How are
people labeled mentally insane? Is it when they see spots on their vision, or
talk to voices in their head, or maybe even when they set themselves on fire
and jump off buildings? This is what happens to Susanna Kaysen in her memoir, Girl, Interrupted. When Susanna was
eighteen, she was sent to see a psychiatrist after supposedly attempting
suicide. Kaysen denies it, but she is sent to McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.
McLean is a private psychiatric hospital, and here Susanna meets some strange
people.
Lisa Rowe, a patient at McLean, is
diagnosed as a sociopath, but she doesn’t actually seem like one. She runs away
from the hospital for a couple days frequently, but she always comes back. She
loves to play jokes on the staff and be a troublemaker to them. Polly is a
character that everyone at the hospital respects greatly. Polly has depression
and schizophrenia, and she was admitted to the hospital after she set herself
on fire. People never ask her about her scars, but Susanna constantly wonders
about them.
The sanest
person in the hospital, besides Susanna, is Georgina. She is hospitalized
because of schizophrenia, but she seems almost perfectly fine. Georgina is
Susanna's roommate at the institution, and one of her greatest friend. She also
has a boyfriend in the ward, another patient named Wade, who has delusions
about his father being in the CIA, and he is occasionally violent. There are
many more characters, like daisy, but she commits suicide, and Torrey, who’s a
drug addict, and Alice who is just plain crazy.
The
things that happen in the hospital are strange. Some things are funny, and
others are just sad to hear about. The interactions between Lisa Rowe and
Susanna are funny and thoughtful at the same time. It sad that Susanna was told
she would be there a few weeks, but ended up being held for two years. The
characters, who all have different personalities and quirks, are all defined ‘crazy’,
but they don’t seem that crazy to me. Maybe I’m just crazy, too?
This is the trailer for the 1999 film starring Winona Ryder,
Brittany Murphy, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg and Jared Leto playing Susanna’s
ex-boyfriend, Toby. The film received good reviews and an Academy Award for Jolie,
but it doesn’t exactly follow the same story as the book. It is based on the
book, but it really is very different. The quality of this video is bad, but deal.
RED’S ALL STAR REVIEW: 3 ½ out of 5 stars. The book was
really good, and the movie was too, even if they weren’t coinciding.
MASS APPEAL: I’m not sure, I liked the book. I think that
most people would like it, but it’s not specifically for certain people. If you
need to read a nonfiction book, read this one.
Buy this book on Amazon, Click here!
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