A review by casskrug
Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon

4.0

absolutely devoured this over the span of about 2 days. that approach could be a bit intense for some readers, but scanlon’s account of her time in and out of the new york state psychiatric institute in the 90s was gripping and propulsive. i can only imagine the amount of self-reflection and sifting through painful memories it must have taken to write this book, but scanlon did it with such simplicity and openness. there is no sugarcoating of the difficulty of the situation she was in, and we see the effects of it even years later, as she navigates life post-hospitalization and becomes a teacher and a mother. also, lots of beautiful writing on the difficulty of mother-daughter relationships within the context of grief and illness that really touched me.

we see her grappling with mental illness and loss at the same time as she is finding herself as a reader and intellectual. the fellow female writers whose work and lives she explores added so much to this book for me - following her journey into feminist literature and how she was able to apply those themes to her own life was relatable and well done, and expanded my reading list. she was able to blend her own experiences with these outside experiences in a way that didn’t feel jarring or jumpy to me. i can see how some may think it’s a fragmentary style, but i was really able to pick up on its flow, reading almost 200 pages in one day.

i do think the book could’ve been edited just a little bit better. some anecdotes were repetitive while other concepts weren’t really explained (thinking of some of the terms she pulls in from erving goffman‘s asylum).

definitely one to pick up if the themes sound at all interesting to you, and looking forward to reading scanlon’s fiction in the future!