An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of the defining works of the 1960s.In this classic novel, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other … McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax.
“BRILLIANT!”—Time
“A SMASHING ACHIEVEMENT…A TRULY ORIGINAL NOVEL!”—Mark Schorer
“Mr. Kesey has created a world that is convincing, alive and glowing within its own boundaries…His is a large, robust talent, and he has written a large, robust book.”—Saturday Review
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As we head into the second half of our horrible year of government mandated quarantines and other medical laws that have been dictated down from on high without any reasonable debate from the public Ken Kessey’s great novel One Flew Over the Cukoos ‘Nest comes vividly to my mind.
Because though it was written in the 1960s its conclusion seems to ask a question that couldn’t be more pertinent here in 2020.
Is it a good idea to give medical professionals (or anyone at all for that matter) the power to legally control, lock up, drug, tranquilize, electrocute or even surgically lobotomize us, even in the name of healing?
Because as the novel shows doctors or even nurses are still people aren’t they?
And all people are capable of envy and ill will are they not? Of abusing their power?
And even of murderous tyrannical revenge?
First do no harm, was the Hippocratic oath of old.
But today we see more and more of a Nurse Ratchedy you-take-this- medicine-or-we-will-ram-it-down-your-throat! sort of attitude from our government backed medical community don’t we?
Criers of the new often pat expression “Just trust the science!” ignore the fact that complex science (because it is mostly unverifiable to a non expert) is a matter of here say.
They also fail to see that these brilliant scientists we are supposed to trust without question are, like the boy who cried wolf, people.
And people, as every wise person knows, are capable of lies. (Especially when there is money and power involved and no way for the general public to verify what they say is true or false.)
In the novel Nurse Ratchet gets McMurphy to trust the science doesn’t she? The medical science that said he and everyone else would be better off if McMurphy was turned into a vegetable.
The pure brilliance of Cuckoo’s Nest was to point out the ease in which tyranny can be implemented through the guise of medical help.
Perhaps the general public taking its insightful lessons and warnings a little more to mind and heart at this critical juncture in time would be the best medicine of all.
Better than the movie; I simply couldn’t put this book down.
This book makes a great pairing with Kerouac’s proto-male-flight-narrative On The Road because it’s by Ken Kesey, another 60s renegade who formed a group called the Merry Pranksters who “tuned in, turned on, dropped out” and then tooled around the country in a psychedelic bus called Further with members of the Grateful Dead and Neal Cassady, the real guy On The Road’s Dean Moriarty is based on. And while it takes place on a psychiatric ward, that is all it has to do with mental illness. Like Kerouac’s book, this is a beat book. Meaning it’s about a group of guys who took on modern America and lost. They are beaten. Which is why one of the heroes is Chief Bromden, a Native American. The characters are an ensemble of American types, including a WWII veteran, a Korean war vet, the African-American orderlies, etc. Meaning it is post-modern, because the characters are not intended to be round, modernist or entirely real. McMurphy, the main character, is not so much a person as the embodiment of a malevolent potentiality in every male. He was insubordinate and violent and got kicked out of the army, takes over the ward the moment he arrives and won’t let any woman tell him what to do. By the same token, Nurse Ratched is the embodiment of a malevolent potentiality in all females. She is Big Nurse, controlling, smothering rather than mothering, infantilizing and castrating. The book dramatizes a showdown of sorts between these two entities in the early days of the civil rights and equal rights movements. What the ending means regarding the future of relations between cisgendered men and women is left for the reader to decide.
I thought that this books setting, in particular, (that of a mental institution) was incredibly chosen. The characters were well-written and engaging. I thought the ending was especially moving.
Hated it. I am probably the only person in the world, but I absolutely loathed this book and felt it was vastly overrated. I actually got into a hated debate with my Contemporary American Lit professor about the merits of Ken Kesey vs Kurt Vonnegut. I despised the Randall character and Nurse Ratchett equally and found this read to be a chore and not a pleasure to read. I got the message but felt the set up was too contrived. Still it is now considered a “modern classic” and everyone should probably give it chance.
Very well written.
Ken Kesey was a force of nature. this novel is prescient in its awareness of the sometimes sadism at the heart of medical types.
Superbly written with riveting characters, I only take a star off for emotion. The ending drains you and leaves an emptiness. Many have seen the movie, but the book adds depth to the story. What happens when someone outside of the bell curve smashes into the heavy weight of the center of the curve?
The book that inspired one of the best movies of all time that won “The Big Five.” Certainly worth a read as it is undoubtedly a classic.
When larger-than-life R.P. McMurphy arrives in a mental asylum in the classic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the other patients suddenly take an interest in life. One of them describes himself and the others as “rabbits.” But McMurphy is far from a rabbit. He’s willing to stand up to the feared Nurse Ratched and try to improve the lives of the men on her floor. At first overtly, then in more insidious ways, he finds ways to thwart her at every turn. But Nurse Ratched has been in the business a long time and she knows how to deal with free-thinkers like McMurphy.
Ugh. This book. There was so much meat to dig into and at the same time it is not aging well. Not aging well at all. I apologize in advance for the length of this review essay. I’ve tried to cut it down but I have a lot to say.
The bad:
Oh my gosh. Can you say stereotypes, racism, and misogyny? Because this book is full of all of it. The attendants on the ward are all Black men–one of them even seems fairly old–but they’re always referred to as “the black boys.” They had different names but they were each occasionally called “Sam,” which I can only assume is short for “Sambo.” They’re stupid, selfish, cruel, and lazy, and the author makes absolutely no attempt to differentiate between them.
And then there were the women. The female characters other than Nurse Ratched had minor roles but the attitude of every man in the book seemed to be that anything that was wrong with a woman could be fixed with a good f**k, whether she wanted it or not. Yup, you read that right. They’re basically advocating rape. Of the seven female characters I recall, all of them except for one are defined in terms of sex (prostitutes, big breasts, unfaithful wife, etc.) The inmates call the one fairly normal woman a “Jap” and she says that unmarried women shouldn’t be allowed to work after the age of 35 because they’re too bitter to be in public. Wow! Really?
I tried to step back and decide if there’s a reason for all this stereotyping. Maybe? I guess stereotypes can allow you to make a point fairly quickly without going into a lot of detail? The narrator of the story is Bromden, AKA “Chief Broom,” the son of a Native American father and a White mother. He’s been on the receiving end of a lot of racism himself. As a child, he had White people stand in front of him and discuss how filthy and disgusting his “hovel” of a home was as if he wasn’t even there. One of the defining events of his life is the day that the government, represented by White men, manipulates his father into selling the tribe’s traditional lands in the name of “progress.” So he knows how damaging all these nasty comments are. Yet he repeats them in his story.
I’ve tried to decide if the men fared much better. If everyone is a stereotype, does that make it okay? I don’t know. But they are kind of stereotypes too. One is a closeted homosexual who is always sitting on his hands so that they don’t flutter around and give him away. The rest are almost interchangeable in that they’re “less than.” There doesn’t seem to be much “wrong” with them. Sure, some are “vegetables” who just take up space and air but the functioning ones are maybe a bit timid or a bit unsure but otherwise they’re just regular men. And yet they find themselves in a mental asylum. And that brings me to:
What I Liked:
How much of what we view as mental illness is actually illness and how much of it is an individual’s failure to fit into the mold that society has cast for him or her? Bromden himself sees the machinery of society around him and he wants no part of it. He refers to society as “The Combine.” Society selects and accepts people who fill their roles well and rejects those who don’t. The Combine has no need for inefficiency or parts that don’t do what they’re built for. The book was originally published in 1962. Here in 2020, we have to say that Kesey has a point. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness when this was written; today we know otherwise so people are free to love as they please. What else have we gotten wrong? I don’t say this to dismiss true mental illness; some people definitely need treatment. But how many people just need a little room or a little grace to be themselves?
And McMurphy. I don’t even know where to start with him. He’s a memorable character for sure. He didn’t want to be incarcerated on a work farm any longer and decided to act insane to get admitted to a mental institution. I couldn’t help but root for him in his disruptive campaign. Yet he’s an antihero at best because he has a statutory rape charge. On the surface, he doesn’t belong in a mental institution. He’s a man’s man, drinking beer, brawling, gambling, and whoring. But Bromden sees flashes of something else underneath the bravado. McMurphy fought in Korea and led a group of soldiers out of an enemy prison. He most likely has PTSD and needs more real help than almost anyone on the unit. Society overlooks the trauma because he hides it so well. But he’s not fitting into his mold either, and we all know The Combine can’t tolerate that.
I wouldn’t recommend reading this just for fun but this would be a great book for conversation. I wish I could discuss it with someone in real life!
Seen from the Indian’s point of view, this chilling, and yet often humorous story, of one man coming up against the system and failing is a must-read classic.
One flew east, one flew west…
My one regret is that I should have listened when this book was recommended to me years ago. I love this movie and have watched it too many times to count but the book… I thought was simply amazing! It did take a few chapters to get into the writing style which I was warned about but after that, I was floored.
If asked to pick an all-time favorite book, this book would most likely be my choice, because I read it prior to seeing the movie and learned that reading usually tops cinema even if the actor playing Randall McMurphy won his first Oscar. This book was told through the eyes of the Chief and in using that perspective, the book was superior to the movie (the movie is also one of my favorites). I spent almost ten years of my life working with adults with severe and persistent mental illness. Some of the stuff that happens is so real to me now.
This is one of those defining books that sear themselves into your memory. I reread it recently while I was trying to find the defining books of the last few decades, and I can say with confidence that for me, this is one. Introducing characters you have to watch from half closed eyes, wincing, this is not an easy read. The brutality, sometimes left more to your imagination than clearly written, is what carries the story, but it’s contrasted with hope – for redemption, for escape, for a better life. Even hope for the characters you hate to find a better path. It’s a book that covers many genres. The sort of writing that makes other authors weep. Not just highly recommended but almost essential reading.
I think that at some phases at life there comes a terrible moment of a break. It happened to me too, especially in adolescence, but later, too. Even as an older woman who had gone through an ugly divorce. Unfortunately, we as human beings are measured precisely at these moments, while we are the most fragile or the strongest. Society defines us and confronts us in frameworks: successful or broken. And we usually agree with submission to this badge or simply too frail to fight it. Yet Those who struggle for their place, those who say that precisely this crack that we have is what makes us unique – they are the crazy of them all. Or maybe it’s the other way around…
Now and then, late at night, when I can’t sleep and a lot of things bother and disturb me, a friend’s pleasant smile greets me from the bookshelf: “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” It is always friendly and encouraging to meet and remember it, even if only from a distance.
This book came to my hands at the right time. At that time I searched with great enthusiasm for books that were taking place or dealing with mental hospitals. Books, movies. Well, I had a lot of curiosity about this world. The world of mental illness, the world of the dark shadow of fear, fear and far distance hovering over it, but always the vibrant and fascinating side that it carries. At the same time, even after the film (which, by the way, abused the plot of the book), I came across Ken Keese’s book, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” From the very first moment I was captivated by his uniqueness and entered into his world with great interest. The book takes place in the closed ward of a mental institution. This is a book that examines the limits of freedom of those hospitalized, of those under the control of others, and perhaps of ours too, who are seemingly revolving without tangible bonds, and whose fate is in our hands, but it is not clear how strong the different obligations of emotion bind each of us.
It is hard even begin to describe how brilliant this book is, how beautifully it conveys the most trenchant criticism of 20th-century humanity and what will follow.
The book managed to amaze me every time, to draw me into a chaotic and frightening world that is separated from the “real world” in just a few walls and fences, which so candidly describes the disgust and beauty and charm of the human nature.
The fantastic selection of the characters is probably the main attraction – Chief Bromden (who sees and is invisible, hears and does not hear, knows more about the world than any other character in the book) and McMurphy’s strong figure, which proves just how fragile a human being is.
What else can you say about a book that left me with a gaping mouth that made me think and wonder that maybe it made me a better person?
Worth reading!
His best ever
Original, hard to classify, An important commentary on The Establishment vs the Non-Conformist McMurphy.
Clearly one of the best novels of the 20th century. Man against the state, order vs. chaos, freedom vs slavery, a novel about freedom (among other things).
Bond of friendship, compare it to Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
Iconic classic–great movie, too!