“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 . . .”
London, Florence, Athens: Susanna, a precocious young girl growing up in 1950s 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 far-flung cities to which her father’s career takes the family. She always 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 ways we can—and cannot—go home.
“Terrific. . . . Vivid, surprising. . . . Kaysen is a wonderful writer.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A wisely observed story about leaving childhood—both its humiliating powerlessness and its blissful innocence—whether you want to or not.” —The Washington Post
“Exquisite. . . . Full of descriptions and anecdotes that shimmer like fireflies on a dark July night.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Unflinching. . . . Fascinating and heartbreaking.” —NPR
“Beautiful, funny, perceptive. . . . Elegant. . . . Remarkable.” —Slate
“The original Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen, comes full circle with Cambridge, the fondly nostalgic story of a professor’s daughter with an acute case of apartness.” —Vogue
“Touching. . . . I loved the narrator’s bittersweet realization that ‘home’ isn’t a physical locale, but rather a place that exists only in memories. . . . I really enjoyed the book.” —Sarai Narvaez, Real Simple
“Kaysen is so adept at reproducing the child’s voice. It’s not an easy thing to do in fiction or memoir, to translate the observations of a child who doesn’t necessarily have the vocabulary to explain how she feels or others seem. She has succeeded here marvelously.” —Providence Journal
“A fascinating study of the ways in which communities define themselves.” —Bust
“Kaysen writes interiors that belong on the set of a Wes Anderson movie. . . . Typically novels demonstrate how a character grows, changes, and adapts to new adventures. Cambridge pushes against this notion. With change comes loss. Childhood happens only once. It might be great or it might be awful or it might be ordinary, but once we reach adulthood, it’s gone.” —The Rumpus
“A melancholic, poignant, and sharply observed account of a precocious girl’s struggle to make sense of her place in the family and in the larger world.” —Booklist
“A touching and often sad narrative of coming of age and everyday life.” —The New York Journal of Books
“A literary tour-de-force. . . . Affectingly real. . . . Frequently lights up to the point of incandescence with subtle descriptions and astute, witty anecdotes.” —Publishers Weekly
