Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

But I wasn't simply going nuts, tumbling down a shaft into Wonderland. It was my misfortune- or salvation- to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality.

I found this book after watching the movie of the same name that stars Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. I had been eyeing the movie at my work for a few weeks and finally had time to watch it. I rented it out and grabbed a beer before settling in to watch it.

Turns out, it's a ridiculously interesting movie with quite a bit of great acting in it (particularly from the aforementioned leading ladies). When I realized it was based off a novel, I immediately headed over to bookdepository.com. I had already purchased it by the time the credits began to roll.

Girl, Interrupted is the memoir of Susanna Kaysen in which she details the events of her stay in a mental hospital in the late sixties. She had been sent to this hospital after being diagnosed with depression and borderline personality disorder.

In the book, Kaysen recounts her two year stint in McLean Hospital and her coming to terms with the conditions that brought her there. She details the friends she made and the encounters she had with her own mental instability as well as the instability of others.

As someone who takes a particular interest in memoirs, particularly those written by those who have had to tackle their own mental illness, I was not at all surprised that I enjoyed this book. It was deeply interesting and I really enjoyed getting to see through Susanna's eyes as she dealt with the daily rigors of living in a mental infirmary.

Girl, Interrupted is an insightful look at what it was like to be diagnosed with a mental illness in the late sixties, while providing the reader with an incredible view of the practices and malpractices of McLean Hospital at that time. It's definitely one of those memoirs I'm glad I didn't pass up the opportunity to read.

Rating: ★★★★☆

This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? If some people didn't see these things, what was the matter with them? Were they blind or something? These questions had me unsettled.