Cambridge

by Susanna Kaysen

“It was probably because I was so often taken away from Cambridge when I was young that I loved it as much as I did . . .” So begins this novel-from-life by the best-selling author of Girl, Interrupted, an exploration of memory and nostalgia set in the 1950s among the academics and artists of Cambridge, Massachusetts. London, Florence, Susanna, the precocious narrator of Cambridge, would rather be home than in any of these places. Uprooted from the streets around Harvard Square, she feels lost and excluded in all the locations to which her father’s career takes the family. She comes home with relief—but soon enough wonders if outsiderness may be her permanent condition. Written with a sharp eye for the pretensions—and charms—of the intellectual classes, Cambridge captures the mores of an era now past, the ordinary lives of extraordinary people in a singular part of America, and the delights, fears, and longings of childhood.This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Coming Of Age, Historical, Novels, Chick Lit

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Susanna Kaysen is an American author best known for her memoir Girl, Interrupted, based on her experiences at McLean Hospital. Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she is the daughter of economist Carl Kaysen. Her other works include Asa, As I Knew Him, Far Afield, The Camera My Mother Gave Me, and Cambridge. Kaysen has also lived in the Faroe Islands and often draws on personal experiences in her writing.

Reviews

[Rita Ciresi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read all year. I think people are getting confused about how to read this work and this is affecting how they're rating it. I also think some are coming to Cambridge with an expectation that it will read similar to Kaysen's previous works. This is not the case. Cambridge is an autobiographical coming-of-age novel that reads like a memoir because it is not driven by plot, but by theme. I found it a beautiful exploration of how the narrator wanted to feel at home in the world, but became increasingly alienated from her surroundings.

[Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing that I didn't like about this book is that it ended. Kaysen is such a brilliant writer & she makes it look completely effortless.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

UgH!

What a disappointment! But, I admit, my disappointment was totally personal. I was so excited to read this book....a memoir from an accomplished memoirist (Is there such a word?) about my beloved Cambridge, with an intriguing title....

Granted, it is beautifully written, in such detailed prose about her early years growing up in Cambridge. But the story contains nothing about the city, except to mention where she went to school (private school, probably Shady Hill, as this fits the description she gives her school), trips to Europe, her father a harvard professor, her mother a talented pianist-turned-stay-at-home-mother with an artists' eye), Greece and privilege.

This was not MY Cambridge. My Cambridge involved Sunday walks to Brigham's in Central Square, while dressed up in my Sunday-go-to-Mass Clothes, giving up candy for Lent, walking to our local drugstore Kolow's for Sunday candy during Lent (the one day of the week when you could have what you gave up), Catholic elementary school (where all I learned was memorization, shame and guilt for being alive), Labor Day weekend 'vacations' in a crowded, tiny cottage at Hampton Beach, having a dime-a-day to spend in the summer: 5 cents to get into the local MDC swiming pool, 5 cents to buy a candy bar afterwards...

NOT the Cambridge of privilege she describes.

However, what is telling is that she was cranky. The author writes a memoir of her early years, describing how she felt dead inside, how even in first grade she convinced herself that she would NOT study, that school was totally boring, that she was disconnected from family and friends, (particularly her mother), how she convinced herself that she would NOT be like her family, that she would become a disappointment, that she understood nothing but the written word....

In short, does this book describe the personality deficits that later resulted in her admission to MaClean Hospital for 19 months, a slightly disturbed personality that could not be changed or helped before her hospitalization, a personality that led itself to resistance, to unhappiness, to distance from friends and family?

She describes hours spent in her bedroom feeling nothing, feeling 'dead inside', and this is all before 6th grade! I could not help thinking that this young woman was biologically predisposed to depression and anxiety, to anhedonia, to opposition to pleasure, to refusing to comply or enjoy anything her parents presented to her. She loved music, and her mother was a talented pianist, but she resisted lessons, resisted solfege, resisted school (and became determined at an early age NOT to succeed at school, unlike her parents)

I think this is a memoir of the early years of a young woman with biological markers to an early disacocciative personality disorder, as earlier described in her memoir, "Girl, Interrupted". However, this memoir, Cambridge, documents that this girl was not interupted only at age 18 when she was admitted, but that her brain and early experiences were 'interupted' early in her life. Nature, nurture? Who knows? She certainly was given plenty of pleasurable experiences early in life, a loving family, wonderful trips to Italy, Greece, and summers on the Cape...

So...Was her diagnosis at age 18 completely out of place, quickly made, and wrong? I thought so when I first read "Girl, Interrupted"...I thought she was a tool of 'the system', used by psychiatrists for failure to comply, and hospitalized excessively (well, I still think that: 18 months in a mental hospital was crazy then and is still) and now my thinking has changed. I think she was born with a personality disorder, a brain that refused to find pleasure in the new and the beautiful, a brain that only allowed certain, small pleasures, a brain predisposed to depression...and later hospitalization.

But here is a spoiler: "Cambridge" is not about Cambridge. It's about a sad and oppositional little girl.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary

This novel is about a young Susanna, the journey between her second and sixth grade years, growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the travels with her family to England, Italy, and Greece. During which, she becomes more aware of what home is to her and more self-aware of what she wants home to be.

My Thoughts

As I read this book, especially at the beginning, it reminded me of a piece I read by Bonnie Honig and another writer about the idea of home and yearning for it. In the beginning, the young Susanna is away from Cambridge, Massachusetts and is in Cambridge, England. She misses her home, but by the end of the novel there is a clear shift as to what home means to her.

Susanna Kaysen is one of those authors that most people know about one of her books: the memoir she wrote Girl, Interrupted. It became a movie with a pretty all star cast: Winona Rider, Angelina Jolie, Jared Leto, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave, and others back in 1999. I even remember hearing about that book and the movie, but most people don't think about anything else she has written. It's a shame, to be honest.

Susanna Kaysen is probably one of the most underrated literary authors out there.

While, I have not read her memoir, I have read Far Afield, which was her sophomore novel (and no Girl, Interrupted wasn't her first, it was her third novel she wrote). What I really liked about Kaysen was her writing and psychological insight.

That hasn't changed at all. Even though Susanna Kaysen at one point in time every few years produced a work, there have been pretty large jumps after Girl, Interrupted. That book came out in 1993, and since then has only written one other novel besides Cambridge.

It could be said that with more time, comes better work. I don't know if that is true or not for Susanna Kaysen because I read her sophomore novel, which was written three years after her debut. Her writing is still as good as ever, and her characterization is spot on.

Cambridge is a novel I was pretty sure I would enjoy. I have an interest in novels revolving around the academia classes, and the culture beneath it. (Heck, I have even written about it from time to time).

The insides of the quirks and problems are fascinating to me, and in this novel is no exception. I think it is even more interesting that it is written from a child's first person point of view, and she gets everything spot on to how a child would think. From the comments on Cadbury Chocolate better than Hershey chocolate when she is in Cambridge, England, to the scene towards the end of the novel about her menstrual cycle starting when she is in Greece. She gets it, and how it feels.

This is not an action packed book, but more of a slice-of-life story. It is chronological from second grade to sixth grade. People complain there is no plot, which is a bit bizarre to me. There is quite a bit of plot, but it is subtle.

It's about self-realization, and the character is a young Susanna who is only a child before she grows into a tween. The amount of self-awareness she has only grows throughout the novel. She grows from a solemn young girl who has to put up with a mother who knows everything, a father who she feels closer too only in the sense she is more like him than her mother, and befriends adults in her life from Freddy her mother's helper (really aupair), A.A her friend's father, and her music teacher. There are also points in this novel, which do show a start to the things to come in Girl, Interrupted. (I might have not read the book, but I do know it is about her time in a mental institution).

What I really liked about this book were the interactions between the characters, and the character studies themselves through the child's eyes. It was extremely intriguing to read about, and you feel the despair that Susanna goes through and how she feels. Susanna Kaysen is a master of pulling her readers into the experience, and not letting them go.

My only complaint with this book is that there are a few times she does go on about things with her descriptions, but then she tightens it up again within a few sentences. I also wished this book could have been longer. However, this was another great read from Susana Kaysen. I should probably read the book she is well known for now, shouldn't I?

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cambridge, Massachusetts, was home to Susanna. She likened her love for this place like one would love a person. And being uprooted constantly with her family, to visit places like England, Italy, and Greece, made her feel rootless. Lost.

Set in the 1950s and narrated by young Susanna, the story takes us along as she comes of age, feeling like she doesn't quite belong, not even in her own family. Her parents are always entertaining, whether they are home or traveling, and Susanna finds a way to eavesdrop. Listening in on the conversations of grown-ups makes her feel almost like she belongs. But so much of what she hears, she misunderstands, which only heightens her feeling of being an outsider.

At the beginning of "Cambridge," our narrator is around seven and is also adjusting to her new sibling, Miranda, whom she calls "the baby" for the rest of the story. As if she can pretend she doesn't exist.

In many ways, I could relate to Susanna, having come of age in the same era. And the author has captured the emotions of a young person's rootlessness, that feeling of being invisible. Adults do not notice her unless someone is wanting to correct her for an infraction. School is challenging for her, but not because she lacks intelligence. Boredom is her daily companion when the teachers are repetitive.

By the time the family has returned from their latest journey, it is 1960. JFK and Nixon are running for President. Susanna has reached some milestones of her own....and she has not taken them well. Her changing body emphasizes that her childhood is ending...and the confusing emotions that accompany these physical changes are a reminder. But then she leaves us with this reassuring thought: "I could revise the empty space inside me so that it had a better shape: the outline of a happy childhood."

A poignant reminder of the importance of stability and home, the tale kept me engaged. It read like a memoir, but is listed as fiction. I suspect there is an underlying factual basis to the story. 4.0 stars.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Cambridge’ is the home of young Susanna, daughter of an economics professor and a pianist who no longer performs. The book is a first person POV by Susanna as she relates her life from second grade to sixth. The author has a keen memory; while told by adult Susanna, she’s picked up on the way kids perceive things marvelously. She lays it out there flatly, just as the child saw and heard it, with no adult’s explanation of what might really have been going on. This is the best part of the book, the part that will make many readers remember how they felt and saw things when they were that age.

Cambridge is home, but Susanna spends an awful lot of time away from it; a sabbatical year in England, time in Italy, a long summer in Greece, all take her away. Life, she feels, would be better in Cambridge, but once she’s there, it’s not very satisfying. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. She has a younger sister, known to us on as ‘the baby’. Her father seems to have little if anything to do with her upbringing (not unusual in the 1950 setting) while her mother ignores her except to criticize her or to tell her to do something. This latter she does by pointing at an object or person, expecting Susanna to wordlessly deal with whatever it is mother pointing at. Susanna is never mistreated and has no physical needs unmet, she is emotionally neglected by her parents. She has to look beyond them for nurturing.

There is not much of a plot to the book; young girl grows up, meets challenges, is disappointed by life while disappointing her mother. Susanna is not particularly likeable but she’s not unlikable, either. She’s contrary and bored with most of her peers. This struck a chord with me. I can remember feeling like she does; her feelings about her first period pretty much summed up how I reacted to that same circumstance.

It’s not a great book, but it’s a good book and really held my interest.

[Lesli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whiny and pointless... I was always hoping that the main character would have a grand awakening - she almost comes to something but then it vanishes into thin air.

Also, having lived in Boston for the past 30+ years, at some points in the novel it struck me to question whether this author was writing as a Cambridgeite (nobody from here calls Mass Ave, "Massachusetts Avenue") or looking at a map and guessing what things are called and where they are located.

Decent writing. Thin story.

[Steffi ~mereadingbooks~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Though I think the title is misleading. Not much Cambridge in it really. The city serves more as a frame than anything else.

Going to reread Girl, interrupted now.

[Paula Hagar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although there were moments of brilliant writing, I was unable to engage with the narrator; found there was no plot whatsoever to the book as a whole; and had to force myself to keep from drifting away throughout the book. It just did not keep my interest.

[Sandra Rau · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so disappointing. The story never really went anywhere. I kept waiting and hoping for something interesting to happen, but it never did. Descriptions of cultures and history seemed to be the theme. Unfortunately, this book was a far cry from the style of GIRL, INTERRUPTED.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cambridge, by Susanna Kaysen, is a loving homage to her home city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Told from the perspective of a child, this memoir/novel is about a girl's early years with her family. As the memoir opens, Susanna's father, an economics professor at Harvard, is on sabbatical in Cambridge, England. Susanna feels uprooted and disenchanted with her new home and school. Her family also travels to Italy and Greece and Susanna misses her home in Cambridge very much. "It was probably because I was often taken away from Cambridge when I was young that I loved it as much as I did. I fell in love with the city, the way you fall in love with a person, a suffered during the many separations I endured."

The author of 'Girl, Interrupted' offers some foreshadowing of the teenager she is to become. She talks of feeling "empty, blank, nobodyness." "I knew that inside me was an indigestible nastiness, which was bound to poke through and kill anything nice that had managed to grow between me and somebody else." As a fourth grader Susanna feels turmoil. "I could see that my will to failure was an ambition." I could see the seeds of her young adulthood blooming in her early youth.

There are stories of Frederika, her loving nanny and part of the family, and Vishwa, a conductor who courts Frederika and tries to bestow a love of music in Susanna. Her parents' moodiness and distance are painful to Susanna who feels invisible once her sister is born.

Despite the book's potential, it does not come to fruition. The writing is choppy and disconnected and left me with a feeling of distance from the protagonist and the other characters. A story of events is told but the descriptions of inner life lacked the depth and immediacy of 'Girl, Interrupted".

[Meichler · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be upfront about this - my opinion is entirely biased since I live, and absolutley love, the neighborhood this is about. It's really cool to read about the same bike ride I normally take, around 60 years after this is written. I know the Shaws, the streets, the weather - everything described. First hand. And I love it all. So - am biased.

That said - this was an easy, beautifully written memoir about a girl growing in my neighborhood. Or is it? On the cover it says it's a novel. If this is a novel - it's a 1 star, totally boring idea. If it's a memoir, it's a 4 star, beautifully written account of a girl growing up, travelling, menstruating for the first time, and beginning the simple, yet challenging, process of growing up and discovering her place in the world.

Somewhat sadly, fans of the movie/book Girl Interupted, will know that less than 1 decade after this time period, the author did wind up spending time in a mental institution. But before that happens, Susanna lives a priveledged life, born to loving and smart parents, and has the advantage of growing up in an intellectual community, travelling the world, and this documents it from her eyes/memory.

Taken for that, I really enjoyed it. But if this was meant to be an exciting novel, it was a boring fail.

[Mei · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Arithmetic and language affected me in different ways. Arithmetic had a stately, rhythmic progression that I could appreciate. But something about the static truth of numbers hurt my brain. Numbers felt sharp. Words felt elastic and springy."

"We walked around the rim of the temple through these shadows and the light in between them. The difference in temperature was as sharp as a sound, as if we were walking on the black and white keys of a vast piano made of marble and daylight."

Susanna Kaysen writes from a child's perspective in "Cambridge" in a way that's both mature and authentic; world-wearily wise but naively questioning at the same time. I loved her clever metaphors and wry sense of humor. The book describes her malcontent toward school, family (failing to measure up against her mother), and years spent abroad in England, Italy, and Greece in the 1950s.

[Daina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge while visiting Boston one weekend. And I am so glad I did! Recently I've read - or tried to read - too many mediocre books, and here - finally! - was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. The writing was excellent (absolutely loved the part about summer on the Cape!). I liked following the family to various places as they moved. I loved the girl's musings about school - I suspect many of us felt similarly at some point. The topic - childhood - is one we can all relate to, and its frustrations are described well in this novel. Some of their sight-seeing trips I found a bit tedious, but the Cape summer description was just too good and makes up for any specific shortcomings, while generally the entire novel was enjoyable. It made me wonder what became of this smart young girl and her little sister....

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read 'Girl, Interrupted,' which seems to be an evaluative point of reference for readers. I do think Kaysen is an interesting and unique writer--it's easy to believe she may have written a book that deeply touches some people.

But this book isn't it.

Kaysen channels her very young self well. I remember thinking lots of the things she thought, having the same experiences with the onset of puberty, being frustrated by tasks that require lots of practice. It's hard for me to say whether her life as a child of upper-crust professionals in Cambridge is accurate or cynical, because my own childhood was entirely different.

Three stars minus, mostly for the writing.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly see where Girl Interrupted came from. Fictionalize childhood memories of growing up in an unusual family. Not a happy childhood lots of anger and frustrations. But she is a lovely writer and it felt very true.

[Jane De vries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it because i was brought up near that area. a light read but nothing profound. Best thing was the jacket cover.

[Courtney Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I have a kid one day, I would want to read them books like Cambridge. Something about adults writing from the POV of their childhood is comforting to me. My mom read me All of a Kind Family growing up and I always felt like I should be bored by it and yet, I never was. Rather than being focused on a plot to draw the reader in—what it was saying—it relies on the way things were being said. I liked Cambridge for the exact same reason. There are specific descriptions of rather mundane events characterized more by how Susana’s child self felt about them than by the events themselves. She does a beautiful job capturing early adolescence and left me wishing I could observe the inner monologue of my younger self in the same way.

[Kara Kvasnicka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical novel told from the perspective of Kaysen as a child growing up in the fifties in Cambridge, Massachusetts (and the faraway places her father's job as a Harvard professor takes her family) does a great job of showing just how maddening and mysterious kids can find the actions, thought processes and behavior of the grown-ups in their lives. I can especially relate to her frustration that her mother somehow always seems to know what she's thinking no matter how hard she tries to conceal it.

[C. McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While there's a lot of melancholy silence in this book, it's in that silence that the reader discovers the pre-teen, Susanna and her unique family. The story wanders through Susannan's growing up, her attempts at fitting in and failing. There's a coldness that permeates the book and a loneliness that grows as Susanna comes into adolescence.

[Mackenzie Walters-Hooey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susanna Kaysen I love you!

[Rashmi Tiwari · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a certain type of older woman who lives in Cambridge to whom I refer to as a "Cambridge lady." She is usually smugly indifferent to hair and makeup and tends toward flowing clothing in organic fabrics from shops that also carry chunky fair-trade jewelry. She can be almost aggressively discontent with life, pointing out injustices both personal and global and is generally not my favorite type of person to be around.

This book is a thinly-veiled memoir from one of these ladies. We follow Susanna from 7 to 12, as her Harvard professor father's various positions lead them from England to Italy to Greece, always stopping in Cambridge. The young Susanna is insufferable and in perpetually a bad mood for no reason and completely self-centered. There is no plot here and the ending, when the author concludes that she had an unhappy childhood (WTF!?), made me want to claw my eyes out with a spoon and get back all the time I had spent reading this whiny drivel. Hated it.

[Jenn Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sadly disappointed in this book. While the writing was lovely, I was hoping for a lot more about Cambridge itself. As a child, the writer loved her hometown of Cambridge, MA, yet the author included very little about Cambridge in the book. Instead, she detailed how miserable she was traveling the world with her intelligent and loving parents. And by the end of the book, when her family finally returned to Cambridge for good, she no longer sees her hometown as she once did. Instead, it is dirty and lonely. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is looking to enjoy reading a book.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know quite what to make of this book. I had not heard of Susanna Kaysen or of “Girl, Interrupted,” so I did a little research. “Cambridge” claims to be a novel, but I saw it more as a memoir. Knowing that she had mental problems in her teens, I could see her childhood years as a forewarning of what was to come. I couldn’t warm up to the child in the book, known only in the first person as I. Having lived in the Boston area for most of the 1950’s, I was drawn to this book about Cambridge in the 50’s. I was disappointed.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't always connect well with books that don't have some kind of cohesive structure, which probably explains why I wasn't totally in love with CAMBRIDGE. But on the other hand, I kept coming back to it. And portions of it resonated strongly with me. I often dislike child protagonists, but this self-slash-fictional-self narrator really worked for me. She felt like an actual child without being annoying.

[Debi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book. The narrator, a young girl whom we see growing up from about age 4 through 11, is completely believable. I could relate to her view of the world so well. I remember feeling as she does about her family, her schools, foreign lands, her home. Her world could well have been my own in many ways. The narrowness of an academic family (no reference to sports anywhere!) and the depth (great conversations at the dinner table, interesting guests) made me smile.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's a little whiny, but our narrator is also incredibly loveable and easy to relate to, and I liked reading this so so much. This is a quiet one about childhood and how we remember it and I was sad to finish it and say goodbye to Susanna and her odd and pretentious and also loveable family at the end.

[Naomi Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Switching between dryly funny moments, tender memories, and earthy coming of age revelations, this book is a good read. It's a bit of a slow starter, but it quickly zips into interesting character studies of the people the author (as a character in her own novel) encounters as a child. A nice pleasant read that becomes more and more enjoyable until the too soon ending.

[Amy Discenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Her perfume made me feel sad. It was delicious, but at the precise moment I got a full taste of it, it would vanish. That was why it was sad. It was like an essence of nostalgia. Part of the smell was its quality of slipping away just when you thought you'd got hold of it."

I really enjoyed this one. Annette is a fabulous character.

[Darlene Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains more description of locales around the world than it did about Cambridge. I did feel the book was misnamed. An interesting visit to the parents, culture, and environments that influenced the child narrator.