I think you could make a solid case that this is the best novel written during the 1960s. Differing greatly from the movie, the book is seen through the eyes of the Amerindian character, Chief Broom. McMurphy comes off in a similar, but also different way than the McMurphy in the movie. The biggest difference to me was that in the book McMurphy was the best therapist in the whole hospital, helping various patients get over and deal with their issues. He even makes the head shrink on the ward feel like a real living man again during the fishing trip where the Doctor catches a huge fish. The Chief while showing obvious signs of real mental illness, some of what is used to showcase that, the "Combine" and the "Fog" are also obviously symbolic of some very real things. But I don't want to get into a bunch of mental masterbations about what various things and characters in Cuckoos Nest are representative of. I'll leave that to the eggheads of the world. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a great book and I'll leave it at that.

But what about Kesey himself? Ken Kesey had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. So they give out keys to the medicine chest to the nighttime janitor and he knows just what those fancy new fangled drugs that make the crazies act even crazier are called eh? Ha ha! Yeah man give me a break. I believe Kesey was given LSD to dole out by certain people for specific reasons.


Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.

I think you could make a solid case that this is the best novel written during the 1960s. Differing greatly from the movie, the book is seen through the eyes of the Amerindian character, Chief Broom. McMurphy comes off in a similar, but also different way than the McMurphy in the movie. The biggest difference to me was that in the book McMurphy was the best therapist in the whole hospital, helping various patients get over and deal with their issues. He even makes the head shrink on the ward feel like a real living man again during the fishing trip where the Doctor catches a huge fish. The Chief while showing obvious signs of real mental illness, some of what is used to showcase that, the "Combine" and the "Fog" are also obviously symbolic of some very real things. But I don't want to get into a bunch of mental masterbations about what various things and characters in Cuckoos Nest are representative of. I'll leave that to the eggheads of the world. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a great book and I'll leave it at that.

But what about Kesey himself? Ken Kesey had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. So they give out keys to the medicine chest to the nighttime janitor and he knows just what those fancy new fangled drugs that make the crazies act even crazier are called eh? Ha ha! Yeah man give me a break.

Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.

It would be very difficult for me to say whether the novel or the film is a greater masterpiece, so I guess it would be better to say that the novel is as perfect as could be and the changes made for the film were necessary and added to the perfection of the film. Hearing this story through the eyes of "Chief" Bromden and witnessing his emergence out of the black is truly a moving experience. Nurse Ratched may be the most terrifying villain in the history of literature mainly due to the fact that her subtle torture of the patients is so believable and frustrating.

It is truly an outstanding and timeless work of art.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is the Great American Novel. All other classic American literature pales by comparison. Most classsic American novels fade over time (Catcher in the Rye comes to mind in this category) or they are historical footnotes, of a time and place, like Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck or some of Hemmingway's work. Important, yes, but they read like history and lose some of their relevance.

But Cuckoo's Nest reads better today than it did 45 years ago. Who is insane and who isn't? What is the bureaucratic Combine up to in the 21st Century? And who exactly fits in neatly to Society, and what are we going to do with those who refuse?

Perhaps most important of all, Cuckoo's Nest is laugh out loud funny, which makes it very American, and makes it stand as tall as Chief Bromden to the other American classics. I mean, outside of Mark Twain, name an American classic novel which tackles a very serious subject and does so with riotous humor? Only one in the 20th Century, and that honor goes to Cuckoo's Nest.

I was fortunate enough to read this book before ever seeing the movie. The movie was decent, but it in no way captures what this book is all about. This book is the work of a genius. Do yourself a favor, don't rent the movie from Blockbuster, read this book, and carry its memory with you forever.

There are some books I feel every teen should read. Especially in light of recent current events. Today's children & teens sometimes have no real concept of how lucky they are to live in a free society.
This in such a book to remind them that things could be so different!

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of the residents and staff of a mental ward, centered around the power struggle between McMurphy, the new, sane patient, and the dictatorial Big Nurse.

The novel is written in the present tense, which is often problematic, but here it works well enough. The use of Chief Bromden as the narrator is problematic at times, and the reader may find himself repeatedly skimming or skipping entire pages of mentally-unbalanced monologues. The end of the novel seems rushed, and as a result the impacts of many of the novel's climactic events are diminished.

All in all, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is an interesting read. But maybe, just maybe, the movie is better.

RECOMMENDED

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the movie, is considered one of the greatest films of all time.
The novel, by Ken Kesey, is considered an important modern novel. Not in the ranks of "The Catcher in
the Rye" or "To Kill a Mockingbird," but important none-the-less. I, personally, don't consider the novel to be very important...But it IS important, because without it...The brilliant Milos Forman directed masterpiece starring Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances would not exist. The book is told from the perspective Chief Broom, an Indian who lives in a mental asylum deceiving the staff and patients into thinking he's deaf and dumb. He has no desire to be a part of the craziness that occurs everyday in the hospital and prefers to keep to himself. He also fears that the Big Nurse (a.k.a. Nurse Ratched) and her helpers (whom he calls "the black boys") might find out his secret. Soon, Randle P. McMurphy arrives. Randle was doing time on a "work farm" for stautory rape and got sick of it and decided to act crazy with the intent of serving out the rest of his time in the hospital. He quickly begins giving Big Nurse a hard time and befriends the patients, trying to build up their self-esteem and get them to believe in themselves more. This book has the same message that every Rage Against the Machine song has "F**k the System!" Here's something you probably wouldn't expect though...The movie is much better than the book. The movie is told from a third person narrative in which R.P. McMurphy in the main character and Chief is a supporting character. We discover mid-way through the film that he's faking his deafness. It makes the film much more surprising, entertaining, and terrific. The book tends to lag, taking too much time away from the most interesting character in the novel & movie (McMurphy). The book is good and it was clearly a no-brainer casting Jack Nicholson, but if you have to pick between reading the book or watching the movie...Pick the latter.

GRADE: B

This book, was extremely inspirational, to say the least!!! After reading this book, one can only realize that his mind can be a powerful weapon. Reading the book, is the only way to understand exactly what I'm trying to say...If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend you do.

I haven't seen more than a few minutes of the famous 1975 film version of this novel. But even for me, it's hard reading this now without imagining Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy. Though Nicholson looks nothing like the redheaded Irishman described in Kesey's novel.

McMurphy is a convict who tired of the work farm in Oregon and thought he'd kick back for the next four months in the insane asylum. He never counted on the asylum being run by a petty dictator like Nurse Ratched. Nor did Nurse Ratched ever imagine she'd run across someone she couldn't bend to her will.

The conflict between these two is recounted by "Chief" Bromden, a half-Indian, half-white man committed to the asylum. He pretends to be deaf and dumb so he doesn't have to communicate with anyone. At nights he thrashes about on his bed, imagining that the machines of The Combine are performing experiments on the patients. Though nearly seven feet tall, the Chief's image of himself is almost dwarf-like.

The other patients like the intellectual Harding and stuttering Billy Bibbit similarly see themselves as small, Harding likening them to rabbits, under Ratched's rule. When McMurphy appears on the scene, he immediately energizes the patients with his raucous behavior. After a successful rebellion over the airing of the World Series on television, the patients gain hope and self-confidence. But like any dictator, Nurse Ratched isn't about to go down without a fight. Over the next few months, she works at breaking McMurphy's hold on the patients until the final confrontation.

The Cliff Notes I read after finishing the book likened McMurphy to Christ. I'm not sure I'd go that far because I can't recall Christ slugging it out with any Roman guards on his way to the cross. There is certainly nothing meek and mild about McMurphy. Yet in his own way he is the way and the hope for the other patients, including Chief Bromden.

What I'd liken this to more so than the New Testament is Orwell's famous "1984." Nurse Ratched is a Big Brother figure in controlling the hearts and minds of her subjects, though in less obvious ways. The three black orderlies at her command aren't as efficient as the Thought Police, but they do their part to maintain order, at least until McMurphy's arrival.

More to the point, the conflict between freedom and tyranny is at the heart of both novels. Both show us how precious freedom is in an oppressive environment and the lengths the tyrants will go to maintain their hold on power. McMurphy's struggle with Ratched isn't as covert as Winston's against Big Brother, but they are both psychologically intense. And for McMurphy at least, his opposition has about as happy as an outcome, though Kesey allows hope for some of the other characters.

This is the kind of book people call a "page turner." I kept chugging along through the novel with nearly the same dread and hope as the patients, wanting a good outcome but fearing that McMurphy was bound to meet a bad end. For me, that kind of emotional involvement is the hallmark of a great novel. You'd have to be crazy to miss out on this one. (Thank you, I'll be here all week...)

That is all.

This book is one of those books that stands out from the rest. It is well written, the illustrations in this addition only add to the story to give it a greater feel for the residence of the institution. I absolutely love this book!

The characters are life-like and easy to relate to. I recommend this book for those who avid or occasional readers. It is a story that will survive many more generations.

The perfect metaphor for school, or work and the handbook for any revolutionary. What can I say about such a good book except for what it has meant to me. R.P. McMurphy dies for all of them and all of us. He makes the Cheif big and he makes all of us big, and I spent my life feeling just like that locked in a system inescapable and hopeless, so powerful that resisting is foolish, but resistance is the only option, because they don't only want your body in chains, but they want your mind, and to stop resisting would be to give them your soul. I think of McMurphy when I'm at a seminar, or driver's education class, or anywhere with bad florescent light and dirty chairs, or when I'm playing poker.

Peace,

Jacques Paisner, Author of Albuquerque Blues

An iconoclast who likes a good time ends up in a mental institution. He threatens the status quo, and hence the power structures embodied in the tyrannical head nurse.

A struggle develops between the two, as various escapades escalate to the not so pleasant conclusion. Rather well done.

Excellent portrayal of the workings of interpersonal relationships - from dominance to passivity to group mentality - all wrapped up in a one funny story.

I have always regarded `One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' as one of the best movies ever made. I never read the book because, well... I'd already seen the movie. But the book was highly regarded and since I hadn't seen the movie in at least 20 years, I thought it was time to read Kesey's novel.

Ironically, reading the novel has ruined the movie for me.

After reading the novel, I felt compelled to re-watch the movie and was surprised to find how superficial it seemed to me. Kesey was not happy with the movie version of his novel (despite all those Oscars). I had never understood why, until now. The very essence of Kesey's characters were gutted by the movie (not just their physical appearance but the very core of who the characters are and what they represent). Nicholson's performance, which seemed like a tour de force before, now seems superficial to me.

The novel is written from the perspective of one of the patients (the Chief) who everyone on the ward believes is deaf and dumb. The Chief is essentially a `fly on the wall', observing all that happens, virtually unnoticed (at least initially). His tenacious grasp on reality (his hallucinations and paranoid delusions may be the result of drugs he is forced to take, mental illness, or a combination of both) provides a fascinating perspective and allows Kesey to use the Chief's altered sense of reality as a source for much of symbolism in the novel.

The movie may be good (possibly even great), but the novel is much richer, more complex and profoundly tragic. R.P. McMurphy is the ultimate doomed rebel. This is one of the best novels of the 20th Century (despite its inexplicable omission from Modern Library's `Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century').

I have always regarded `One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' as one of the best movies ever made. I never read the book because, well... I'd already seen the movie. But the book was highly regarded and since I hadn't seen the movie in at least 20 years, I thought it was time to read Kesey's novel.

Ironically, reading the novel has ruined the movie for me.

After reading the novel, I felt compelled to re-watch the movie and was surprised to find how superficial it seemed to me. Kesey was not happy with the movie version of his novel (despite all those Oscars). I had never understood why, until now. The very essence of Kesey's characters were gutted by the movie (not just their physical appearance but the very core of who the characters are and what they represent). Nicholson's performance, which seemed like a tour de force before, now seems superficial to me.

Re-watching the movie made me fully appreciate how good this novel is. If you are wondering if the novel is worth reading if you've already seen the movie, the short answer is: Absolutely.

The novel is written from the perspective of one of the patients (the Chief) who everyone on the ward believes is deaf and dumb. The Chief is essentially a `fly on the wall', observing all that happens, virtually unnoticed (at least initially). His tenacious grasp on reality (his hallucinations and paranoid delusions may be the result of drugs he is forced to take, mental illness, or a combination of both) provides a fascinating perspective and allows Kesey to use the Chief's altered sense of reality as a source for much of symbolism in the novel.

The movie may be good (possibly even great), but the novel is much richer, more complex and profoundly tragic. R.P. McMurphy is the ultimate doomed rebel. This is one of the best novels of the 20th Century (despite its inexplicable omission from Modern Library's `Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century').

I debated reading this book, assuming that it was a pulpy best seller whose subject matter was already exhausted by a very good movie. But the book has true literary merit and is infinitely better than the movie. The story is told from the viewpoint of the Chief, whose struggles with his own demons and delusions adds a whole new layer of complexity to the story. McMurphy's character is at once more iconic and more subtle than that portrayed by the movie. He struggles with the burdens of being the hero, a bit like "Cool Hand Luke", to draw on another great movie. But the Christ symbols are also more present in the book. To be sure, it's a strange Christ who strangles Nurse Ratchet. Much as you want her to be strangled, I don't think that particular twist works any better in the book than in the movie. Still, Ratchet's role as the symbol of everything that's wrong with our overly controlled and bloodless social order and McMurphy's humanity are wonderfully conveyed in this book. It's a significant book and is better than a lot of highly ranked novels of the latter half of the twentieth century.

The story is narrated by the Chief, an institutionalised American-Indian, who is repeatedly coming in and out of "the fog" designed by those little red pills given to him on a daily basis.
After experiencing a mundane daily routine day after day, the Chief's life is suddenly changed when RP McMurphy is suddenly housed at the institution and wages a war against the terrifying Nurse Ratched, and the institution staff.
Supposedly Kesey wrote this story whilst working in a veterans hospital and under the influence. This story is funny and tragic and speaks out for the little guy who has society pushing down on him to conform.
An excellent read.

In Ken Kesey's debut 1962 novel, con man Randall McMurphy fakes mental illness to avoid serving his time in a prison work camp for a statutory rape charge. ("She was fifteen going on thirty-five Doc...") The story begins when McMurphy is transferred to an asylum in Oregon. He quickly establishes himself as the "Bull goose loony" (alpha male...I guess) and introduces gambling, drinking, women and other real life pleasures to the ward. The other timid inmates enjoy these new freedoms, but they go against the harsh rules of Big Nurse Ratchet. The conflict between Nurse Ratchet--backed by the full force of the state--and McMurphy escalates to the very end.

This book is funny, well written and at times inspirational. It's definitely could be described as a "Modern Classic". I highly recommend it.

In Ken Kesey's debut 1962 novel, con man Randall McMurphy fakes mental illness to avoid serving his time in a prison work camp for a statutory rape charge. ("She was fifteen going on thirty-five Doc...") The story begins when McMurphy is transferred to an asylum in Oregon. He quickly establishes himself as the "Bull goose loony" (alpha male...I guess) and introduces gambling, drinking, women and other real life pleasures to the ward. The other timid inmates enjoy these new freedoms, but they go against the harsh rules of Big Nurse Ratchet. The conflict between Nurse Ratchet--backed by the full force of the state--and McMurphy escalates to the very end.

This book is funny, well written and at times inspirational. It's definitely could be described as a "Modern Classic". I highly recommend it.

This book is perhaps my favorite American novel of all time. Kesey's brand of storytelling is highly engaging and makes this book readable in one sitting. However, he is most admirable for his characters. The protaganist of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a brash and determined young delinquent with a devil-may-care attitude. McMurphy feigns a mental disorder in order to be moved from prison to a mental ward. Upon entering the mental institution, McMurphy stirs up all kinds of trouble by befriending and influencing a bevy of mental patients, all with their own interesting eccentricities. All of this is done to the dismay of the dictatorial "Big Nurse" who becomes McMurphy's nemesis. Interestingly, the story is told through the character Chief Broom who for years has pretended that he is a deaf mute, an aspect that affords him greater perceptability. I highly recommend this book--it will humor, sadden, move, and excite anyone who reads it. I have also concluded that--in my limited experience with literature--Randle Patrick McMurphy is the greatest character ever conceived by an American novelist.

I love this book. No doubt about it. I don't get it when kids at my school say it is one of the worst books to read. I think it is absolutely genius. There is no other way to explain how I feel about this book.

Just to add, the Penguin "Great Books of the Century" edition is the best to get. Not only is it a beautiful(shiny) cover with an illustration of Chief Bromden, it is a sturdy and light copy. Plus the text is well spaced (unlike the mass market edition; the text in that edition hurts my eyes, it's so small and cramped). A good edition to keep of a great book.

Of course, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an excellent book, one everyone should read but don't buy the paperback. The print job is sadly lacking with it's variations in the ink from dark to light, poor paper quality, and tiny jammed together font size. My fingers smeared the ink while I was trying to hold the little book open. Better to find this at a used book sale or yard sale.

This is a worthwhile read because the characters and the ending are so terrific. When you read about the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, you can just FEEL the tension between them as if you were one of the patients sitting in the dayroom. I think Nurse Ratched is described incorrectly, though. I don't find her cruel so much as ignorant and inhumane. She doesn't go out of the way to torture the patients or anything, but as a nurse (one who helps and tries to cure patients) she doesn't treat the patients, or consider them as human beings at all. To her, they are just walking disease, no personalities or desires, just "sick loonies." McMurphy, although clearly a simple hooligan and not a mental patient, may be an instigator, but he sees that these "patients" are more than their diseases. They are men just as those out in the street, but emasculated by an ogre. He is regarded so highly because he put the "men" back in the men, which Kesey's definition of manhood is boozing and womanizing. He shows the patients that they aren't as sick as they may be told to think and that they have what it takes to be out in the real world. Even though the book came off, to me, as a tad misogynistic (the women in this book are either soul-suckers, i.e. Nurse Ratched, Harding's wife... or are loose floozys), the David/Goliath struggle in this book is fantastic and the ending is the icing on the cake. Great book.

This story is sad and filled with lessons to learn , but at times it can be a scream. Of course (considering where the story take place in a so called "mental home") there are so many different personalitys to look forward to reading.

Some of the events that take place can be frightening to an extent , and other times I found myself smiling as I read. the way the author describes EVERYTHING is just remarkable and i really enjoyed it. From the setting to the charactors to the escapes to the evil nurses to the theme tl even the friendships and shocking discoveries McMurphay makes you get a satisfying well written story.

The end wasn't a let down either. It was almost flawless but really sad.

I recommend this book to anyone because it's for anyone 14- and up

I recently read "One Flew Over THe Cuckoos Nest" by Ken Kesey. "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" is one of the best books i have ever read. The book is about life inside a phsyciatric hosptal which in this case isn't very nice. The narrator is chief a Native American who is supposedly dumb and deff. The chief is considered a "lifer" meanin the hospital has considered him un helpable. He will have to stay at the hospital for the rest of his life which is unfair. The nurse in charge is Nurse Ratchett who no one dares to challenge. She is an extremely mean person who has no care for the patients and treats them horribly. Everyday they live the same daily routine which they don't like. This doesn't matter though because no one challenges Nurse Ratchett. The turning point of the story is when a new patient is admitted, Mcormick who faked insanity to get out of prison. Mcormick gets much more then he bargained for. The author does a great job of deeply describing the characters leaving nothing out. Reading "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" i felt like i was there. Mcormick is the best character in the book and one of the best in any book i have ever read. He has a very unique personality which at times is hard to figure out, which makes him very interesting. This book takes you deep into the mind of Chief and the other characters. The best thing about the book is that one minute it's funny and the next it's sad. It's very weird one minute you're cracking up the next your feeling bad for the hardships the patients endure. The patients go through severe mental and physicall abuse. Chief goes through mental abuse especially as no one knows he's not illiterate and def. I would recommend this book to just about anyone it's one of my favorites.

did you see the movie?no?well ok then ill tell you.this is the book that made ken kesey[hippie extrordinairre] famous and funded his acid tests.anyhow,the movie follows the book quite well which is good.its all about this guy who fakes insanity in order to be released from a work farm and put into the funny farm.only its not so funny there and he decides to rebel.it will take you through a range of emotions from hysteria to balling your eyes out.its a great book everbody should read.

Why does a certain book become a classic? Sometimes being a besteller is the key, sometimes it is awarded prestigious prizes by literary commitees, and sometimes a film adaptation cements its fate. All this is true for "One Flew over a Cuckoo's Nest"; however, the fact that it has contributed a phrase into the common vernacular means it should definitely be required reading.

The story is quite compelling as we follow Chief Bromden's account of what happens in a Midwestern mental institution run by the infamous nurse "Ratched" when a spunky newcomer enters the scene and attempts to challenge authority. The narrator has pretended to be deaf and dumb for many years, and he has been able to act as "a fly on the wall" in various situations. The new guy on the block is McMurphy, a flamboyant, boisterous and randy jailbird with a temper to match his red hair. However, even though McMurphy is the delightful protagonist and provides the most fun for the reader, it is Nurse Rathced who remains the most memorable character - not much unlike Big Brother in 1984 (another must-read novel that has provided a whole set of commonly used terminology).

The language is cleverly descriptive - the sound of the starched nurse's uniform is "like a frozen canvas being folded", and the feel of the institution atmosphere is quite haunting. However, I did feel that it often became a bit "wordy" at times in the sense that most everything was spelled out. There is little subtlety, and even the symbolic attempts are a bit heavy-handed. The notion that McMurphy can be seen as a Christ-like figure who rebels against the establishment and ultimately must pay the ultimate price for his followers seems a little bit contrived when the "treatment" table is described as a cross and the electric sparks are likened to a crown of thorns. However, the story as a whole, greatly makes up for the occasional overstatements.

The other aspect I found quite fascinating was the portrayal of race and the accompanying stereotypes. It has an honest narrative feel unlike many modern novels where it is quite rare to have a sympathtic character such as Chief Bromden matter-of-factly use what must be considered racial slurs. I often found the descriptions uncomfortable; however, I appreciate the unpolished presentation. Like other elements in the story, it seems dated, yet true to the historical context.

I recommend the book both as a chilling account of outdated psyciatric "treatment" ideology, as well as for the chilling, yet sharp descriptions of an unforgettable villain...

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a wonderful example of a classic. I'm not going to go into the whole story in this review, I'm sure most of you readers have heard enough of it. I'm not reviewing the EDITION of this book, either...I'm just reviewing the story, which is nothing short of EXCELLENT. Every part was great but the end just moved me to tears (I hope I'm not giving too much away). I was made to read it at school, and at first I had my doubts, but how I regret that now!! It's too good!! If you haven't read it already, do so now!!!!

Ken Kesey's, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, illustrates the fight for control between two powerful characters. Nurse Ratched is a dominant female in the novel and due to her position and job she requires control over others. She has authority over the patients in the mental institute until McMurphy becomes a patient and poses as a threat to Nurse Ratched's ultimate control. Nurse Ratched's presence in the novel displays her sense of power and dominance over the other characters and McMurphy's attitute and personality go against her traits. Previous to reading the novel, I had already seen the film version and had preconceived ideas of how the characters would be portrayed in text. I feel the power is clearly shown in the movie as well as the novel and the struggle for complete power between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy for ultimate dominance and control is equally represented.

This is an incredibly powerful book, especially when you consider that it was at least loosely based on Kesey's own experiences in a mental hospital while participating in government drug experiments. As someone who had watched the movie before reading the book, I was at first surprised that it was from the Chief's perspective; what would that do to the story? Well, it made it very, very intense. Bromden, or "Chief", is incredibly observant, and even his hallucinations tell the story in a very real way - he sees everything as mechanical and calculating, and believes that not only the hospital but the in fact entire world Outside is a giant "Combine," which is set against people. His account of McMurphy's battle against Big Nurse is very insightful, from beginning to end; and of course the end is incredibly powerful and disturbing, and shows a great deal of strength of character in Bromden that has begun to emerge in the course of the book during his friendship with McMurphy. Really an amazing read, and worth it.

I found tihs book very intriguing especially with the multiple themes that were repeatedly used throughout the book. The most important theme I discovered was the faint line between reality and imagination. Constantly, this line is blurred as the attendants and nurses at the mental institution turn perfectly normal and sane patients into the insane. Particularly Nurse Ratched, she carries reality in her viewpoint and intends to change whatever she imagines in her mind into reality. Furthermore, the overbearing dominance of Nurse Rathched also emphasizes the importance of females in this book. The females in this book tend to carry a very strong presence among the males and belittle them to the point where they become extremely insecure about their sexuality. Constantly, new themes are brought up throughout the book, which is what I find most interesting. Themes lead to more themes, which leads to even more themes and all together the motifs create a fantastic book that I highly recommend.

The novel moves rather slowly in the beginning, but when the character R.P. McMurphy arrives, it begins to move more quickly. Kesey succeeds in describing the scene and the emotions of the characters and the events that take place in the novel. The descriptions are so vivid that it makes the reader feel as if they are there with the other patients looking on. The reader is also able to feel what the characters feel through the descriptions. The Big Nurse's emotions and expressions are especially emphasized. Her coldness, fakeness, and domination over the patients are conveyed throughout the novel and are really brought out when she is provoked by McMurphy.
The novel is narrated by one of the patients in the asylum, Chief Bromden. Because he is a patient in the mental institution, it is vital for the reader to realize that and not believe everything he says. Bromden is in the institution for a reason and so reality and his imagination are mixed together to form his reality.
The main theme of the novel is the struggle for power between authority and normal people, between woman and men.

After being told by one person after another that Ken Kessey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a terrific book, I decided to read it for myself. The first several pages of the novel started off a little slow because I was unsure of where the novel was going, but very shortly after I found myself becoming more interested and attached to the novel. Furthermore, towards the end of the book, I found myself feeling like I knew the characters and felt almost a bond with the character McMurphy, as well as some of the other characters.

The novel begins with the main character, McMurphy, who has moved from a prison to a mental hospital. The reasons for him coming to the mental hospital have nothing to do with him being insane, but rather that he is trying to escape the terrible prison work farm that he was in before. Upon arriving to the mental hospital, McMurphy learns about Nurse Ratched who uses force, lobotomy, and "electroshock therapy" to control the patients. Because Nurse Ratched is an evil lady, the patients of the institution do not speak out against her because they are scared of the power that she carries, the power that she has to hurt them, and the fear that they carry about not being in conformity with all of the other patients. The novel continues to show McMurphy's desire to disobey Nurse Ratched's authoritarian control as there are several incidents that occur while he is staying there that jeopardizes his life, and ultimately ends up jeopardizing his friends life. During his stay at the institution, McMurphy meets many friends, and teaches some of them how to stand up against the evil nurse and how to show their own individuality. Throughout the novel many people, including some of the guards, begin looking up to McMurphy and the way he never becomes submissive to Nurse Ratched's control. The novel keeps the reader intact at all times, with an urge of following McMurphy's every move. The main themes of the novel deal with ones freedom, as well as, the power that conformity has on taking over a person's life.

Ken Kessey's style of writing is remarkable. Although the novel is sometimes difficult to read and has many underlying themes and messages about mankind (that can sometimes get confusing), Kessey's writing is beautiful and allows the reader to enjoy the book to its full extent. Also, the book teaches a great deal about human nature and the way that mankind acts in specific situations. I highly recommend this novel to others, for its strong impact that it had on me and in addition, the way that it made me think about the issue of conformity and freedom. In the beginning, I could not seem to understand why many people recommended this novel but after reading it, I just want to tell everyone about it so that they can have the pleasure of reading it, and hopefully have a similar experience to the one I had.

The $7.99 Signet edition of "Cuckoo's Nest" is a terrible printing job. It looks like it was done on an 18th century press that was running low on ink. Spend a couple of bucks more and get a decent copy of this fabulous book. Signet has a lot of nerve producing such a poor quality product.

Okay, so it's difficult to read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest without being stuck with the image of Jack Nicholson as R.P. McMurphy. Sometimes it seems to me that in this day and age novels hardly seem to have any value by their own right; the luckiest of novels, like this one, get good cinematic adaptations. The rest get bad ones. That makes me just a bit sad.

Still, try to overlook everything you know about the story and just read this, and you'll find a masterpiece that is very unique and separate from the wonderful movie. Most importantly, the narrator and protagonist here is not McMurphy but "Chief Broom" Bromden; that in itself gives anyone who saw the film a fascinating new angle on the story. Bromden is a man who pretends to be deaf and dumb to be left alone by the staff in the mental ward in which he's hospitalized. Through this self-imposed solitude Bromden is a highly astute and accurate observer, and he gives the reader a full and personal account of the arrival of the rebellious new inmate R.P. McMurphy and his war against the management and especially the Big Nurse Ratched; through his ominous dreams and hallucinations he illuminates the nature of life in the ward, and the effect McMurphy's presence has on its routines and inhabitants.

Nurse Ratched is hardly a secondary player in this story; she's as central and fascinating a character as Bromden and McMurphy, and the tension between her and the uproarious Irishman makes the novel tick. Once again, brilliant casting and acting - Louise Fletcher as the nurse - made Ratched as well as McMurphy a timeless cinematic character in addition to a literary one. Still, Kesey's presentation of Nurse Ratched through Bromden's simplistic eyes tells you everything you need to know about the woman and her motivation; it also tells you from the very beginning what will happen at the ending, an ending that is inevitable as it is shocking and surprising. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful and captivating read from start to finish, and a difficult and harrowing one too; and if there's some comic relief in there - and there is, rest assured; the novel is often remarkably funny, filled with quirky characters and absurd, nonsensical dialogue - it serves only to make the rest of it all the more powerful. It's a book that's often paired up with A Clockwork Orange as two essential and representative novels of the 1960's, and it's not just because they both got terrific cinematic versions.

Okay, so it's difficult to read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest without being stuck with the image of Jack Nicholson as R.P. McMurphy. Sometimes it seems to me that in this day and age novels hardly seem to have any value by their own right; the luckiest of novels, like this one, get good cinematic adaptations. The rest get bad ones. That makes me just a bit sad.

Still, try to overlook everything you know about the story and just read this, and you'll find a masterpiece that is very unique and separate from the wonderful movie. Most importantly, the narrator and protagonist here is not McMurphy but "Chief Broom" Bromden; that in itself gives anyone who saw the film a fascinating new angle on the story. Bromden is a man who pretends to be deaf and dumb to be left alone by the staff in the mental ward in which he's hospitalized. Through this self-imposed solitude Bromden is a highly astute and accurate observer, and he gives the reader a full and personal account of the arrival of the rebellious new inmate R.P. McMurphy and his war against the management and especially the Big Nurse Ratched; through his ominous dreams and hallucinations he illuminates the nature of life in the ward, and effect McMurphy's presence has on its routines and inhabitants.

Nurse Ratched is hardly a secondary player in this story; she's as central and fascinating a character as Bromden and McMurphy, and the tension between her and the uproarious Irishman makes the novel tick. Once again, brilliant casting and acting - Louise Fletcher as the nurse - made Ratched as well as McMurphy a timeless cinematic in addition to a literary one. Still, Kesey's presentation of Nurse Ratched through Bromden's simplistic eyes tells you everything you need to know about the woman and her motivation; it also tells you from the very beginning what will happen at the ending, an ending that is inevitable as it is shocking and surprising. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful and captivating read from start to finish, and a difficult and harrowing one too; and if there's some comic relief in there - and there is, rest assured; the novel is often remarkably funny, filled with quirky characters and absurd, nonsensical dialogue - it serves only to make the rest of it all the more powerful. It's a book that's often paired up with A Clockwork Orange as two essential and representative novels of the 1960's, and it's not just because they both got terrific cinematic versions.

You don't need me to tell you how great this book is. It is a nice easy read, entertaining, but also a bold display of technical mastery of the novelistic form. I shouldn't like it actually. I spend a lot of time dispelling myths about the practice of psychiatry, myths promulgated in part by the popularity of both the novel and movie. They might not have been complete myths at the time, I suppose. We are told that Ken Kesey wrote the book while working at a psychiatric hospital, and in fact gave himself a treatment of ECT in order to write accurately about it. What a sport. I don't want to waste time on this side-issue or sound defensive, but do feel obligated to say that ECT, as used today, is an extremely humane and effective treatment for certain patients, particularly those that do not respond well to medications. It is not used punitively. Okay, that's out of the way.

It is hard not to get swept up by the charisma of the Randle Patrick McMurphy, the protagonist who resists the bureaucratic order, who draws out and rejects hypocrisy, who demonstrates that laughter and joy are not only therapeutic but necessary for emotional survival.

Nurse Ratched's power derives from the institutional ammunition dump. Tranquilizers, stifling psychiatric argot, seclusion, and sadistic orderlies, all creating the illusion of harmony (sterile harmony, but harmony of a sort). RPM's power comes from vitality, humor, impulsiveness, aggression, and brusque candor, amid the other libidinal trappings. In the end, though Nurse Ratched has proved McMurphy to be "simply a man and no more," though she is able to reduce him to vegetative wilt, she has not won the battle. McMurphy's spirit was never broken. He was just a person, not a deity, not a superpower. He had all the weaknesses and limitations as anyone else, but he refused to be governed by those limitations. His humor and courage remained intact and had infiltrated the culture of the unit.

The legendary circumstances in which this novel was written, well-known and well-characterized in multiple other forums, only add to the thrill of this book. We have a novel mythologizing a guerrilla attack on societal conformity and hypocrisy, and this novel in and of itself was part of the leading edge of a culture attack. And the novelist himself becomes a McMurphy in the merry prankster assault. Nice foreshadowing, both internal and external to the binding.

Also, by the way, I owe a personal debt, though a remorseful one, to this book. Back in a day when I indulged in more vices, I used to keep novices in the poker game- long after they were exposed and disheartened- with a paraphrase: you can't quit now, "if you quit now, how are you gonna win your money back?"

Great book. Buy it, read it. If you haven't re-read it recently, what are you waiting for? Marc Libman told you.

I read a considerable amount of reviews about this book before deciding to get my hands on it, the whole psychiatric story thing did not really sounded like a ting I would enjoy. But surprise - and a pleasant one - this book captures the mundane world view on the mentally handicapped in a beautiful and very thought provoking way. I had never given it much thought that society label's psychiatric patients and society decides when, how and what to cure.

The happy gambler and convicted conman, R.P. McMurphy, tricks himself into a psychiatric hospital, because he has found out that these places offers a much more pleasant stay than a jail work camp. He is meet by worn down shells of men, lacking happiness, embarrassed by there sexual desires and without any drive. He quickly discovers that the head nurse and here staff is as much responsible for these weak men's condition as are there psychiatric disease. The rest of the story is a tour de force of McMurphy's one man battle for freeing these men. A battle which he ultimately succeeds in but end up paying the price himself.

A grotesque, provoking and ultimately tragic story filled with gripping characters and written in a highly witty language. In short a masterpiece and one I will shurely read again.

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.

I would go on and on and on about this one if I didn't have so much work to do, but listen, it wouldn't benefit me or you, you should just read this book.

I love the movie, my favorite movie ever, I saw the movie first, I'm a huge fan of Jack Nicholson in the role of Randall McMurphy....

The book is better.
The book is different.
Read the book.

P.S. the book actually takes place in 1953, not the sixties, or seventies like everyone is saying. A lot of things were different in '53 than they were in the late sixties.

Aren't we all insane? To me labeling something as "sane" is a waste of breath. The entire world and every being in it has same crazy truth hidden by layers of "normalcy." We judge those who are insane because we do not want to see the human spirit unmasked. Nurse Ratchet has worked tersely to recover those who have removed society's bindings of normal. I really liked this novel but it was more the ideas that it questioned that I enjoyed than the actual writing.
I envy Mac Murphy for his bravery and confidence to challenge authority. I wish I had the audacity to do the same, to pull back my veil and reveal my true insanity. Overall I think this novel deserves praise for its own audacity and ability to challenge literary normalcy.

I had seen and loved the movie but never read the book. I have to say the movie is one of the best adaptions of a book I have ever seen. Jack Nicolson was born to play McMurphy! This is now one of my all time favorite books and movies, dont know another book movie combo I can rate this highly?

Let me start off by saying this book is absolutely incredible. I had to read it for a college English course and, upon finishing, I was left wondering why the hell I had waited so long to read it. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying this book. I also saw the movie that, while it was good, can never compare to the book. I've kept the book so that I can reread it in the future. I can honestly say I had moments where I was laughing so hard my face turned red but I also had moments where I was crying so much I could no longer read the print on the pages.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Rarely do you find a book, maybe only once in a lifetime you find a book this good. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is so good that I have never seen the movie, because although I'm sure Nicholson did a great job, the crazy red-headed Scottsman and the giant Indian are forever engraved in my head. It's amazing that a book can be so good, it's like you actually new the characters at some point in your life. That's what Kesey was able to accomplish, and I thank him for this rare piece of a literary masterpiece.

Ken Kesey sees no good end in sight in the battle of the sexes. This novel, set in a mental ward, depicts a group of powerless and despairing men controlled by a feminine society personified in the domineering figure of Big Nurse. The story's hero, a fast-talking manly man named Randle Patrick McMurphy, whose assertiveness is his sanity, enters this world to liberate the mental patients and restore their lost manhood through such activities as deep sea fishing, substance abuse, and sex with prostitutes. Masculinity in the novel is usually defined in terms of sexual prowess, referred to as "whambam." A man's maleness is proportional to his whambam.

The mental ward is clearly a microcosm depicting the wider world, in which encroaching technology and bureaucracy succeed in elevating women at the price of men's masculinity, so that the men of the story are left without a place, able to find refuge nowhere but in their own psychoses, which ironically play them into the hands of the System, the Establishment, or as Kesey's narrator calls it, "the Combine." This notion of a need for wildness and untamability as a core necessity for men's mental health is a prominent theme in American thinking, derived in part from the concept of "frontier," a place of untamed wilderness where men can escape the effeminizing effect of civilization. Since the disappearance of the frontier, this sense of masculinity lost has, in some circles, grown more frantic. Kesey injects his modern myth into this situation and succeeds in producing a dynamic and fascinating, if grim, story.

There is little hope for a happy ending. This battle of the sexes, as Kesey depicts it, can end only with the complete emasculation and disempowerment of the male or the humiliation and subjugation of the female. A macabre vision indeed. While the face of menacing authority is consistently female, Kesey appears to cringe on occasion from the full import of his work, producing a few likable female characters and one criticism of the negative way a certain character treats his wife. Nonetheless, these brief sections hardly mitigate the novel's forceful theme. No notion is ever suggested of male/female cooperation, let alone equality.

It is evident that this book has resonated with a surprising number of readers, given its distinct anti-feminist tone. Undoubtedly this is the result of Kesey's masterful prose, his provocative ideas, his endearing characters, and his superb blend of comedy and tragedy. This is an enduring work, and a thoughtful one, and well worth reading.

As many, I learned first of this story thru the excellent Milos Forman movie. My dad had the book at home so I decided to read it. I was on my early teens and I still remember it like it was yesterday. It stirs a lot of emotions and makes you think on the way our society deals with mental illness.

I have read it again now twenty years later and the feelings and emotions are still there.

Timeless.

I had to read this book in my Final Year at High School back in 1978 and I didn't like it then and I still don't like it now. It concerns a former prison inmate by the name of Randall McMurphy who cons his way into a Mental Institution thinking that his life will be a lot easier there. Then he has to listen endlessly to the complaints and whining of his fellow patients who have the choice to walk out anytime but they choose to stay and be subject Big Nurse's unusual form of Therapy which McMurphy describes as a "Pecking Party".Gee. These guys all look pretty normal to me compared to some of my old teachers!!!I give this book 5 stars because for some reason my English Teacher decided it was worth reading then 60 students all had to go out and buy a copy which no doubt would have made the author very happy!!!

As is usually the case when I see a movie before I read the book, I couldn't help but picture Jack Nicholson when I read about Randle Patrick McMurphy. Considering how good the movie is, though, this isn't a bad thing. My only complaint about this book is that I didn't read it sooner. Hilarious, touching, infuriating, and haunting, this is the complete novel. Although the story is told from the point of view of Chief Bromden, a supposedly deaf and dumb half-Native America mental patient at an asylum in Oregon, this is really the story about McMurphy and how he changes the lives of the patients around him as he competes in a game of wit and will with Nurse Ratched. It's a classic clash between authority and rebellion, structure and whimsy, and mindless traditionalism and common sense. What's most amazing is that Kesey has created a handful of unforgettable characters in this one story, but has balanced them so well that they serve as perfect complements for each other's idiosyncrasies, and none of them overshadows the others. I loved every page of this book. It makes my top ten. I'd give it seven stars out of five if I could.

How many works of art have three hit incarnations?

This was an outstanding novel, an outstanding movie, and is an outstanding play as well.

Randle McMurphy seems like the kind of boisterous rowdy that you could love or hate after meeting him in a bar. He is full of vitality and humor, and is never afraid to stand up to any authority he perceives as being wrong-headed.

When he's sentenced to an asylum, and comes into conflict with the wonderfully wicked Nurse Ratched, a war ensures that escalates beyond all reason. Ratched is determined to preserve her dictatorial authority over the ward, and McMurphy is equally determined to rebel.

The story line also features a cast of unforgettable supporting characters, from the strong and stoic Chief Bromdem to the pathetically vulnerable Billy Bibbit. Their background noise, and their status as pawns in the ongoing chess match between McMurphy and Ratched, breathe life into the play and elevate it above other plays.

While the issue of patient abuse in mental wards has long since become old news (thanks in part to the novel), the universal issues of human dignity and compassion are what ultimately makes this play tick.

I recommend this play, both to prospective readers and to theater folks trying to decide on their next production. This is a story that doesn't get stale.