Date of Publication: April 19, 1994
Publisher: Vintage
Summary:
The book Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen starts off when she is in a doctor’s office getting an evaluation. The doctor notices that she is neglected of sleep, rest and seems not to be aware of her surroundings. After what she presumes to be a fifteen minute evaluation, he sends her to the “nut” house, which is the McLean hospital. In this hospital is where she meets the girls that she spends the rest of her teen years with. Georgina who was diagnosed as being a schizophrenic is also her roommate. Polly, a schizophrenic that set herself on fire is one of the kindest girls there. Kaysen always says that she must have a lot of courage to commit suicide by burning herself. She compares this to when she swallowed 50 aspirins in an attempt to commit suicide, which wasn’t as courageous as what Polly did. Another girl is Lisa who is known as the sociopath who never sleeps and always keeps all the girls in a good mood. Kaysen tells about how one of her most memorable times was when Lisa hung all the furniture in the bathroom. Then there is Daisy who commits suicide on her birthdays. She was known as only a “seasonal event” and was addicted to latex and chicken. She also complains about how they don’t have any privacy at all. They have to use plastic utensils and the windows are all guarded. As time progresses Kaysen starts understanding the factors of mental illness a bit more. In the chapter Velocity vs. Viscosity she explains how she isn’t sure which mental illness she has, fast or slow. She talks about how her favorite nurse is Valarie because she isn’t afraid of them. She least likes Dr. Wick who is very old fashioned and doesn’t seem to understand anything.
A new girl arrives from Mexico named Torrey, she is a methamphetamine addict. When the girls realize that she is going to have to go back to Mexico because her parents will no longer pay. They pitched in money and came up with an escape plan for her, which failed. A new and memorable patient named Alice Calais arrives at the hospital. She soon has a melt down and is transferred into maximum security. When the girls go and visit her, Kaysen wonders is she will ever be in that horrible stage. Kaysen later becomes her therapist Melvin’s first analytical patient. Kaysen also is fascinated with tunnels she discovered under the hospital. She is so amazed and loves going through them, she often asks nurses to take her there. As time passes she gets a job outside of the Mclean Hospital where she encounters sexism. More time progresses and she marries a guy who she met before being a patient as the hospital. After she leaves the hospital she sees Lisa who has a kid and Georgina who is now married. The books ends with Kaysen crying in front of a painting of a girl interrupted at a Frick’s museum. She breaks down in tears because she relates to the girl in the painting and how she was the girl interrupted once in her life.
Quotation: “Oh God. Could that happen to us?” (Kaysen 115)
Quoatation Context: This quote is said during the section where a new girl named Alice Calais has arrived at the Mclean hospital. She is a quite girl who is more observant than anything else. Some of the girls joke around how they believe she has lived in a closet because she has never tasted honey. Alice didn’t give any signs of having a real illness and the girls quickly got bored. Then one day she broke down and was sent to maximum security. When the girls when to visit Alice they began to become grateful of the little privacy they had back in their rooms. In maximum security there were no doors or toilet seats and in the rooms there was just a mattress. Kaysen was quickly startled when they found Alice on her mattress covered in her own feces. The girls leave and the uprising question is asked by Kaysen “Oh God. Could that happen to us?” (Kaysen 115) I believe this was a somewhat turning point in her life, when she began to worry a bit more about her surroundings. She acknowledged that Alice was very humble at first and then broke down. She didn’t want the same thing to happen to them. This quote comes from my favorite part in the whole book. The insecurity Kaysen begins to have shows how she is changing thought out the book. It also makes it more evident to see at the end of the book how she has grown and changed and is able to reflect on her life’s experience. 
solid work with how Kaysen evaluates the mental hospital, and the meaning of the book's title
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