I quite enjoyed this. Going in, I didn't have any idea what it was beyond the movie (which it doesn't bear a whole lot of resemblance to) that I saw probably around ten years ago. I didn't even know it was set in the 60s. I expected this to be a straightforward narrative of her experiences, but it's not really a narrative at all.

The best way I can describe this book is snapshots. It feels like snapshots of her life. She rarely gives you a full story of a situation, instead it's all brief moments and within those moments you get glimpses of the larger picture. I was kind of more interested in a play by play of the almost two years she spent in a psychiatric hospital, but this was just as good once I got into it.

Kaysen has such a wonderfully graphic way of capturing moments that I didn't feel like this book was lacking, despite all the holes. She gets married at one point and discusses the romantic buildup ever so briefly, then mentions that the marriage wouldn't last long, but that's pretty much it. I don't even think you learn her husband's first name. It's kind of peripheral to the story and you only see her outside life in the periphery.

I'm doing such a poor job of explaining this concept, but I thought it was so well done. I'm not ordinarily one for choppy stories, but despite the fact that she was jumping to different, unrelated scenes every few pages, this book had a cohesiveness that enthralled me and made it so easy to get through.

Honestly, the ending bored me. The last few chapters/essays dragged and I struggled to keep from skimming them. They got a lot less personal (for the most part) and focused specifically on what clinical borderline personality is according to the DSM (whichever current number is accurate). Maybe if you have no idea about it that section is more interesting, but I was bored.

Honestly, despite my enjoyment for this book, I don't know that it will stick with me. It was interesting and Kaysen's writing style is definitely different in a positive way, but it didn't hit me hard emotionally. It was just interesting and worthwhile and perhaps not an amazing book. But if it sounds like your kind of thing, I would wholeheartedly recommend this. I've wanted to pick it up for years and I'm so glad I finally did.