks. Fortunately it is very very short.

I read this book before it was going to be a movie and thought it was wounderful. I loved it and I hope that a lot of people will give it a chance and not just see the movie. It really makes me question who really is sane and insane. This book really makes you think a lot.

this screen play ish quit good.. has the things that were edited out of the movie.. i couldnt get myself to put down this until i finished it.. and in one day to be exact,, it got my interest cause of angelina jolie.. she played lisa so gosh darn good.. shes an amazing actress.. this ish a good read..

I listened to the book on tape. First of all the monotone author had no business narrating this one. The book was ok and I could find many more worthwhile books to listen to instead. Now on the otherhand, if you have insomnia this is the perfect remedy. zzzzzzzzzzzzz

i read this for a biography in my 8th grade class. i luved it. it was really good. she wasent afraid to say anything but the truth and is a really good book for people my age, helps you understand sertant thing's you would'nt know inless you read this book! ta ta

After borrowing this book from my friend and reading it, I was surpraised at how good it was. Some may find this boring with all the information it gives about the mind and stuff, but being a teen, I understood it. It tells alot I didn't know before about metal hospitals and people and disorders. Buy this book. It's great.

This book started out as an entertaining and enjoyable read. It was easy to build a relationship with the characters. BUT when you get to around the middle of the book, Kaysen veers off track and loses the 'story line' altogether. Could have been a great book, ended up being a bore...

I wish I had only paid 1/2 the price for a book that was only 1/2 enjoyable.

I don't have much to say other than this was an amazing book. Other reviews will summarize it for you, so I feel I don't need to. I just want to let everyone know how great of a book this is, and I highly suggest reading it. I think that, like myself, you'll have a hard time putting it down.

I'M 13 YEARS OLD AND I WATCHED THIS WITH MY SISTER AND MY DAD I THOUGHT THE MOVIE WAS GREAT! AFTER I TOLD MY MOM HOW MUCH I LOVED IT SHE GOT ME THE BOOK, THE BOOK WAS EVEN BETTER I FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE STORY LIKE I WAS SUSANNA KAYSEN. MY OPINION IS IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THE MOVIE OR THE BOOK YOUR CRAZY.

The book was well written and the non-sequential direction of the story was interesting. The first person point of view allows the reader more insight into the personality disorder of Susanna Kaysen. I enjoyed this book, and found myself longing for more.

I LOVED THE BOOK.. IM GLAD I HAD THE CHANCE TO READ IT. IT MADE ME HAPPY TO KNOW THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE OUT THERE LIKE ME. IT ALSO MADE ME THINK ABOUT ALOT OF THINGS IN LIFE LIKE BEING FREE. BY FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE IT IS THE WORST THING BEING LOCKED UP. THIS BOOK GAVE ALOT OF INSIGHT ON THE "REAL WORLD."