| This book might well have been called Scenes from a Nuthouse. Susanna Kaysen writes this memoir of the eighteen months she spent in a mental institution right after she leaves high school. Basically, this book starts at the beginning, when a psychiatrist she is visiting for the very first time. Months earlier, we soon find out, she did try to commit suicide, by taking fifty aspirin. On this particular morning, however, his concern seems mostly to be that she's been picking at her face. Still, when he suggests she go for a "rest" at the infamous McLean Hospital (Ray Charles, James Taylor and Sylvia Plath have also stayed there), she seems relieved to go.
The chapters of this book are often set off by records from her confinement. In the beginning, she mostly talks about the other teenage women with whom she lives in what she describes as a parallel universe. She describes a girl who has set herself on fire and another who's always making trouble for the nurses and escapes whenever she can. She describes in great detail the one nurse the inmates really like and her analyst. Slowly, we learn about what it is that troubles Kaysen so, how she has trouble fitting in with her family. Towards the end of the book, she is preparing to leave McLean. | ||
|
Plot & Themes Phys disability/mental struggle? Yes Struggle with - mental illness Which institution - mental hospital Life in an institution Yes Period of greatest activity? - 1950+ Subject of Biography Gender - Female Profession/status: Ethnicity - White Nationality - American Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 8 () United States Yes The US: - Northeast City? Yes City: - Boston Century: - 1960's-1970's Writing Style Book makes you feel? - thoughtful - like laughing Pictures/Illustrations? - None How much dialogue in bio? - significantly more descript than dialog |
||