Audience:
Adult, Young Adult

Genre:
Non-Fiction, Memoir, American, Mental Health, Psychology

Summary:
The year is 1967. Eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen has just been sent to a pychiatric hospital based on the recommendation of a psychiatrist she only met once.

Susanna finds herself thrown into the world of psychologically ill youth. McLean Hospital is renowned for its famous clientele, from Syliva Plath to Ray Charles. Susanna details her experiences there, sharing the stories of her eccentric fellow patients.

My Thoughts:
Kaysen provides a unique account of life in a psychiatric ward, echoeing a similar mood to the Ken Kesey classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Girl, Interrupted will resonant with anyone who has been touched with mental illness. Kaysen even includes the authentic documentation from her hospital stay, providing a rare glimpse into the medical system of the 1960s. Kaysen is a profound thinker despite her young years and readers won’t be disappointed with her real life account.

The movie version, also well done, garnered Angelina Jolie an Academy Award in 1999.

Borrow Girl, Interrupted from your local Vaughan library today!