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Kaysen Interrupts a Normal Thursday Night at SSC
Author Susanna Kaysen reads at SSC!
By Amanda Taylor
By 7:30 PM on October 22, 2009, the Martin Luther King room in Ellison Campus Center was so packed, it was verging on a fire marshall’s worst nightmare. Students and staff crowded together in the small room. Extra chairs took up most of the walking room, and there were still people left standing. Who could draw such a crowd? That accomplishment would go to our guest reader, Susanna Kaysen.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ms. Kaysen, she is the author of the popular memoir Girl, Interrupted, which chronicles Kaysen’s year and a half stay at the McLean Psychiatric Hospital during the late sixties. Her talents are showcased in three other books; Camera My Mother Gave Me, Far Afield, and Asa, as I Knew Him. Not only that, but Girl, Interrupted was adapted into the well-received 1999 film by the same name, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.
Ms. Kaysen grew up in Cambridge, MA, and is the daughter of Carl Kaysen, a distinguished professor at MIT. Kaysen’s life took a turn for the worst after she attempted suicide in 1967, and subsequently checked herself into a mental hospital. Her diagnosis was borderline personality disorder, though in Girl, Interrupted Kaysen questions the verity of this diagnosis.
This was not Kaysen’s first time at Salem State. She was also here as a guest reader in November 1989, and attendees were delighted to discover that she had been a creative writing teacher
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When asked how she thought Winona Ryder portrayed her, the audience was caught off guard when she responded with her disgruntled wail, “I hate Winona! I always thought she was an idiot!” |
Ms. Kaysen greeted her audience with a quirky, “I’m glad all of you came, though I can’t imagine why.” Most of her reading was focused on her latest project – an attempt at a five volume work of fiction loosely based on her life. Ms. Kaysen’s new work exhibited the same witty tone that can be found when reading her other works. Kaysen altered her voice, speaking as each of the different characters.
The reading wrapped up with the typical Question and Answer, in which Ms. Kaysen revealed some interesting informatio
n regarding the adaptation of her book. To the die-hard fans of Girl, Interrupted, it comes as no surprise to learn that Ms. Kaysen was not fond of the movie. When asked how she thought Winona Ryder portrayed her, the audience was caught off guard when she responded with her disgruntled wail, “I hate Winona! I always thought she was an idiot!”
The writer also admitted that she thought Angelina Jolie did a decent job at portraying Lisa, a fellow patient at McLean in the movie. However, Kaysen did not believe she was scary enough. She had hoped that someone like Juliette Lewis would have been cast for the part.
Ms. Kaysen comes off as humble – she does take the attention, but one gets the feeling that she feels unworthy of it. “I still feel like a fraud, if I’m not writing right now, I don’t feel like a writer,” said Kaysen. It was easy to see why many of this writer’s fans felt as if they were on the same level as her.
Entertaining, crude at times, and down right funny at others, is the best way to describe Susanna Kaysen’s return to Salem State. If you haven’t had the chance to experience Kaysen’s writing, take the time to settle down with a good cup of tea, and get to it.
Amanda Taylor was delighted to meet Susanna Kaysen, and she thinks that everyone should give Ms. Kaysen’s writing a chance. She looks forward to the day Ms. Kaysen will publish her next book.