
This book is a memoir about Susana Kayson’s experience when she was 18 and voluntarily committed herself in a psychiatric hospital.
Ive read this book before and decided to reread it and annotate it. It is by far one of my favorite books and the movie was also sooo goooddd. I loved how well the book was written. It’s sarcastic, funny, and real. It fully describes how a young person is dealing with a mental illness while being confused about it and trying to fully understand it. I loved all the characters in the book. It was an easy read and I finished in two days. The book describes the stigma around mental health in the 60’s and how hard it was for her and others around her that there was something wrong with her. It’s a classic must read book will always give it a 5/5 rating. Also, the way she got the name for the book was just the cherry on top. Favorite quotes from the book: “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent” “Sometimes the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.” “Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?” “Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco.” “Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair, and depression. Isn't there some other way to look at this? After all, angst of these dimensions is a luxury item. You need to be well fed, clothes, and housed to have time for this much self-pity.” “In a strange way we were free. We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves.”