Rating: 
Summary: Omigod!
Review: My older brother gave me this book as a Christmas present. I absolutly LOVED this book! I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. It was wonderfully written. I was absorbed in this book. I loved it. I recommend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: SO SO SO great! The book is so wonderful, the movie wasn't nearly as good as the book, and I thought the movie was so great! It was so moving, so touching and I learned so much from her experience. It reminded me a lot of myself, even though I have never been commited to a mental institution, I saw myself in Susanna. SUCH A GREAT BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: why does everyone love this book?
Review: Yes, it's a fast, easy read. But, it is also shallow. Look, I have no problem with shallow. No problem with "junk books." I just can't stand books that think they're smart. This is not. A psychiatric hospital should be a haven for interesting characters. Where are they? And what is most disappointing is how self-aware the author is. You can almost hear herself thinking, this is funny or this is a really deep thought, or boy, I'm a talented writer. If you want a passionate, driven, shocking account of psychiatric hospital life, try Daphne Scholinski's THE LAST TIME I WORE A DRESS.
Rating: 
Summary: The Heart of All Our Minds
Review: I read Girl, Interrupted a day after seeing the movie and was not suprised to find they were two different animals. The memoirs of Kaysen are so frank and universal you find yourself in the room along with Suzanna and Georgette. Kaysen speaks to your fears and you will find it very calming to realise you are not alone in some of your darkest, wildest thoughts. What the book does best is shed light on an imperfect science that struggled along with popular ideas on how the mind works. I was, however, dissapointed when I had finished the book. It's only flaw is that there isn't enough. Altogether a quick read, I definately recommend this for a cold, winter's day when you have a couple hours free.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This book is pretty Good. I recomend this to anyone whose sanity has been questioned by themselves and by others. I like the story to be perfectly honest. I hope the movie does the book justice.
Rating:
Summary: A poetic look at emotional suffering
Review: As the author of Lost in the Mirror, a book written to educate the public about Borderline Personality Disorder, I read with interest Susanna Kaysen's autobiographical account of her journey to healing after being diagnosed with BPD. While somewhat cynical about her experience in treatment, Ms. Kaysen writes with a sensitive appreciation of the metaphor embedded within her emotional suffering. In describing an overdose as an attempt to get rid of "a certain aspect of my character," she illustrated how many acts of self-harm are symbolic attempts to eliminate parts of the self that are seen as bad and somehow separate. In a discussion of "velocity and viscosity" of thought, she poignantly illustrates the flooding of thoughts and feelings alternating with emotional numbness that is typical of the experience of people with BPD.These rich introspective vignettes, the essence of the author's writing,are unfortunately lost in the screen adaptation of the book. Ms. Kaysen also portrays a bygone era of psychiatric treatment in which hospitals offered a prolonged period of sanctuary during which healing could often occur. While the biological treatment of emotional disorders was still in its infancy and psychological treatment was inexact, more art than science, the hospital offered a safe environment, emotional support, and enough time for healing to occur. Time has always been a crucial element of the healing process. Even with the most sophisticated treatments, wounds take time to heal, a process that cannot be compressed to fit neatly within the several days or weeks of hospitalization allowed today to address emotional crisis. The lost opportunity for sanctuary is one of the great tragedies of modern psychiatric treatment.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Read
Review: "Girl, Interrupted", is one of the most influential books that I've ever read in my life.
Rating: 
Summary: Girl Interrupted
Review: The kind of world the autor lives in is quite small. Limited firstly by her sex to opine everything, and then by the nature of her attempts at control, the author can only guess at what would pass for writing. Then again, if it exposes the myriad personal problems of the younger generation of immediate self gratifying, blame everyone, generation of women, (which fortunately is going out of style) it is genius.
Rating:
Summary: The book beats the movie
Review: "Girl, Interrupted": Susanna Kaysen's Book is Superior to James Mangold's Movie "Girl, Interrupted" is the true story of an 18-year-old woman who swallows 50 aspirin tablets and is hustled by her doctor to a loony bin after a superficial, 20-minute interview. She is told that she needs a rest and that she would be released in a couple of weeks. Instead, after voluntarily signing herself in, she winds up confined to the hospital against her will for eighteen months. The book and the movie focus almost exclusively on her period of internment. What's missing from this film is the author's dark humor and revelatory insights into her ordeal. The book is better than the movie. Look at how much insight and enjoyment you could get if you peruse the book! "You have a pimple," said the doctor. "You've been picking it," he went on. Fine. You could have this dialogue in the movie. There's nothing witty about it: just a statement of fact. Without narration, however, not much more could be done with this concept. But note how the author shows her sense of humor in the book: "The pimple had reached the stage of hard expectancy in which it begs to be picked. It was yearning for release. Freeing it from its little white dome, pressing until the blood ran, I felt a sense of accomplishment: I'd done all that could be done for this pimple." Immediately following, there occurs this exchange with the doctor. "You need a rest," he announced. "Don't you think?" "Yes," I said. Not much here either. Nor would you have anything else in the movie version, at least not unless the sound track embraced her immediate thoughts, which point to an irony. The book: "I did need a rest, particularly since I'd gotten up so early that morning in order to see this doctor, who lived out in the suburbs. I'd changed trains twice. And I would have to retrace my steps to get to my job. Just thinking about it made me tired." Doesn't this thought--left out in the movie--clarify her willingness to go to the hospital?
Rating:
Summary: What a Gift
Review: While the book certainly shows the horrors of mental institutions, the thing that struck me was how as a society we Americans treat people who encounter the dark valleys of life. In England people like the author would have been considered eccentric. Here we medicate and lock up our eccentrics. I was also forced to look at how the young women today while they do not take a handfull of aspirin, now deny themselves food, which causes me to pause. Will these be the next Susanna Kaysens? This is a must read for all women ages teen to ninety.
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