PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Susanna Kaysen was born in 1948 and brought up in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she lives still. She has written two novels, Asa, As I Knew Him and Far Afield. While working on the latter, memories of her two year stay at McLean's psychiatric hospital began to emerge. With the help of a lawyer she obtained her 350 page file from the hospital. Girl Interrupted followed.
At 18 years old, after a shockingly brief interview with a doctor, Kaysen was sent to a psychiatric hospital where she spent most of the next two years. It was 1967, and this extraordinary and fluently written account examines the 'parallel universe' of life on the teenage girls' ward. The outside world romping through the late 1960s is set against the extraordinary, the funny and the tragic events in the lives of the girls inside, brilliantly exploring the sane and insane, illness and recovery. Kaysen's skilful narrative is totally compelling. (Kirkus UK)
