One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

What a magnetically charged story in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Kesey writes a very dramatic and intriguing story with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. No wonder this is a classic title. Ken Kesey wrote so well, it is read for generations. Enter at your own risk, and you find yourself in the the middle of the ward. This ward has patients with many nicknames, depending on their mental health, such as vegetables, chronics, Acutes, and there are those who are in there voluntarily and others, like McMurphy, court-ordered. This book is one of those you don't want to put down. If you've haven't read this before, you should read it, and if you have, a long time ago, read it again. I have also watched the movie that stars Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, and other budding stars, and it is as intriguing as the book. The book tells more of its details, and you learn that the narrator, telling the story is Chief, who was always assumed to be deaf and dumb, but was a very large and intimidating man. However, he and McMurphy, the wards newest patient, who is determined to be crazy as to not go back to jail, but also to show he isn't crazy, but just loves to create chaos, as to get what he wants, and it is an added benefit that he gets under the skin of the Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched. From the patient's point of view, she is tyrannic and is set in her ways, and does not allow others to create chaos. If they do, they get sent to shock treatment, or are sedated. The story brings the reader on a superb journey. This is a magnificent story that kept this reader turning the pages. The is one book, where the movie is very close to what is written. I recommend reading the book, and then look for the movie, as it is still on DVD. This book is also one of those controversial books and sometimes banned because it's intimate look at mental health, and the era where shock treatment is a standard for treating mental health. I like that the book showed the various personalities of the patients, and even the staff, and how they are referred to, from the Chief's point of view. It's an amazing story, brining a spotlight on the treatment of those who are mentally ill, in one way or another. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews. I look forward to reading many more books by this author.

Great book. I have not sat down to read a book in a very long time. I decided this would be my first since the movie is one of my all time favorites. Loved this book. It added so much more to the story and the way the author writes, his descriptions are mesmerizing. He paints a vivid picture in your mind through his words and it was just an incredible book. A critique of the physical book itself is that it is very small with pretty small print. It would have been nice for it to be slightly larger.

Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was a fascinating book written from an interesting perspective. Kesey takes a unique approach to portraying omnipresent societal issues of the 1960s: he addresses marked issues including those of class struggles, race, and gender discrimination without an overt claim. He creates miniature conflict within the microcosm of the mental hospital between the characters. I found this approach quite fascinating; often books of such a nature, illustrating societal conflicts, turn out dreary and overly pedantic. However, Kesey’s sense of humor and ability to keep a plot flowing and unpredictable kept me on my toes, ready for the slightest rapid change in the interactions between the characters. However, as a reader, I did find it somewhat difficult to decipher the interactions between the characters at times. The narrator, Bromden, gives us insight into the deeper workings and politics of the characters as he pretends to be both deaf and dumb; the other characters do not mask their plots or inner thoughts in front of him, letting us understand the intricate plots within the microcosm. We are introduced to McMurphy, a boisterous, muckraking new patient who attempts to stir the ward into rebellion against the controlling Big Nurse. The shifting dynamic between the more important and powerful characters as observed by a relatively insignificant narrator through the course of the events in the ward is what keeps the reader eagerly anticipating every change. Do be ready to decipher obscure meanings in certain dialogue as well as somewhat outdated and raunchy humor. However, these make the book quite honest and relatable.

Don't know where to begin. I want to be able to articulate this brilliant book in big fancy words, but I can't. It's beyond my vocabulary. It's about the man against the system, and its written so eloquently, but the eloquence hides underneath the rough, the primitive, the every day stuff that doesn't hold much sophistication. And yet, it's poetry. At times entire passages in this book made me want to reread them again and again, they were so beautiful. Have you ever read a book that seemed to send a very important message and yet when you tried articulating it to someone, no sound came out, and all you could do is just feel? Feel this cocktail of emotions you couldn't explain? That's how I feel. The story itself is simple. Some guy gets committed into an asylum and tries to fight some nurse who has established a firm grip on her ward and isn't going to suddenly change things because of one stranger. It would be too simple to describe it like this. There are so many layers here, and yet all of them are portrayed so straightforward, they left me speechless. I think more than anything this book is about the poison of unhappiness and how it can infect everything around it, crushing life to death. The poison is the nurse, and one who tried to challenge her is Randle McMurphy. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you what the story is about. The story is told by Chief "Bromden", a large man whom everyone thinks deaf and mute, whiling away his time as a committed patient in the nuthouse. Enter Randle McMurphy who pretends to be crazy to escape prison and lands himself in the same asylum. He is initially shocked at the atmosphere on the ward, the surgical cleanliness, the order, the lack of humanity in patients, who are afraid to even laugh out loud, all fisted in the firm grip of the head nurse. Randle takes it upon himself to challenge the order and bring life into the inhabitants, locking horns with the nurse, Ms. Ratched, except it's not her who is the enemy, it's the entire system of institutionalization. They engage in power struggle that gradually escalates to a heart breaking end. Along the lines, Randle manages to change the lives of those who have spent years and years thinking they couldn't toe the line chalked across the floor for them, except it comes at a price. I would say, this book accomplishes an astounding study into human psyche pigeonholed into a mechanical existence, processed and sorted and distributed like a thing, and various ways of escaping this oppression. There are, really, only a few, either to physically make a run for it, or to escape into madness, or, the most extreme solution, death, either by suicide or by succumbing to be crushed. I will be rereading this book, to pick up more layers, because I feel like I only scratched the surface and there is more, more to learn and to marvel at and to comprehend. Ken Kesey is a genius.

Great book and great price.

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Although the story takes place mainly in a mental hospital, its ramifications can be felt in all of the broader society. The struggles depicted in the various characters, both internally and inter-personally, will give the reader pause and perhaps change your perception on life. The story at its core encompasses the struggle between the individual (portrayed by Randall McMurphy) and the establishment (Portrayed by nurse Ratched.) It is told through the eyes of the schizophrenic half-Indian known as Chief Bromden. Bromden has pretended to be deaf and dumb for so long that everyone takes this fact for granted. It also allows him to overhear comments from the staff that others would not. The Chief is an interesting choice as narrator, and at times it seemed like he was rambling on about nothing. Unreliable narrators can be a touchy thing, but Kesey is able to navigate his way through the Chief's mind, and in time we find his ramblings have a purpose. He views the establishment as a machine, which he refers to as "the combine." He speaks of fog machines, wires in the walls, and robotic people, and views them as part of the combine. Even the name of the nurse, Ratched, sounds almost like "ratchet," which is a common tool. The Chief sees the struggle between the Big Nurse, as he calls Ratched, and McMurphy, and even though he has a sense right away that McMurphy is different, Bromden doesn't hold out much hope. After all, the combine is a massive machine and the Chief knows what it did to him. Bromden tells McMurphy he "used to be big," but not any more. The Chief's mother, a white woman from town, along with the government, broke down both he and his father and became bigger than both of them put together. The antagonist is Ratched, an ex-army nurse who rules the ward with an iron fist. She preys on the weaknesses of the patients and attacks them in those areas. She is all about control and power, and over her long career has devised many ways of projecting this with a cold, machine-like efficiency. Ratched has hand picked her staff based on their cruelty and submissiveness. The Chief calls her "The Big Nurse," which reminds me of Orwell's Big Brother, and mentions early on that "The Big Nurse tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine" (pg 24). Indeed the Chief sees her as a machine, part of the combine who's purpose is to make others small. Ratched represents the oppressive nature and de-humanization present in modern society. And then there is Randle McMurphy. Sent to the ward from a work farm (because it's "easier" time), McMurphy comes in loud and confident. His singing and laughter are something new for the patients so used to suppressing their emotions. And he is definitely not the kind of patient the mechanical and repressive Nurse Ratched wants. It only takes McMurphy one group session to see Ratched's method of exposing the patient's weakest areas and pecking them into submission. Harding, the subject of the group meetings earlier frenzy, explains that it was all therapeutic. McMurphy, however, gives Harding his perception: "what she is is a ball-cutter. I've seen a thousand of 'em...people who try to make you weak so they can get you to...live like they want you to. And the best way to do this...is to weaken you by gettin' you where it hurts the worst" (pg 56). So McMurphy, ever the gambling man, makes a bet with his fellow patients that he would be able to make Ratched lose her composure, and he accomplished this by using her own tactics against her. As he pulls Bromden and the others out of the "fog" and makes them big again, McMurphy unwittingly becomes the savior of his fellow patients. It did not go un-noticed that the electroshock table was cross-shaped with the patient restrained by the wrists and feet and a "crown" placed over his head. When McMurphy rips Nurse Ratched's tightly starched uniform and exposes her breasts, he is symbolically exposing her hypocrisy and breaking the power she had once wielded over the patients. Chief Bromden's final act of mercy cemented Nurse Ratched's fall as well as giving McMurphy the dignity that he had earned. Perhaps the largest piece of advice I pulled from this novel is to never let anyone or anything take your individuality. Society in general would like to have everyone fit into the same mold because then the people are easier to predict and control. However, we all need a McMurphy in our lives to show us that we can still be individuals and fit into society. And when The Combine tries to weaken you and make you conform, just throw your head back and laugh like McMurphy, "because he knows you have laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy" (pg 233).

The movie, starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, with early film appearances by Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd, had a huge impact on me when I was junior in high school. However, I am so glad I didn't read the novel before seeing the film, as I would've been critically disappointed. Narrating this story through The Chief was brilliant, as it not only described insanity, but also revealed the institutional devastation upon society through the rampant use of psychiatric hospitals, which burned away souls with electric shock therapy (EST) and gave birth to the walking dead through lobotomies. The film won many roles and Louise Fletcher's performance was dead on perfect.

From the eyes of a high school student, the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, deserves a 3-star rating. I found that it was a difficult and disjointed read but it had many memorable moments and characters. The slow pace of the first half lost my interest but the second half picked up and was much more intriguing. I have no psychiatric background so the terminology such as lobotomy, electric shock therapy, electroencephalograph, etc… tended to be confusing. Along with medical phrases, I found many derogatory comments regarding minorities. For example, the men referred to women as either “ball-cutters” or “whores” with little in between. Although the time period may have been more lenient with those sorts of remarks, I believe it to be offensive and inappropriate to the targeted audience. Moving on to the structure of the novel, I was not a fan of the four large sections rather than chapters because it felt disorganized and prolonged. With the negative comments aside, I believe that Kesey did a satisfactory job developing the characters and providing vivid descriptions of the setting. Kesey conveys the importance of freedom against oppression with the relationship between Randal P. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. His fiery passion and her icy demeanor created butting heads in the Ward. They both have their tactics of battle to keep the remaining patients on their side. Understanding the overwhelming life of an individual struggling with mental illness will give you a new perspective and appreciation for your life. I recommend this novel for adults or mature adolescents that can handle complex themes and language. If you are interested in mental illness or are looking for a complicated read, then this book is for you!

all good with this transaction.

Ce livre, livré en un temps record dans un très bon état m'a parut être d'une sensibilité profonde. J'avais voulu lire ce livre pour faire le parallèle entre celui-ci et le film de Miloš Forman. Il s'est avéré que les différences avec le film sont assez importantes, on retrouve dans le livre de Ken Kesey une épaisseur assez considérable des personnages. Cette épaisseur se ressent dès l'entrée dans l'histoire mais ne nous empêche en aucun cas de se prendre d'amitié avec chacun d'entre eux. En bref, ce livre fut une expérience enrichissante et ceux qui ont aimé le film vont adorer le livre !

I love this book and i think everyone should read it! It flows so effortlessly as if the whole thing is just one long sentence.

Eines meiner absoluten Lieblingsbücher, dass es schafft verschiedenste Stimmungen in einem Roman zu bündeln. Ein tiefer Einblick in die Menschliche Psyche und Gruppendynamik.

The book is really great. It's a lot different from the movie, kind of similar but so far it's the chief talking and telling the story. I just started it so I don't know if it's going to switch to Mick Murphy or not. If if you're not into the slang of the '60s, I wouldn't read it. There may be some racial slurs.