false 4376 68783 0679746048 9780679746041 538 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170699231m/68783.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68783.Girl_Interrupted 3.57 8380 4376 3.55 9856 689 28092 0679763430 9780679763437 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167920415m/28092.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28092.The_Camera_My_Mother_Gave_Me 3.26 232 clitoris and vulvologist, not to mention earthier ones like the F word, on virtually every page to attract the startled attention of the passenger in the next seat. Bluntly describing her yearlong effort to deal with a searing pain in her vagina, Susanna Kaysen doesn't stint on the details of what this malady did to her relationship with her boyfriend (nothing good), nor is she forgiving of the callousness and stupidity displayed by some of her doctors and various alternative health practitioners. Yet her appalling saga is compulsively readable, thanks to Kaysen's propulsive prose and sharp dialogue. She's particularly good at capturing the way people talk about their ailments over dinner and in the middle of other activities. Conversations with friends ramble from her medical problem to tiger maple furniture in an utterly convincing way, and one darkly funny scene shows a pal urging Kaysen to buy a coral necklace following a particularly horrid visit to the doctor because, "You have to get a nice thing after that appointment." Kaysen's laconic humor keeps the book from seeming self-pitying, though her terseness tends to muffle its emotional impact; she expresses her emotions without really conveying them to the reader in any depth. Nonetheless, the pared-down candor that made her portrait of mental illness so gripping in Girl, Interrupted also distinguishes this account of a decidedly physical affliction. --Wendy Smith ]]> 4376 3.55 9856 689 28093 0679753761 9780679753766 9 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167920415m/28093.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28093.Far_Afield 3.71 63 Far Afield reveals reveals Susanna Kaysen's gifts of imagination, satire, and compassion.]]> 4376 3.55 9856 689 28091 067975377X 9780679753773 2 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167920414m/28091.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28091.Asa_as_I_Knew_Him 3.41 51
Witty and sexy, funny and immediate, Asa, As I Knew Him is a a seductive dialogue between love and memory, obsession and illusion.]]> 4376 3.55 9856 689 6511 057120211X 9780571202119 3 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165603402m/6511.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6511.Girl_Interrupted_Faber_and_Faber_Screenplays_Screenplay_based_on_the_book 3.53 47
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.]]> 4377 3.53 47 3 4374 3.51 68 5 4376 3.55 9856 689