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.

It has all the words in their proper order.

Another book that so many people read in high school that I somehow never had to read; I was hesitant, yet excited to read it all at the same time. I am glad I did. The story is told by Chief, the Big Indian. Through his eyes we see the ins and outs of life in the mental ward. The author uses the Chief's own inadequacy to set the tone for the other patients in the hospital; each goes through life with the pace of a crawl. The processes and procedures are in place to help them acclimate themselves to life outside the ward in hopes that some day they may rejoin society. Or that is what the staff tells them anyway. We are introduced to a few figures with relative authority over the goings-on within the hospital walls, though their power is usurped by one woman. The head nurse. Over years she has manipulated the people around her, scaring off doctors and ward staff that she did not feel she would be able to control. As we join the story, her pieces are in place. She has a doctor overseeing the ward that is too timid to deny her control and three hospital attendants that are as immoral as she. She has her way with the patients' minds. In group therapy sessions she asks the men to point out the shortcomings of others thus reinforcing their insecurities. These same insecurities are the reasons that for many of the men are in the mental hospital in the first place. She keeps them weak and afraid, exerting her control until one new patient comes along and begins to question authority. R.P. McMurphy has bucked the system in every environment he has entered. As a result he had seen every form of punishment except one: the mental hospital. He was, maybe for lack of a better excuse, labeled a psychopath and duly committed. Now he has a new set of rules to break. McMurphy may be euphemized as out-going, though others may prefer to call him obnoxious, pushy and loud. He is, in all respects, both the complete opposite of every other patient on the ward and the exact thing the nurse has worked so hard to avoid. With relative ease she has broken the spirits of every man before McMurphy and they both get creative as their rivalry grows. She has control over the men's daily routine and has guided their thoughts as well for so long. McMurphy obtains control over their sense of freedom, but will that be enough? The mental hospital was a great microcosm for society at large. The patients are everyday people. The nurse, more abstractly, is societal expectations and normal, "acceptable" behavior. The Chief could be you or me. He, more than the other patients, has acted in a way that is in line with what others have assumed about him and not how he wants to act. He conforms to what people tell him he is. McMurphy represents the small portion of the population that thinks outside the box. He is the free thinker who teaches us that it is ok, and should even be encouraged, for us to question authority. Too often we do things because that is...just what you are supposed to do. We get out of bed, get dressed, go to work, go home, have dinner, kiss our spouse and go do bed. We are "grown ups" now and that is what grown ups DO. But why? Why not shake things up? We have the ability to carry ourselves with the integrity of adults though we live freely from others' expectations of us. McMurphy champions the mentality (to keep with the setting of the book) that we need to maintain some sense of autonomy. You can control where I live and you can control what I do during the day, but I will not let you control how I think and feel. And most importantly the lesson he focuses on is that no matter how tough the going gets, never forget out to laugh. This is an incredibly powerful tool we can use to avoid being swept under the control of societal pressure and expectation. With our laughter we show others that we are still in control, but you have to mean it. This may be completely off base with what Kesey had hoped to portray in his book, and it may mean something else entirely to you. But that is, after all, the beauty of it. I am not head nurse. I am not here to tell you how to think and feel about this book. But I do recommend you read it and find out for yourself. As I got into the book it was good, but not great. By the end I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

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. 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.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" tells the story of a Psychiatric Ward from the point of view of "Chief" Bromden - a half-Indian schitzophrenic. The book paints a bleak, dark institution, run by the Big Nurse - an emasculating ex-Army nurse who enjoys revelling in the misery of those under her care more than helping them. It introduces a number of characters, all patients - many of whom are probably are not crazier than your average nerd or weirdo. The drudgery and misery permeating the halls of the institution change forever, when a gambling rebel-rouser named McMurphy arrives on the ward, after faking insanity at a work farm. McMurphy turns the tables on the dark totalitarianism of the Nurse - whom he calls a 'ball-cutter'; severely affecting her ability to bully others (especially him). McMurphy's zest for life forever affects those around him. While superficially a selfish gambler, McMurphy time and time again proves to be a great friend and ally; the best therapy that the patients have ever been exposed to. This irks and angers the Nurse to no end - driving her to all sorts of plots to undermine McMurphy's authority and influence. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is not the average run-of-the-mill book, as it attempts to tell the story from the point of view of a mentally ill patient. It does that surprisingly well, however, and the reader is often left trying to figure out whether what the protagonist is seeing/feeling is actually happening, or whether it's a figment of his imagination (which is how schitzophrenics must feel). For those who have not read the book or seen the movie - I cannot recommend this story enough. It's great on film, and it's even better in print. It's difficult to recommend this book enough, without betraying some of its best plot lines, so if you've read this far, do yourself a favor and read the book. For those who have seen the film - think of the book as the 80% of the story that the film never covers. If you like the film, you absolutely must read the book - it contains a significant amount of background that the movie could never cover - in addition, the book has Bromden as the main character - not McMurphy. Whether or not McMurphy is the protagonist in the book - that is probably arguable - as no one affects the setting of the novel as much as he. --- In terms of publishing I do not recommend the Signet series paperback, as it contains a number of glaring spelling mistakes. Buy another edition.

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 book came in great condition - brand new. Very nice cover. The problem I had with it is the print is very very small. Similar to a mass market paperback printing. I thought since I was buying a larger book, the print would be larger, but that was not the case with this book. Print was way too small - I couldn’t read it.

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.