Title: Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen; ISBN 0-679-74604-8; New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993. $12.00; 168 pp.
Genre: Nonfiction – Biography/Memoir/Drama
Characters: Eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen goes to meet with a psychiatrist who quickly decides that she is a threat to herself and should be hospitalized. Susanna voluntarily checks in to McLean Hospital and is immediately labeled as psychoneurotic and depressive. In McLean, Susanna’s roommate is Georgina, a college aged girl who fell into insanity in the middle of a movie theater. In the ward with Susanna and Georgina are other girls who all have some kind of mental issue. Among these girls are: Polly, who set herself on fire, Lisa, a sociopath who tries any form of escape to get free, and Daisy who will only leave her room for laxatives and roasted chicken and then later on commits suicide. Valerie is the only nurse who wins the patients respect with her willingness to stand up to the doctors, and her ability to positively interact with the patients.
Plot: Susanna Kaysen feels that her life is a little out of her control so she goes to see a psychiatrist, who sends her to McLean Mental Hospital where she checks herself in voluntarily. The story is about her next two years in the hospital and all the similarly affected people that pass through. Lisa tries to run away from the ward many times, and has an exaggerated contempt for authority figures, such as the nurses, and she is always scheming up some kind of prank that keeps life in the ward interesting. Daisy, another girl who showed up in the ward from between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, eventually committed suicide on her birthday which led Susanna to over think her own suicide attempt. Time is a big topic in this book as Susanna has to learn to use non conventional ways to keep track of the time that has passed in her life. The book details Susanna’s inner most thoughts about life, what will happen to her and those around her, how she ended up in the ward, and why she hasn’t made attempts to leave, even when they are offered to her by an old family friend.
Touchy areas: This is a true story of a girl who is labeled as psychoneurotic and depressive when she checks into a mental hospital. She meets many girls with similar issues, including mental problems, sexual vulnerability, depression, death, family issues, and being accepted into society. It is graphic in ideas, but not words. Many high school girls would probably feel some connection to at least one of the characters.
Related Titles: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) by Ken Kesey; Angela’s Ashes (1996) by Frank McCourt; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2001) by Dave Eggers.
Movie: Girl Interrupted (1999) directed by James Mangold; released January 2000
Music: “ How To Flight Loneliness”(1999) by Wilco ; “ The Right Time”(1967) by Aretha Franklin; “Downtown” (1964) by Petula Clark; “The End Of The World” (1963) by Skeeter Davis; “Coming Back To Me” (1967) by Jefferson Airplane; “Time Has Come Today” (1968) by The Chamber Brothers
Photos: Untitled-The book covers http://www.answers.com/topic/girl-interupted
Related Websites: (http://www.psychologyinfo.com)-a site to help teens with issues such as depression. Gives great info on what is the problem, symptoms, how to deal with advice;(http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/teens/health.htm)- a teen zone, great link to other websites directly stating the health problem.
Untitled- Movie Cover, http://www.shakes.cz/books/16047
Art: Girl Interrupted at her Music by 1660-61 Frick Collection
Evaluation: Kaysen’s unique and descriptive writing style gives us an inside look at troubled teenaged girl. She does all of this while making us aware of how important time that is to her. This makes the memoir engaging and pulls us in making us want to know more. We enjoyed this novel because we felt like we experienced the psychological journeys along Kaysen. The one thing we did not enjoy was the random tangents Kaysen presented at moments that we felt were not appropriate. Although it did add to the chaotic atmosphere of the ward, overall we really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys having a first hand look at a psychological roller coaster of a young teenage girl.
Reviewed by: Stacia Barnes Harding Sr. High School 2007
Dagmar Jensen Harding Sr. High School 2007
Rashad Jiles Harding Sr. High School 2007
Silver Lee Harding Sr. High School 2007