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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

4.12 · rating details · 96,340 ratings · 2,609 reviews

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who reso...more

Paperback, 281 pages

Published December 31st 2002 by Penguin Classics (first published 1962)

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Aug 04, 2011

K.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Time 100, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: time-100, 1001-core, hospital-drama

"Ting. Tingle, tingle, tremble toes,
She’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts ‘em inna pens
Wire blier, limber lock, three geese inna flock
One flew east, one flew west
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
O-U-T- spells out… goose swoops down and plucks you out."

The title of the book was taken from a nursery rhyme but the first 3 and last lines were from the book, i.e., thoughts inside the head of the schizophrenic narrator, Chief Bromden as the nursery rhyme was ...more

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Feb 03, 2008

Ann rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: justdamngood, literatureandfilm, good-bad-guys-bad-good-guys

This is one of the most fantastic novels of individualism pitted against the vast depersonalization of industrial society ever written. Ken Kesey has an extraordinary grasp of the challenges faced by us all in modern civilization, and he is able to convey his ideas through some of the richest imagery I have ever read. My favorite line in the novel, when Chief Bromden (the paranoid schizophrenic narrator) says, "But it's the truth, even if it didn't happen," sets the reader up from th...more

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Nov 16, 2008

Samara Steele rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Last night, at about 2 am, I finished 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey.

I lay awake for a long time afterward, watching the bars of light on the ceiling, holding my eyes open until the pupils dilated enough to shrink the light, then I'd blink and have to start all over.

Finally I sat up and turned on the lights.

The book had done something to me. Like it'd punched me in the face and said, "Do something, you idiot!"

So I gat...moreLast night, at about 2 am, I finished 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey.

I lay awake for a long time afterward, watching the bars of light on the ceiling, holding my eyes open until the pupils dilated enough to shrink the light, then I'd blink and have to start all over.

Finally I sat up and turned on the lights.

The book had done something to me. Like it'd punched me in the face and said, "Do something, you idiot!"

So I gathered up a bunch of sentimental shit from around my apartment, stuffed it into a backpack, hiked across town, and threw it off the Morrison Bridge.

The backpack made a loud 'thunk' when it hit the water. Like a body falling from a building. I watched it float downstream: a tiny dot weaving through the rippling reflections of the city lights, until it finally sank below the surface.

I tell you this story because, in a way, throwing that bag of stuff off the bridge is the best analysis I can make of Kesey's book.

So much has been said before, what else can I say?

Chuck Palahniuk summed it up nicely in the forward for the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. He explains that "'Cuckoo's Nest' tells the same story as the most popular novels of the last century," it focuses on the modern paradox of trying to be human in the well-oiled machine of a capitalist democracy, where you must be either a savior or a slave. Palahniuk points out that 'Cuckoo's Nest' shows us a third option: "You can create and live in a new system...not rebelling against or carving into your culture, but creating a vision of your own and working to make that option real."

Is there anything else left to say?

Reading this book is like being inside Fight Club. You take punch after punch, but keep crawling back for more because it's making you feel things you didn't know you could feel--and as long as you stay conscious, and don't give up or let your eyes glaze over, this book will creep into the very edges of your consciousness and give you new words for the questions you always wanted to ask, show you how to draw a map of your own, and give you a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, it is possible to rise above the machine of society and become human again.(less)

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Mar 02, 2010

Colin Miller rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: novels, top-ten-to-recommend

Randle Patrick McMurphy might just be the greatest character in the history of literature.

As the central figure to Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy’s flawed charm explodes off the page in his battle against the dreaded Nurse Ratched, a stiff, tyrannical woman who uses subtle means (such as shame in group therapy sessions) to control mental patients without them realizing they’re being controlled at all. Set in an all-male mental health facility, the novel is tol...more

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Aug 29, 2007

David Holste rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone.

One of the many things I took from this book (my favorite book) is that although the human spirit can be crushed, it is impossible to kill.

Written by the late Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoos's Nest is a dark satire that takes place in a mental institution during the late 1950's. The protagonist, R.P. McMurphy, is a fast talking con man that gets himself committed in order to escape doing time on a prison work-farm. Once inside the institution his free-wheeling nature collides wi...more

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Nov 30, 2008

Klucky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: novels, general-gender

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. The writing and imagery are superb and I always love a "down with tyrannical overloads, generic living, and medicalization" moral, but its other lesson leaves me cringing. In the basic knowledge I have of Ken Kesey, the book ultimately seems very misogynistic and anti-feminist. I'm all for a gender balance, but this book botches up the entire process in a method that purposely lacks tongue-in-cheek flair.

Basically, the plot s...moreI have a love/hate relationship with this book. The writing and imagery are superb and I always love a "down with tyrannical overloads, generic living, and medicalization" moral, but its other lesson leaves me cringing. In the basic knowledge I have of Ken Kesey, the book ultimately seems very misogynistic and anti-feminist. I'm all for a gender balance, but this book botches up the entire process in a method that purposely lacks tongue-in-cheek flair.

Basically, the plot seems to involve men mentally castrated by a domineering woman who could just as easily be labeled "Bitch" as she could "Big Nurse." Enter main character--who, in my tattered, yellow-paged, 70's copy, directly labels him as "the hero of [the book]" on the back cover--a man that pretty much shakes the men up to the supposed feminization of American culture and how it's destroying their identities as males. (Read here: a huge characterization of the male ego is to dominate the female with opposites all around.)

How is this man so easily labeled a hero? Have we forgotten he has been charged and convicted, among other things, with rape of a female minor? And the main reason he's in the asylum is to skimp out on his prison sentence? How is that "masculine," if I am to continue on with the stereotypes the book itself perpetuates--and yet backpedals when necessary? Why do we consider him the "main character" when the story is being told in the first person by a Native American? Can you not be a man--a hero--unless you're white? Or perhaps it was because he was so docile?

In the end, the supposed hero of the book teaches men that, to cast off impending feminization, one must be violent towards women; muscle them out of the way, destroy them if they're relentless. If you are unable or fearful of doing so, you're better off killing yourself than being only half of a man. Oh, but wait, there's a special lesson for the ladies themselves, too; To steer clear of the eventual rape, assault, murder, or torture--and yes, it will happen--simply sexualize yourself. That's the only way to be safe and--isn't it convenient--securely a woman. So much for individualization and going against cultural norms, gentlemen. You're a dime a dozen.

Before we glorify such a book, we have to sit down and figure out what exactly masculinity is outside of a cultural setting before we can complain that culture itself is taking it away. Are we to allow a cowardly, violent, "looking-out-for-Number-One" individual give us this definition, fair and balanced?

It's one thing for him to say it, it's another for us to listen.(less)

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Sep 20, 2008

Andrew rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: one-book-per-week-08-09

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” is about the defiant and aggressive Randle McMurphy, who arrives in an insane asylum run by the strict and inflexible “Big Nurse”. At first, it seems that he faked being insane so that he could get out of a prison work camp. His personality and his will are so at odds with the culture of the ward that he gets into an ever increasing power struggle with Big Nurse, while at the same time inspiring the other patients in a way that they have not felt in years. De...more“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” is about the defiant and aggressive Randle McMurphy, who arrives in an insane asylum run by the strict and inflexible “Big Nurse”. At first, it seems that he faked being insane so that he could get out of a prison work camp. His personality and his will are so at odds with the culture of the ward that he gets into an ever increasing power struggle with Big Nurse, while at the same time inspiring the other patients in a way that they have not felt in years. Despite being an unkempt, loudmouth brawler who defies authority any chance he gets, Randle is compassionate towards his peers and wants the other patients to see how Big Nurse and the system that she represents are hurting them more than helping.

One of the main themes of the book is about the nature of insanity and sanity (I'm going to use these outdated words, because that's what's used in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”). Despite years of research and well developed diagnostic criteria, insanity is impossibly difficult to operationally define perfectly. Go ahead, try to do it. Do you define it based on how uncommon something is? Based on threat to self or others? Based on the subjective distress of the patient? Any of these definitions have serious limitations. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” we see dozens of characters in an insane asylum, and I found myself wondering which of them I would actually consider to be insane. Randle surely isn't but this becomes more and more questionable as time passes. Big Nurse frequently reminds the patients at most of them are there because they have trouble adjusting to the outside world. How many of them are non-conformists who march to the beat of a different drummer than the rest of society? The fact that many of them are at the asylum voluntarily makes this an even more interesting question; they don't fit into society but have enough desire to do so that they are willing to submit to severe restrictions on their freedom with the hope that they will adjust someday. (Interestingly, when he learns this, it makes Randle questions the sanity of the other patients for the first time). On the other hand, the ward staff, especially Big Nurse, are so sadistic that the reader will question whether the inmates are running the asylum. Notably, author Kesey includes one scene which takes place on another ward in which we are told that the authoritarian rule of Big Nurse is not common, which effectively steers “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” away from being a polemic against the psychiatric industry general.

The narrator of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” is on the most interesting and complex characters of the book. The story is told from the perspective of a selectively mute Native American, called by the patients and staff Chief Bromden, who is assumed to be deaf or so unintelligent that he is ignored by everyone but Randle. If you have ever seen the classic “Simpsons” episode with Micheal Jackson, you might remember the scene where Homer is introduced to the Chief and is told: “he's never said a word”. When Homer says “Hi Chief”, he responds “Hi Homer. Well, it's about time someone reached out!” That scene is hardly satire. Chief Bromden is intelligent and deliberately uses to his advantage the fact that he is ignored by almost everyone. This allows his to observe everything that happens on the ward, even much of what occurs in private behind closed doors. When Randle treats him like he does every other patient, Bromden eventually decides to start talking again. The scene where he slowly gets his voice back is one of the high points of the book. Bromden is paranoid and delusional, but I found myself wondering what was more insane, Bromden or the society that he was rejected by.

The characters and conflicts of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” are interesting and compelling. Since the battle between Randle and Big Nurse escalates throughout the story, I found the first few chapters of the book slow and a bit hard to get into. Once I got about a quarter of the way through the book, though, I couldn't put it down. This is especially true in the last fifty or sixty pages, when Randle and the staff are each using their strongest attacks against one another. Having seen the movie years ago I knew how the book would end, but this did nothing to dull the impact of the final scene. It may not be a happy ending, but it is satisfying and beautiful in its own way. There is no resolution of the questions raised about the nature of sanity and insanity, something that readers are left to figure out for themselves. It is gratifying to read this book today, forty-five years after it was written, when so much has now changed in our treatment of mental illness. But the big questions remain, and if you've ever pondered about the meaning of psychopathology and abnormal psychology, then “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” should be required reading for you.(less)

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Aug 31, 2010

Miss Kim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: end-pissed-me-off, 2010, keeper, favorites

Still excellent the second read....

I first read this about 20 years ago…I still think it is one of the best I’ve read. I’m not necessarily a fan of Mr. Kesey, but I do love the story he created here.

I won’t give a plot synopsis, as I know it’s been done many times. It is just a great read if you’ve got a few hours. Randle Patrick McMurphy and Chief Bromden are two of my favorite characters. The pov is from Chief, who is a patient in the asylum and it is kind of...more

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Jan 22, 2008

Eric Althoff rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: antifeminists/misogynists

No one in the hospital has met anyone quite like R.J. McMurphy, the roughneck Irishman who fakes mental illness in order to be transferred from a work-release program into an institution. His bravado and braggadoccio lands him into the hospital run by "Big Nurse" Ratched, a controlling and quietly domineering den hen who rules over her wards with calculated iciness. It is all but assured that she and McMurphy will clash, and do. But because their war is a foregone conclusion, the re...moreNo one in the hospital has met anyone quite like R.J. McMurphy, the roughneck Irishman who fakes mental illness in order to be transferred from a work-release program into an institution. His bravado and braggadoccio lands him into the hospital run by "Big Nurse" Ratched, a controlling and quietly domineering den hen who rules over her wards with calculated iciness. It is all but assured that she and McMurphy will clash, and do. But because their war is a foregone conclusion, the real heart of the story is how the other patients react to McMurphy's intrusion into their previously hermetically sealed world. They change with his influence, none moreso than the mysterious, mute "Chief," who silently stands by during most of the narrative but whose final actions will turn certain tragedy into curious redemption.

This is a fascinating, riveting book, culturally relevant for its unapologetically antifeminist stance, coming at its publication during the height of the women's movement. All of the males in the story are emasculated and controlled, in one form of another, by women, and it is only with the introduction of the alpha male McMurphy that the yoke of crushing matriarchy is at last bucked. He represents the collective phallus that has been taken away by the Big Nurse/society, a reassertion of unbridled masculinity in the face of a society that had swung so far in favor of matriarchal control.

Some will label this book as misogynistic, and they may have a point, not the least because Nurse Ratched is absolutely vile and the only other female characters are a pair of prostitutes. Furthermore, at a time when the culture at large has become "feminized," here is a story whose hope rests in a man who is absolutely resistant to female dominance, who is a drunk and profane and a gambler, and who seeks to conquer the mother figure first with active resistance and later through an aborted act of sexual violence.

The story ends the only way it can for McMurphy, who becomes as much a eunuch as his fellow patients, but what the silent Chief accomplishes with his final outward act gives an odd sense of hope that the rest of us can overcome the most controlling presence of all: that which is inside of us. (less)

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Jun 11, 2007

Shawn rated it

· review of another edition

This strikes me as so overrated, and disappointingly juvenile in its fundamental point of view -- "THEY" are out to get you, everyone in concert, just to spoil your good time. Ball-cutters are bad; hookers who fly their breasts free on a fishing boat are good; real men know the difference.

None of these characters seem real, and the concerns of the novel -- freedom, social limits, the individual and the machine -- are presented so stupidly, in such a high schoolish manner, ...more

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Oct 16, 2009

Cathy rated it

· review of another edition

Remarkable, flawed and a great story. I've read this book at 15 year intervals over my life and each reading affects me differently.

In the 70's I thought it was simply an anti-establishment book, and McMurphy was our hero fighting the system.

In the 90's, I started seeing a lot of cracks. McMurphy didn't seem so brillant when I realized he was incarcerated for statatory rape (or as he describes it to the doctor "she was asking for for it, if you know what I mean, D...more

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Jan 14, 2008

Marlena rated it

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Recommended to Marlena by: List of reccomended books

I read this book about a year ago, but I'm rereading now, and am once again struck by it's brilliance. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is and forever will be a classic, and for good reason; It is both terrifying and fascinating, and also, amid all of the fear and the stifling oppression, and the fate of each of the characters, it is also a novel of hope. It examines the social hierchies within a mental institution as a metaphor for the social hierchies that take place in the world, and, througho...more

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Mar 05, 2008

Natalie rated it

· review of another edition

I'd always wanted to read this book and somehow it had bypassed me until recently when I went on a buying binge at Borders with some holiday gift certificates. I had, of course, seen the movie before -- but ages ago. I didn't remember much about it (except, unfortunately, the ending), but I remembered enough to assume I would love the book. And, I did. It was funny, sweet, but has moments of darkness. It was interesting to delve into the minds and lives of the patients of a mental institution wh...moreI'd always wanted to read this book and somehow it had bypassed me until recently when I went on a buying binge at Borders with some holiday gift certificates. I had, of course, seen the movie before -- but ages ago. I didn't remember much about it (except, unfortunately, the ending), but I remembered enough to assume I would love the book. And, I did. It was funny, sweet, but has moments of darkness. It was interesting to delve into the minds and lives of the patients of a mental institution who actually don't seem so crazy, until they do. You can feel so frustrated reading the book, rooting for them to face their fears and demons, only to see them fail but, finding it invigorating to see them succeeding. And, it's fascinating to imagine yourself in that life of routine...the same thing daily, hourly, minute by minute. It would be enough to drive anyone insane let alone heal them. But then a breath of fresh air enters the ward in the guise of anti-hero and merry prankster, McMurphy.

I love how there are actually two heroes to the book with McMurphy's tale being told through the eyes of Cheif Bromden. Unfortunately, it was hard to read the McMurphy character without thinking of Jack Nicholsan's distinguishing voice reciting the words. I plan to re-watch the movie soon. From what I remember, the adaptation is pretty straight forward except for the fact there is none of Bromden's narration (which, having read the book seems to be a mistake but I'll leave that judgement until further viewing). The narration was the most interesting thing about the book. I loved to read the straight forward tale of what was actually happening blended with elements of Bromden's illusions of the fog and the machinery and bigness.

Most of all, I think this book's main accomplishment is that it introduces one of the top literary villains of all time -- Nurse Ratchet. Evil beyond evil of the worst kind because deep down she thinks she is doing good, power hungry and controlling in the subtlest of ways. With a thin smile she can ruin your day.(less)

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Jul 12, 2011

Jeffrey rated it

Shelves: toptenfiction

Who knew drug use resulted in behavior and experiences that are so similar to those of the mentally ill? Well, maybe it doesn't actually, but Ken Kesey sure makes it seem plausible. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest brings you into the Chief's world, a place where Nurse Ratchet's head inflates until it fills the hall and carries her down into his dormitory. Hallucinations intertwine with reality with no warning as to which is which throughout this novel, and while it is clear Chief is sick, i...more

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Nov 24, 2010

emily rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Maybe when it first came out, there was something to it. But this is not a book that has aged well.

(First, don't think that I'm railing against the idea that the mental health treatment system has any problems. And don't think I'm defending lobotomies and electroshock treatment (though it's worth bearing in mind that lobotomies weren't a hard target -- by early 60s, when this book was published, lobotomies were significantly on their way out (though they were still performed).))
...more

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Jul 19, 2011

Brad rated it

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Shelves: classic, one-of-the-greats, crazier-than-a-lobotomized-mcmurphy

i. Lost the damn book! Shit.

ii. Found it!

iii. Finished, but I need some time to let this sink in. The review is coming.

iv. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about non-conformity. It is also about the horrors of the mental health system circa the late ‘50s & early ‘60s. I am sure it is about some other things I didn’t pick up this time around. But it is also about metaphor, and that was the theme in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that most spoke to me.
...more

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Sep 25, 2008

Night~light rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

This is my favourite book. It's just a work of genius.
When you read this book you will start to wonder if the author was really writing about some crazy people or our society is one big madhouse, full of them...
Sometimes I think that I want to read this book again after some years... My view will be different and it will be interesting to think over every idea again. And this book is full of ideas. :)

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Aug 23, 2011

Dan rated it

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Admittedly, I viewed the film based on this book prior to reading the work itself (though not recently) which definitely warped/directed my perspective (hard to NOT imagine Jack Nicholson, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny DeVito assume their respective roles). It was difficult to imagine the ward, staff, and characters outside of the film's rendering (which speaks highly of the casting/acting, I suppose). Furthermore, the "shock factor" (no pun intended) of the more erratic and graphic sce...moreAdmittedly, I viewed the film based on this book prior to reading the work itself (though not recently) which definitely warped/directed my perspective (hard to NOT imagine Jack Nicholson, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny DeVito assume their respective roles). It was difficult to imagine the ward, staff, and characters outside of the film's rendering (which speaks highly of the casting/acting, I suppose). Furthermore, the "shock factor" (no pun intended) of the more erratic and graphic scenes (at least those not omitted from the film) was reduced in my reading (I sadly anticipated the more catastrophic events).

The added narrative perspective of "Big Chief Bromden" (back to the book!) was a welcome alteration... his internal monologues alone made the book a worthwhile tribute to the inebriation of excessive psycho-drug therapy, EST, cognitive castrations, etc. in the mental health institutions/asylums of the 1960's.

Take the subject matter of Foucault's "Madness and Civilization", update the setting, infuse it with colloquial vernacular (read: "easy reading"), "Keseyian" anecdotes, and a creative non-fictive edge ala Tom Wolfe, and voila! "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"...

Initially, the bravado, lunacy, and extremity of Kesey's characters seems a bit heavy-handed; R.P. McMurphy appears to be needlessly "over the top", Nurse Ratched's subtle manipulations are inexplicably cold and sadistic (unless ALL army nurses over 35 go "bad", Kesey?), and the portrayal of minorities and women (as often noted by critics) is less than politically correct. But below the bombastic exterior, through clever introspective devices like "Big Chief", we get a sense for the dual-madness of the "system" ("Combine") Kesey explores. Who is crazier? Harding, McMurphy, or Nurse Ratched? The deluded PR rep who circles articles from year-old Harper's Weekly magazines for the inebriated patients to read? The drug-cocktail prescribing "doctors"? The pot smoking/cough-syrup ingesting night watchman? Sefelt the epileptic?

"Madness", Kesey would have us believe, is at once subjective, poorly managed (by clinical 1960's standards), and completely misunderstood.

While I gave the work "5 stars" ("I loved it"), I would have preferred a solid 4.5...alas, "1/2" stars are not an option.

For a "first" novel (at 26/27 years old, no less!), "One Flew" is a creative literary legacy Ken Kesey can proudly rest (in peace!) upon.

In terms of criticism, early on, I felt some disjointed dialogue b/w McMurphy and the patients on the ward... basic "flow" issues I would attribute to a relatively "new" novelist / passive editing.

All in all, I would totally recommend this to anyone desiring a more robust appreciation (an unfortunate "update" to Foucault!) of late 60's mental health rehabilitation practices and procedures.

(less)

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Jan 04, 2009

Sarah Law rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: The girls at Klarman

An excellent book, a must-read for anyone interested in psychology. The ending is not a barrel of laughs, though, and it's pretty dark at some points. I took off one star because I was really confused about the white fog the Indian kept seeing; that just didn't make sense to me. Maybe it was foreshadowing, but I was a little bit lost there.

I loved this book because it reminded me EXACTLY of the first treatment center I ever went to; when I was at Klarman, I was the crazy redhead plot...more

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Dec 03, 2011

Luis rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Mejor el libro que la película.
La lectura de Alguien voló sobre el nido del cuco la he realizado a ciegas. Me llamó la atención el título y aún mucho más el argumento. Había oído de la buena crítica de la película, pero quise probar primero el original y después contrastar con el celuloide.
En la narración hay un increíble manejo de recursos de todo tipo. Hay metáforas, pasajes espejismo, diálogos complejos y diálogos sencillos y contundentes, descripciones banales o faraónicas, chanzas...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Jasminka rated it

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Shelves: 2011

Very intense, well-written character study, rich, complex and profoundly tragic and disturbing novel. A truly powerful, humorous, grotesque, provoking and entertaining tale about power struggle in a mental ward. It is filled with great dark humor, sarcasm, realistic irony and tells the reader how people can overcome their fears with just the right push in the right direction.
This is an amazing book about prejudice against the mentally disturbed, desperation, self- awareness, cruelty, the fr...moreVery intense, well-written character study, rich, complex and profoundly tragic and disturbing novel. A truly powerful, humorous, grotesque, provoking and entertaining tale about power struggle in a mental ward. It is filled with great dark humor, sarcasm, realistic irony and tells the reader how people can overcome their fears with just the right push in the right direction.
This is an amazing book about prejudice against the mentally disturbed, desperation, self- awareness, cruelty, the freedom of the spirit, struggle between the system and the individual, revolt against stifling social oppression...
The anti-authority story told from the viewpoint of a patient who pretends to be deaf and mute is very effective, for he has access to information that the other patients don't.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The language and style are so beautiful. Definitely worth reading.

"Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing."

"You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side things."

"So you see my friend, it is somewhat as you stated: man has but one truly effective weapon against the juggernaut of modern matriarchy, but it certainly is not laughter. One weapon, and with every passing year in this hip, motivationally researched society, more and more people are discovering how to render that weapon useless and conquer those who have hitherto been conquerors..."

"I can't help it. I was born a miscarriage. I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can't help it.... I'm tired."

"Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it?"

"I been silent so long now it's gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn't happen."

"Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girl friend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain." (less)

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Sep 01, 2010

Marwan Asmar added it · review of another edition

Shelves: become-a-fan, favorite-authors, favourite-authors

A book to remember, the daily life of mentally-dusturbed characters in a psychiatric ward. A gripping read, it follows the antics of R.P. McMurphy, a patient who doesn't appear to be mentally-disturbed yet whose is committed to the ward by the authorities that be, and unlike his colleagues, who are disturbed, but can leave the award anytime they want. This is a work of fiction and probably has no direct bearing on the work of mental institutions, except from the perspective of providing entertai...more

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Apr 19, 2009

Deena Scintilla rated it

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When I read this, I was a Psych nurse in a large state hospital in southern CA where some of the patients had been subjected to frontal lobotomies (long before I worked there-thank you). Some were like walking emotionless robots bearing the scars on their foreheads. It was such a barbaric practice as were the ice water baths & induced insulin shock. This book and the resultant movie disturbed me & were not easily forgotten. Some "treatments" that have been done in the name of medicine ...more

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Jan 23, 2010

Rumi rated it

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I think I've gotten pretty dumb the last couple of months, to an extent where I can't take the final decision about the moral of anything I read or watch.
So what is the moral of this book? I'm not quite sure, but I do know it's a very good story. It does keep you turning the pages, and it talks about serious things in a light way, with the occassional laugh. Everything's going down in an unusual, interesting environment, one to keep your imagination alert.

The book isn't overly ...more

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Jun 03, 2008

Brent rated it

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I had no clue what this book was about when I jumped into it so it took me a bit to get into it. I chose its cd version as entertainment for a 16 hour round trip road trip because I felt it was one of those classic books that I had somehow missed in high school.

I fully understand why this book is so popular for high school reading classes. A limitless number of essays could be written about its metaphors, imagery, social commentary, character studies, sexism, and racism. It is a...more

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Jan 11, 2008

Rachel rated it

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Shelves: literature

(written 8-02)
It's interesting to read Kesey after reading Tom Wolfe's portrayal of him in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Never theless the book left me thinking mostly about the characters instead of the author. At first it was slow reading but all of a sudden I was really into it. I suppose the Big Nurse represents all institutions who would control their little "rabbits". But McMurphy would have none of it, and maybe none of us should.

"They've made life loo...more

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Nov 11, 2007

Josh Feinzimer rated it

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Recommends it for: people who enjoy a fine American classic

This was an outstanding work of fiction. Kesey inserted himself into American classic literary lore with this work. The character development was superb. The way Kesey captures the essence of a mental ward is unique and special. It was as if I was living on the ward right along with the characters.

The most developed character was Chief Bromdem. His transformation from an individual who was frightened by his surroundings and everything about the ward, to an independent, free spir...more

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Jul 24, 2008

Shannon rated it

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Shelves: fiction, 2007

I had not read nor heard any critique or review of this book before reading it, but I can imagine there is, at the very least, a few feminists out there who have stomped all over this.

Saw the movie a few years ago and loved it. Heard just the other day that Kesey hated the movie and disowned it, wouldn't have anything to do with it. That's the only thing I've heard. But the movie is good, and you really need to have seen it, or read the book, to get that great Spaced episode (second...more

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Aug 29, 2007

Sean Mooney rated it

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Recommends it for: People who want to buck the system, frustrated liberals

Shelves: americanclassics

I read this more than a year after reading Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test where I had my first introduction to Ken Kesey's eccentric and gripping personality. I also saw the movie many years back and initially had trouble separating the literary McMurphy from the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson. Regardless this novel takes a good look at 'the system' through the lens of mental health care and the asylum. Written while Kesey was working in a California mental hospital and participating in psyc...more

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Jun 29, 2007

Eli rated it

Shelves: novels

Above all, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a brilliantly twisted take the struggle of a hero against the world. The villian, Nurse Ratched, is a perfectly honed tool of the social conspiracy; the hero, McMurphy, is an Atlas of a man with the courage and pride to take on an army; and the narrator, Chief Bromden, is a silent, all seeing, giant of a wise man. Each of them have enough chinks in their armor to keep things interesting, but they are each great stylized heroes that, in another settin...more

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About Ken Kesey

American writer, who gained world fame with his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962, filmed 1975). In the 1960s, Kesey became a counterculture hero and a guru of psychedelic drugs with Timothy Leary. Kesey has been called the Pied Piper, who changed the beat generation into the hippie movement.

Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, CO, and brought up in Eugene, OR. Kesey spent his ear...more

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“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girl friend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain.” — 141 people liked it

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