From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ken Kesey

Start date: March 1, 2014

Finish date: March 31, 2014

Discussion leader: Julieschreiner

Why we're reading this: March 2014 Group Read
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Oct 02, 2024 Linda Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: geo-oregon, classics, audiobook, native-americans, fiction, horror, psychology, satire, friends, 2024

This book is narrated by a Native American man known as Chief. He came originally from the Columbia River gorge near The Dalles, but after serving time in the military overseas he decided he needed to live in the Oregon state hospital for the insane. There, he's drugged senseless and will not talk. He spends his days sweeping and mopping to pass the time.

Everything changes the day that McMurphy is admitted into the hospital. McMurphy is committed and wanted to avoid time in a labor camp, as a pr This book is narrated by a Native American man known as Chief. He came originally from the Columbia River gorge near The Dalles, but after serving time in the military overseas he decided he needed to live in the Oregon state hospital for the insane. There, he's drugged senseless and will not talk. He spends his days sweeping and mopping to pass the time.

Everything changes the day that McMurphy is admitted into the hospital. McMurphy is committed and wanted to avoid time in a labor camp, as a prisoner. He proceeds to disturb the peace in the hospital ward and gets into an adversarial relationship with Nurse Ratchet, who rules the place and the people in it... or at least she thinks she does, until McMurphy challenges her.

I was first handed this book when I was a teenager. I can't remember which school employee thought this was a good book for a teenager to read. It is not a clean novel. It is full of sexual references and there's some swearing. There are also references to suicides and other violence. None of this is especially explicit, but the men of the mental ward are typically men, somewhat out of polite society. Let's put it that way. I remember reading this as a teenager and DNF'ing it early on at about the point a man in another ward is said to have mutilated himself. I found that so disgusting and the thought of it stayed in my mind all these years. Sad! I didn't need that as a teenager. Maybe I can handle it better now as I'm in my 70's at this point.

What I liked about this book was that this time I listened to an outstandingly well-performed audio version narrated by John C. Reilly. This is definitely one of the best audio performances I've listened to (and I've listened to many.) He was able to read with just the right emotions and used unique voices for the characters, making this not only easy to listen to, but actually riveting. I'm going to look for more books narrated by this reader. Well done!

Ken Kesey, the author of this novel, had a wild and creative life. He was a cross-over between the beat generation folks and the hippies, spent time in San Francisco, and ran with the crowd called the Merry Pranksters. One good thing: he was married to his high school sweetheart and that marriage survived about 46 years, until his death. In a world of chaos it is good to have one reliable island of stability. ...more

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