Rating: 
Summary: In the Loony Bin
Review: I loved the movie thanks to Angelina Jolie. I got the book much later. The book is even more honest.Lisa you love her as if you were Susanna. She is funny, honest and real.
Rating:
Summary: normal girl
Review: I loved the movie so I had to get the book. Glad I did. The book is even better. Its more real and honest about what happened to Susuanna. You see that she was really a normal girl who figures out who has the power to see who is insane or sane. Doctors don't know it all, they can misdiagnose. Many doctors did back then in McLean Hospital and many across the world are doing so now.
Susanna and Company have their ups and downs but through it all they have TRUTH and Friendship. Trough this they suceed in what the "Sane" people outside the McLean ward can't ever truely have.
Rating: 
Summary: Read this and SIREN'S DANCE for both sides of the coin
Review: What is Borderline Personality if you have it and what is Borderline Personality if you are married to the one who has it? These two books (Girl, Interrupted and Siren's Dance) exquisitely show both sides of this most intruiging of mental conditions, that is Borderline Personality. It is great that people are telling their stories more honestly these days. Both books are so real.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: This is an extremely well written novel that truly makes you question reality. Am I sane or insane? Who's to decide? What determines the line between the two? What is insanity? Maybe the "sane" people are the ones with something wrong with them! Emotionally gripping, this book will have you on the edge of your seat, daring you to put it down, even for a second. I highly recommend reading it, and seeing the movie as well. At least one of the two are sure to please you. However, if I may make a suggestion, I would have to tell you to read the book first: That way you'll have a deeper understanding of the events in the movie. Enjoy! Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: the movie caught my heart a little more
Review: I found the book to be very well written with concrete detail. It was very straight-forward without any symbolism, metaphors, etc. To me, the plainspoken style failed to leave any open space for the reader to imagine and create his/her own themes and interpretations. Don't get me wrong, the story line is quite intense and very serious, but at least to me, the movie had that slant to it that didn't just give you the facts; it left you guessing and interpreting on your own. It could be because I fell in love with the movie before I read the book. Girl, Interrupted is very honest and thought provoking, causing the reader to look inside themselves as well as the common nature of humans. The characters are round, colorful, and vividly blunt, giving the story its open and upright themes of sanity, human nature, insecurities and fears, as well as the longer journies we all mistakably take in life.
Rating:
Summary: All of Us, Interrupted
Review: After learning that the movie "Girl,Interrupted" was based on the memoir of true events in the life of Susanna Kaysen, i thought that it might be an interesting read. I was pleasently suprised at how much i enjoyed the book. Girl, Interrupted tells about the experiences of a young woman's stay at a mental institution in the late 60's, including the people she met there who changed her life. For one thing, i liked that it was a memoir as opposed to a biography. It wasn't "This happened, then this happened, and then this happened," it gave the full story but not by dwelling on the exact sequence of events. At one point the author will be telling about a certain conversation she had with her roomate but in the next chapter she might be telling about when she first entered the institution. The stories had a way of making the reader feel as if he or she were a fly on the wall, a witness to the events that took place. Another reason i liked the book was that it almost made i seem as if the story could happen to anybody, that any one of us could be 'Interrupted.'
Rating:
Summary: Poigent Story
Review: This book made me angry, it made me depressed, and it made me feel uplifted. Mainly, it made me think. I've read it several times, and each time I found something new. It is not a traditional story, where the plot follows a chronological path, but then again even fiction has been breaking out of that mold recently, so who are we to condem a book for not following antiquated guidelines. The form that Kaysen has chosen, while sometimes difficult to follow, makes you think more about what she is trying to tell you. About our medical institutes, about how we view adolescence and mental illness.
On an aside note, one of the reviews that I was reading, basically insulted anyone who enjoyed reading Girl, Interupted and gave it a good review. You might like a book, you might now like a book, but that doesn't mean that should insult others who do like it. I personally, have read (suffered through) many of the classics of both French and English Literature, and I know that my personal tastes are not the be end and end all of quality indicators. If you don't like something fine, but a) it doesn't mean that it is a bad book and b) it doesn't give anyone the right to condensend to the other readers.
To conclude: I enjoyed reading Girl, Interupted, and I recommend giving it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Who's Crazy?
Review: Girl Interrupted tells the cautionary story of a troubled teenager surviving in a 60's mental institution to which she was warehoused like many other affluent disaffected kids of her generation. Trapped by parental expectations, she descended into depression, attempted suicide, and was coerced to "voluntarily" commit herself after being thrown onto a taxi by an uncaring psychiatrist after a 30 minute interview. What follows is a poignant account of the struggle to maintain sanity amid the cold, uncaring insanity-provoking world of the institution. Crisp, brief chapters are vignette windows into a screened, locked, regimented life. Characters are drawn with skill to help convey the many colored canvas of mental illness. A crazy trip to an ice cream parlor provides a note of humor, whereas the story of the effort to save a fellow patient from a trip back to her disfunctional family illustrates the horror of patient powerlessness. One cannot help but be reminded of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as life imitates art in this true account. Other chapters deal with the vague concepts of sanity and insanity. I was particularly struck by the author's description of the road to craziness as a battle between competing ideas of reality, where the real world is always still visible even from the depths of the imaginary one. Also interesting was the author's partial refutation of her diagnosis. I say partial, because self-mutilation is not a hobby of the sane, regardless of any lengths one might take to explain it. Two criticisms of the book come to mind. First, a personal journal was mentioned in the movie. If it really existed, excerpts from it would have provided a fascinating glimpse of the author's life and thought processes while institutionalized. Second, several things should have been wrapped up at the end. What were the fates of the other girls like Cynthia and Polly? Did the author resume her relationship with her parents, or are they estranged? What became of the staff of the institution, especially the ones who controlled so much of the author's life? Maybe an epilogue chapter would have helped to tie up all these loose ends.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Depiction of Madness
Review: I had first seen the movie and had gained intrest in reading the memoir after reading The Bell Jar. While The Bell Jar was excellent, this left me not satisfied enough.
The book to me is a quick read (it's under 200 pgs.) and I sped through it rather quickly. While I will admit that this is one of the best descriptions of a former mental insitution pacient, Kaysen created incredible short chapters and it's too scattered (the film adaption puts all the events in cronological order).
Also, I also didn't like how Kaysen blabs in the last two chapters. To me, the conclusion felt too much like "filler" words it was like taking in too much of a good thing. It is best of she just kept it a chapter short, I would've been able to handle it better.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating real life novel
Review: This story was powerful with such devoted characters it gave you a real sense of what it is like in a mental institute. the people you meet all the sickness and pain that each character endures a very powerful novel it is much better than the movie
|
