Cheap One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Book) (Ken Kesey) Price

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Customer Reviews of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The setting: a mental hospital in Portland, Oregon, in the 1950s. The terrified, ill-treated inmates cower under the evil Nurse Ratched, who is all-seeing, all-controlling. Enter the hero, Randall Patrick McMurphy, a brawling, gambling womaniser who, as his initials suggest, is there to induce a revolution. The slowly escalating conflict is played out in a simple four-part structure, building towards an inevitable and moving climax. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is narrated in the first person by Chief Bromden, a half-Indian thought by all to be deaf-mute, and his extended flashback of events allows Kesey to mix reality and hallucinations to brilliant effect. By presenting the mental hospital, explicitly, as a microcosm of broader society, Kesey urges us to consider our own lives in the light of the events he describes.

Its simple structure belies the fact that "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is a feast of allegory: of good versus evil, man versus machine, sexual freedom versus repression; of McMurphy himself as humorously subversive Christ figure, as bringer of fertility, and many more - and watch out for the white whale shorts and stuttering Billy, "Faulknerian brain burning", and even some hidden rhymes at the end of part 3!

But spare us the half-baked Freudian interpretations which Kesey himself so roundly mocks. And pay no heed to the charges of sexism and racism levelled at Kesey's novel: his playful plotting and comic-strip characters make such criticism futile. Kesey balances it beautifully: amidst the ribald humour, there is just enough realism to keep us engrossed; and this reviewer little doubts that the systematic cruelty and dehumanisation practised by Ratched and her aides is commonplace in our prisons, mental hospitals and wherever else we lock away the "undesirables".

Indeed, it isn't surprising to find that Kesey worked in a mental hospital before writing "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and his acquaintances there filtered into the novel; some a little too obviously, perhaps, viz. the (originally female) "Public Relations" who sued Kesey in order to get her character changed. Kesey also tried out electric shock treatment firsthand, and was part of a government program testing psychoactive drugs, his experiences with LSD forming the basis of Bromden's electrifying hallucinations. Now, although Kesey himself may be pretty wacky, he has no personal experience of schizophrenia, and his portrayal of mental illness and its causes has been justly criticised as simplistic. But "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is not, primarily, meant as a contribution to psychiatric therapy, and criticism of it on these grounds is somewhat wide of the mark. We should be glad that Kesey successfully attempted a greater task: to write an anti-authoritarian novel of immense power, forcing us to question the "Combine" seeking to control us all.

Kesey's next book "Sometimes A Great Notion" (1964) is more subtle: a long, complex, involving tale set in an Oregon logging town. Fans of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" should perhaps first try "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe, in which Kesey himself challenges 1960s America with some crazy escapades of his own, thumbing his nose at authority in the same spirit, one senses, as his hero Mr McMurphy.

A Masterpiece of Social Criticism
The longing to be free is an inherent human characteristic. So is distrust of authority. Author Ken Kesey weaves both of these essential human components into his masterpiece, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

The setting of this novel is an insane asylum, darkly and fearfully portrayed by Chief Bromden, the book's narrator. For it is within the wall's of this harsh, bleak institution that Authority--coined the "Combine" by the Chief--controls, directs, and manipulates every aspect of the lives of the patients. Nurse Ratched, who controls the Chief's ward, is the ultimate authority figure--a menacing, cold, callous, larger-than-life authoritarian who will stop at nothing to make sure the "Combine" stays firmly in power. Kesey, through the Chief's narrative, creates a gloomy, hopeless world, a world where the facility's patients have nothing to look forward to except the inexorable clutches of insanity.

Into this world appears Randle Patrick McMurphy. This character isn't insane, he's simply trying to beat a work farm rap. More importantly, McMurphy is a strong, self-willed individual; instantly, the "Combine" senses a threat to its control. The story subsequently becomes a battle of wills: McMurphy's relentless defiance against Nurse Ratched and the Establishment. Granted, McMurphy achieves a series of victories, but in the end, Authority prevails. Or does it?

Kesey's allegorical tribute to the indomitable human spirit is brilliant, fascinating, and timeless. His negative social critique of authority unchecked makes ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST one of the literary masterpieces of the 20th Century, a novel most enthusiastically recommended.
--D. Mikels

One of the best books ever
Easily my favorite book. There are 4 or 5 characters that are so interesting that they could have written an entire book about them alone. The book never fails to surprise you, right up til the very end and has a good message about living life to the fullest.