Susanna Kaysen

The bestselling book that inspired the cult classic film, Girl, Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles.A clear-sighted, unflinching work that provokes questions about our definitions of sane and insane, Kaysen's extraordinary memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.'Not since Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar has a personal account of life in a mental hospital achieved as much popularity and acclaim' - TIME'Intelligent and painful' - Guardian'Poignant, astonishing memoir' - New York Times

""It was probably because I was so often taken away from Cambridge when I was young that I loved it as much as I did . . ." " London, Florence, Athens: Susanna, a precocious young girl growing up in 1950s Cambridge," " would rather be home than in any of these places. Uprooted from the streets around Harvard Square, she feels lost and excluded in all the far-flung cities to which her father's career takes the family. She always comes home with relief--but soon enough wonders if outsiderness may be her permanent condition. Written with a sharp eye for the pretensions--and charms--of the intellectual classes, "Cambridge" captures the mores of an era now past, the ordinary lives of extraordinary people in a singular part of America, and the ways we can--and cannot--go home.

When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant.

To mark the 30th anniversary of this impactful bestselling memoir Girl Interrupted is now published as a Virago Modern Classic

Crazy isnt being broken or swallowing a dark secret. Its you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist shed never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles. Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, this bestselling memoir is a sharply vivid portrait of Susannas fellow patients, the kaleidoscopically shifting world of the late sixties, and how sometimes the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.Girl, Interrupted is a beautiful, complex story that truly led the way on opening up a new, brave, nuanced approach to talking about womens mental health. An intense and personal story that taps into a universal truth about how the world responds to complicated young women SCARLETT CURTISPoignant, honest and triumphantly funny . . . A compelling and heartbreaking story NEW YORK TIMESNot since Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar has a personal account of life in a mental hospital achieved as much popularity and acclaimTIMEA cool, elegant and unexpectedly funny memoirSUNDAY TIMESMemorable and stirringVOGUE

Dinah Sachs and Asa Thayer have had a love affair, conducted in afternoons stolen from the office of the magazine where they work. But now that the affair is over, Dinah, in an act of lingering passion, invents a narrative of Asas youth, imagining the events that shaped the "happy, handsome man" who, in her words, "was born to stomp on my heart."Witty and sexy, funny and immediate, Asa, As I Knew Him is a a seductive dialogue between love and memory, obsession and illusion.

Susanna Kaysen, who wrote about her teenage depression in the bestseller Girl, Interrupted, now takes on another taboo: her vaginawhich suddenly and inexplicably starts to hurt. And neither Kaysens cheery gynecologist, nor her internist, nor a laconic vulvologist has the cure. An alternative health nurse suggests direct application of tea, baking soda, and boric acid. Others recommend novocaine, oatmeal, bio-feedback, and anti-depressants. Nothing works. As sex becomes more and more painful, Kaysens relationship with her boyfriend disintegrates and she turns to her best friends, her wicked sense of humor, and finally wry self-reflection to get herself through. Using this unusual lens, Kaysen challenges us to think in new ways about the centrality and power of sexuality. The Camera My Mother Gave Me is an unexpected and revelatory book from one of our most candid, insightful and consistently surprising writers.

A compulsively readable novel of enormous charm swimming in the cuisine and culture of the Faroe Islands from the author of Girl, Interrupted.Jonathan Brand, a graduate student in anthropology, has decided to do his fieldwork in the remote Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. But, despite his Harvard training, he can barely understand, let alone "study," the culture he encounters. From his struggles with the local cuisine to his affair with the Danish woman the locals want him to marry, Jonathan is both repelled by and drawn into the Faroese way of life. Wry and insightful, Far Afield reveals Susanna Kaysens gifts of imagination, satire, and compassion.

It was probably because I was so often taken away from Cambridge when I was young that I loved it as much as I did . . . So begins this novel-from-life by the best-selling author of Girl, Interrupted, an exploration of memory and nostalgia set in the 1950s among the academics and artists of Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, Florence, Athens: Susanna, the precocious narrator of Cambridge, would rather be home than in any of these places. Uprooted from the streets around Harvard Square, she feels lost and excluded in all the locations to which her fathers career takes the family. She comes home with reliefbut soon enough wonders if outsiderness may be her permanent condition. Written with a sharp eye for the pretensionsand charmsof the intellectual classes, Cambridge captures the mores of an era now past, the ordinary lives of extraordinary people in a singular part of America, and the delights, fears, and longings of childhood.This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION NATIONAL BESTSELLER In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist shed never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. Her memoir of the next two years is a "poignant, honest ... triumphantly funny ... and heartbreaking story" (The New York Times Book Review). WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR The ward for teenage girls in the McLean psychiatric hospital was as renowned for its famous clienteleSylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charlesas for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysens memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in the psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, Anne Sexton and Ray Charles.

En 1967, después de una sesión con un psiquiatra al que nunca había visto antes, Susanna Kaysen, de dieciocho años, fue internada en el Hospital McLean. Pasó la mayor parte de los dos años siguientes en la sala de chicas de un hospital psiquiatrico muy reconocido por haber tenido entre sus pacientes a celebridades como Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor y Ray Charles. Las memorias de Kaysen nos ofrecen un retrato vivido de un grupo de jovenes que han sido internadas debido a diferentes dolencias psiquicas. Lucida e ironica, la autora cuestiona los procedimientos de diagnostico y curacion, contraponiendo la complejidad de su propia experiencia con el agarrotamiento cultural de un sistema que muchas veces actua como percutor del sufrimiento psicologico. Traducido por primera vez al español, Inocencia interrumpida propone una mirada inteligente, piadosa y no exenta de humor sobre la fragilidad del espiritu y la borrosa frontera entre cordura y locura.

En 1967, después de una sesión con un psiquiatra al que nunca había visto antes, subieron a un taxi a Susanna Kaysen, de dieciocho años, y la enviaron al Hospital McLean. Pasó la mayor parte de los dos años siguientes en la sala de chicas adolescentes de un hospital psiquiatrico muy reconocido por su famosa clientela (Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor y Ray Charles). Las memorias de Kaysen brindan retratos vividos de sus compañeras pacientes y sus cuidadores. Es una evocacion brillante de un "universo paralelo" ambientado en el paisaje cambiante de finales de los años sesenta. Inocencia interrumpida es un documento clarividente e inquebrantable que da una dimension duradera y especifica a nuestras de definiciones de cuerdo y demente, enfermedad mental y recuperacion. Inocencia interrumpida ha vendido mas de un millon y medio de ejemplares en Estados Unidos y estara en las librerias de España desde el 15 de septiembre. En 1999, James Mangold dirigio la version cinematografica, protagonizada por Winona Ryder y Angelina Jolie, quien recibio el Oscar a la mejor actriz de reparto por esta pelicula.