100 Books in 2018

21/ girl, interrupted by susanna kaysen

read: 13.03.18 - 14.03.18

book: Girl, Interrupted

author: Susanna Kaysen

blurb: In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles.
A clear-sighted, unflinching work that provokes questions about our definitions of sane and insane, Kaysen's extraordinary memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.

review: I read this as part of my research for an essay I'm doing on mental health in literature and books in general, and it's been one memoir I've wanted to read for a while, mainly due to its popularity.

I did enjoy this book, and thought it flowed very nicely which made it very easy to read. It gave a very honest look into what Kaysen's hospitalisation was actually like, and unflinching descriptions of the people she lived amongst. But I felt personally that it was too short, and that certain areas weren't explained enough. It felt like she was racing to the end of the story, rather than telling it fully.

Personally, I like long memoirs. But obviously not all people that write memoirs want to write long and detailed ones. While Kaysen's was moving and very interesting, I just wanted a little more. A little more detail. A little more description of just day-to-day life.

rating: 7.5/10