Search - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

An epic struggle of good against evil, human against machine, willpower against absolute power, pits the archetypal American hero - cowboy, fighter, hustler, gambler - against the cold efficient machinery of power. In the end, you get to decide who won.

One of the greatest American novels.

Kesey could be laying the groundwork for Tom Robbins. Of you don’t like Jack Nicholson, this is not a book for you! After reading the dialogue written for McMurphy (the central character) he is all I could picture. It is almost as if the book were written with Nicholson in mind. I also found it amazing that the movie version is remarkably true to the book. What happened, Hollywood?

Anyway, the central scene is the state mental institution, hence the politically incorrect title. The events are recounted by Chief Broom, a half-breed Indian (pardon, a Native American) who is supposed to be a deaf, mute. The principal action is the escalating struggle between the boisterous, rebellious McMurphy—a new admission—and Nurse Wretched (oops! Ratched)—the head ward nurse (or, Big Nurse as the narrator calls her). The events are inane, McMurphy is comical, Ratched is stoical, but this is no burlesque as you will see as the plot thickens and the supporting cast interacts.

This book is about a crazy, sexual beast of an Irish guy coming into a mental ward. This ward is controlled by the ever mechanical and freaky Miss Ratched who controls the lives of all the patients by instilling guilt, shame, and other nasty things. She has the power to do almost anything, as everyone is under her control. She also has some handy tools to help her keep the guys calm, but this Irish guy tries to get the best of her and bring her down! It's a great book, and it's very fulfilling. You can feel yourself change by the time you read the entire story! It's a must read.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

I enjoy reading books set in asylums, so this novel tickled me pink; it did not disappoint. I'd seen the movie years ago and remembered enjoying it and it appears the screenplay followed the novel well. McMurphy initially irritated me with his brash and loud ways, disrupting the order and tranquility of the psychiatric ward; however, around halfway through the book I began to picture him as Sawyer from "Lost" and he suddenly became incredibly appealing. He struck me as charming and protective, with just a touch of grit. I truly think he had the best interests of his friends in mind when making his stand against Nurse Ratched. I don't think, as she suggested, he was trying to milk them for money (unlike her milking them for their souls).

I had two main problems with the novel: dialect and Nurse Ratched. Dialect, for me, is always distracting, never conducive to plot flow, and occasionally sounds forced, even demeaning to (usually) Southerners. (How McMurphy ended up in Oregon was never explained). Nurse Ratched was undoubtedly a flat character; Kesey likely purposely wrote her this way to drive home his metaphor. She ran the ward as Satan, carrying her wicker basket full of evil, doled out to whomever she saw fit to saddle with it at the moment. I wished Kesey would have shown a softer side to her, a kind moment of helping a patient, a friendly chat with a fellow nurse, a laugh from her mouth. Maybe this is how the narrator (Chief) saw her, though. It was all black-and-white and machinery to him.

Two of the most powerful scenes in the novel were when McMurphy tries to lift the piece of machinery and fails and says, "At least I tried;" also, the final one, juxtaposing the light having come out of McMurphy's eyes as the world finally smothered him (literally and figuratively) with the emergence of the Chief becoming unsmothered, larger than life, and out to rebel against conformity. I nearly cried during the last scene. Great writing

An interestin first person account of a mental patients experience. As always, the book was better than the movie, and the movie was great.

This book is very well written. I loved it.