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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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Gorfo
(new)
Apr 01, 2012 05:54AM
This is the thread from the 2012 April-May monthly book read, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey! Feel free to discuss and let your opinions flow free as we read this book :)!
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I'm not sure "light-hearted" is how I would describe Kesey's book... but it does have a wonderful sense of irony and dark comedy.You might be interested in watching the Jack Nicholson movie of this book after finishing reading and discussing. It won the Oscar in all top 5 categories.
Oh really? I didn't even know there was a movie! I'll definitely look into reading that after I start reading this! I have to pick up my copy from the library, hopefully tmrw.
I knew there was a movie but have been surprised at how much this title is, even the ebook versions that I have found are a bit pricey for an older book. Has anyone in our group been able to find any good deals on this title yet? Outside of borrowing it through the library of course :o)
I got it at Barnes and Noble for 9 dollars--but that was about a year ago.Love this book!!!!
I just finished this amazing book. I found it difficult to get through at the beginning; I had trouble understanding and relating to the narrator, Chief Bromden, but then there came a point where I realized I couldn't put it down. I became so interested and disturbed by what I was reading and so invested in the characters, particularly Bromden and McMurphy, that I had a hard time walking away from it. I also absolutely loathed Big Nurse and was constantly hoping that she'd get hers...I had seen the movie years ago and even though it was wonderful, I regret not reading the book first. I think the ending would've come as quite a shock. I will definitely be borrowing it from the library to watch next week, though!
Argh reading what everybody has to say is making me so jealous! I got the book from the library but then forgot it there! Hopefully I'll start on monday!
Steven wrote: "I knew there was a movie but have been surprised at how much this title is, even the ebook versions that I have found are a bit pricey for an older book. Has anyone in our group been able to find a..."http://www.amazon.com/One-Flew-Over-C...
I was forced to read this book in high school, but I really liked it! It was probably one of the only books I enjoyed that I had to read for school. We even watched most of the movie, but the school year ended before we got to the very end. I'll have to watch it again!
I read this book only recently, and it is now among my favorites. It was sad, funny, and often infuriating. I found the themes very disturbing - it's sad to think that there are people out there who will control and manipulate others simply because they are in a position to do so. This story is really a thumbnail for so many things that are wrong with the world.
I think the most disturbing and surprising part about this book, for me, at least, was the revelation that nearly all of the men have been committed voluntarily. They are all suffering under Nurse Ratched and her aides, but have become so complacent that they accept the abuse rather than check themselves out of the hospital. How often does this happen in our world today? We come to accept things we know are wrong as the "norm" and try to live with them rather than take a stand against them.
I read this book many years ago, but the impression it made is still carved in my memory! It is one very powerful book that filled me with different kind of feelings. (I'm not saying anymore--not spoiling the fun of those who haven't yet read it)
Hmmm! I finally got around to reading this book and I am just kind of struggling through it right now, waiting for some sort of drama to build, however I haven't jumped over the 1st 100 pgs yet so I've still got a ways to go! Looking forward to having my mind blown! :)
Gorfo wrote: "Hmmm! I finally got around to reading this book and I am just kind of struggling through it right now, waiting for some sort of drama to build, however I haven't jumped over the 1st 100 pgs yet so..."Stick with it, Gorfo. It took me a while to get into it, too!
yes!It's definitely worth sticking with it in my opinion too!
Nicole wrote: "Gorfo wrote: "Hmmm! I finally got around to reading this book and I am just kind of struggling through it right now, waiting for some sort of drama to build, however I haven't jumped over the 1st ..."Haha thanks! Will do!
Any idea what the May book is?
I wasn't familiar with that fable, so I looked it up, and I agree with you, Toni. In order to avoid their problems and the world at large (the stag), the wards (horses) voluntarily place themselves under the complete control of the Big Nurse (the hunter). The only difference is, the horse in the fable cannot break free once the reigns are on, but the wards hold the power to discharge themselves. Only at the end do they liberate themselves (well, some of them) b/c of McMurphy.
And the moral of the fable (usually) is:If you allow men to use you for your own purposes, they will use you for theirs.
message 20:
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aPriL does feral sometimes
(last edited May 20, 2012 03:51AM)
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rated it 5 stars
I've read this twice - this weekend and 40 years ago. It's the kind of book which is different every time you read it if you take a decade or two between readings. The first time for me was in the early 1970's. My thinking was black and white and I was marching for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. I saw this book as a confirmation of my beliefs that the Establishment was evil and i was right to be radical leftist and despise all adults over 30. I cried for McMurphy and I saw all real adults as Nurse Ratchet -pure evil- except for those adults who obviously were leftists. Adults stood for a law and order that was unjust and discriminatory and mainly about keeping rich white men wealthy and safe, and the rest of us as slaves and servants with no rights. The strong against the weak, the rich against the poor, the privileged against the needy.It's 2012, and I see now the book is not as black and white as I thought. It's complex, nuanced, balanced and flawed. I've given it five stars because it's so close to perfect in its structure, but it certainly is perfect in the exploration of the dual nature of people in general, that internal battle between our immature and destructive animal natures and our mostly equal desire for civilized, safe and dependable order. The Head Nurse is not evil, and McMurphy is not a angelic righteous man. While the symbolism runs deep in the novel so that every main character also represents an abstract facet of being human, the actual protagonists feel very flesh and blood like real people. It is not a political book against being bourgeois, but rather, I think, a book that reluctantly acknowledges that for a healthy society, both the impulse for ordinary self-control, and the need for play, wildness and lack of self-control are necessary for mental health. It is a dramatic book that takes place in a pressurized bottle so its overheated, but I think it is an accurate representation of the human impulses that swing real societies back and forth between peaceful order and necessary adjustments for progressive good.
It really a great book, both as a plain thriller genre story that is exciting, and as a metafictional, multi-layered classic exploring the bigger issues of being human.
My only quibble is the book most definitely comes off anti-women, although how bad in that direction is arguable. Most classical literature and art uses as meta-symbol the sexes to show opposing forces of nature: women are usually the force of simplicity, quiet maintenance of the status quo, creation, propagation or moral purity, men are symbolic usually of strength, power, authority, wisdom, purpose, war, destruction. Classical Greek literature codified the symbolic protocols behind writing we use up to today. It IS sexist, but it was not considered immoral because it was accepted as true in the past. In the case of this book though, while Kesey was following literary traditions of Great Literature, i think he also had too much fun writing the part of Ratched as a bitch.
Anyway, these are my opinions.
Jennifer wrote: "Excellent review, April!": )
Love your compared perspectives, April. I can relate to the first reading :) And then, we live, and we learn.It's been a long time since I read this book, but as I remember it, I think the story showed the blurred lines between what is considered sane and what is 'abnormal,' especially within a society/environment that is itself questionable when it comes to mental health standards.
Since when I read it sexism was still the accepted norm for most literature, I don't remember feeling as if Kesey had maligned women in general... but certainly Nurse Ratched was characterized as a bitch. Her general position of being in charge and in a power struggle with the men (as well as the violence that ended in her inability to speak) in retrospect could be as you say -- Kesey's hostility toward women given free rein.
Your complaint about Kesey's sexism has given me pause to reconsider...
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