Story Circle Network
Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

January 2000
Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted
by Susanna Kaysen

  1. Last month we started an interesting conversation about the "ownership" of women's published memoirs...is the memoir primarily owned by the woman who writes it, or the readers who bring their own life experiences into their interaction with the memoir, or even other "stakeholders" in the story (both within and outside it) (the other patients, for example, or even movie producers who turned the written memoir into film...)?

    Who owns Kaysen's memoir? If ownership is shared, in what proportions is this so? Is the distribution of ownership "right" or not?

  2. We also began to talk about our "trigger" reactions to particular memoirs...ones we feel strong attraction to or revulsion for. Did you have a trigger reaction to Kaysen? What was it? Can you speculate on the reasons for your response?

  3. Was Susanna Kaysen sane (all part of the time covered by the memoir)? Does the issue of a memoirist's sanity make a difference? For background to this question, you might find the chapters "Etiolgy" and "My Diagnosis" helpful.

  4. Did the inclusion of Kaysen's medical records make any difference in terms of the impact of her story for you?

  5. Susanna Kaysen came from a very prominant family. Does this matter: (a) in terms of the playing-out of Kaysen's memoir itself, and/or (b) in terms of your response to Kaysen's telling of her story?

  6. Kaysen's writing style could be characterized alternatively as blunt, crude, antagonistic, perceptive, sympathetic, detached, intensely intimate, objective, or speculative...and probably in more ways than this. Does Kaysen's style contribute to or detract from your ability to relate to her memoir? Do you think Kaysen would care about our reactions?

  7. Why did Susanna Kaysen write this memoir?