Girl Interrupted [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Susanna Kaysen (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1999

2 cassettes / 3 Hours
Read by the Author

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was sent to McLean Hospital, where 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, Ray Charles--and for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

"[It is] an account of a disturbed girl's unwilling passage into womanhood...and here is the girl, looking into our faces with urgent eyes."--Diane Middlebrook, Washington Post Book World

"Searing...Girl, Interrupted captures an exquisite range of self-awareness between madness and insight."--Boston Globe

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Kaysen's startling account of her two-year stay at a Boston psychiatric hospital 25 years ago was an eight-week PW bestseller.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (November 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679434194
• ISBN-13: 978-0679434191
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (445 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,539,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Books on Cassette > Biographies & Memoirs > Women

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moving and Honest Portrait of Mental Illness, September 20, 2004

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)

This slim memoir of a college student who suffers a "breakdown" honestly explores the details of mental illness, specifically "borderline personality" disorders. The account starts in a cold, almost frightening way: the first page is a copy of author Kaysen's case record folder. The reader then is given a fleeting description of the quiet moments leading up to Kaysen's lengthy hospitalization, and then is shown more official documents. This juxtaposition of the clinical with the personal highlights exactly what this memoir aims to express, that the darkness of mental disease has a face, a voice, that can be hidden by labels and diagnoses.

Kaysen's difficult and often terrifying journey - from the ordinary daughter of two achieving parents to a patient at a psychiatric hospital to, tentatively, a recovered young woman - is at once moving and beautiful. Even when the author asks questions that many before her have asked, she makes them seem fresh: "What is it about meter and cadence and rhythm that makes their makers mad?" She explores her illness at its most intimate moments and often follows her breaks with reality with detached physician reports, giving the reader both inside and outside perspectives. Through her interactions with other patients, Kaysen makes it clear that not everyone is as fortunate as she, since some cannot extricate themselves from their illness. Interestingly, despite once not believing that she really had bones inside her, Kaysen is not convinced she was mentally ill; if nothing else, this questions the internal changes we've been taught to accept as part of the onset of mental illness.

This book should not be read by anyone believing she is slipping toward insanity, but it might be a comfort to those who have already emerged. Kaysen is at once ordinary and gifted despite this turbulent part of her life. More importantly, this book should be read by the loved ones of those in distress, for it gives a human dimension to what is often ostracized. Understanding the thought processes of at least one stricken young women goes a long way to having compassion for and understanding others.

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Duh, this book is not about psychology it is about her!, January 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)

After reading a few of the comments, which appalled me, I feel the need to comment myself. I have read the book, listened to the tape, and now seen the movie. It is NOT trying to belittle or give an actual diagnosis. This book is to free oneself (a.k.a. Kaysen) from that inner questioning. The way in which the book is written is as if it was a self journey. She did not say that BPD was not a valid disorder. However, she did imply she was not sure how she was diagnosed with the label. If you are looking for a witty piece of literature to read this is for you. It is about the trials and tribulations of one mind that is written almost poetically. However, if you are trying to find a book that can help you to understand or cope with someone who was diagnosed "BPD" this is not the book for you. I was upset by how arrogant some readers were with their comments. It is to be hoped that most of you know the difference between self help and self expression.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and yet so real, March 23, 2000

By 

Jen Jen (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl, Interrupted (Paperback)

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".