I'm not sure what drew me in more once I started reading. Susanna's story or the way she wrote it. I have to say both were compelling. She writes with an almost stream of consciousness bent but the story is more focused then that.Her portrayal of herself and her fellow “inmates” is always dealt with humanely and with a depth of understanding usually shown only to friends. Just how “crazy” is she? Or they? In her case you do start to wonder but then she gives you a lesson in perception with another patient that seems very sane only to meet her later as she's painting her new quarters with her own feces.Susanna asks “Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers, or was it that poets and singers specialized in madness” I've often wondered the same. The artistic mind does seem to be a little imbalanced. She wants to be a writer and sees maybe she is herself a bit imbalanced but do we cure it by treating the mind or the brain?I would call this an odd coming of age story that I think deserves to be read by everyone.