Brandon J. (bran-flakes14) reviewed on 6/7/2010 + 72 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I prefer the movie version of this true story, but this original and daringly unique presentation is a good read nonetheless. Telling the autobiographical story of its author, Susanna Kaysen, the book explores her time in a mental institution during the 1960s and the psychologically-disturbed people who lived there with her. Diagnosed as a borderline personality in only one session of therapy, Kaysen is hoisted away to the local psych ward and meets other eccentrics, including a pathalogical liar, a bi-polar incest survivor, and a dangerously seductive sociopath named Lisa. Told in non-chronological spurts of text, interspersed with scans of original hospital files, letters, and other official forms detailing Kaysen's stay at the ward, this book is a very quick read but will open up one's mind to reconsider what is considered mental illness and what isn't.

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