Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    Written by Ken Kesey

    Narrated by Ken Kesey

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Ken Kesey#8217;s story of life in a state mental hospital is a classic of American literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateDec 29, 2006
    ISBN9781598875102
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    Author

    Ken Kesey

    Ken Kesey (1935-2001) es el autor de Alguien voló sobre el nido del cuco (1962), una de las más extraordinarias novelas de la literatura norteamericana del siglo XX, Casta invencible (1964) y Garage Sale (1973).

    Related to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read

      Aug 7, 2018

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read
      6 min read

    • Article

      Holden Caulfield And The Culture Of Sexual Assault

      Feb 12, 2018

      Since it came out in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has meant different things to different readers. For some, Holden Caulfield was the rebellious voice of a generation; for many today, he’s a whiny rich kid; for a pair of recent biographers, he’s the

      5 min read

    • Article

      Behind the Dedications: Hunter S. Thompson

      Feb 20, 2017

      On February 16, 2005, Hunter S. Thompson was sitting in his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. Football season had just ended, which always left him morose, but he was also suffering from surgery-related pain in his hip and back, which made walking diffi

      6 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Faery Land

      Mar 24, 2020

      Faery Land
      8 min read

    • Article

      Removing The Mask

      Apr 25, 2021

      Removing The Mask
      5 min read

    • Article

      High Rise

      Aug 6, 2021

      High Rise
      24 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Old Lesbian Love

      Mar 5, 2024

      The sexual objectification of the body, of our bodies, is less an insult these days and more of a goal.  The post Old Lesbian Love appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Missing Limousine

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Missing Limousine
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Convict

      Jul 10, 2020

      The Convict
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Escaped Jaguar

      May 9, 2019

      The Escaped Jaguar
      5 min read

    • Article

      Notes on Etiquette

      Mar 1, 2019

      Notes on Etiquette
      10 min read

    • Article

      Ben Marcus

      Jun 15, 2018

      My wife, Gin, once knocked gently on my head, as if it were a door. “Hello,” she kept saying. “Hello. Who’s in there?” She and our therapist, Dr. Sherby, laughed a little about this, so I did, too. What fun. Keep knocking on my head like that, like i

      23 min read

    • Article

      A Week In Bedlam

      Dec 9, 2019

      A Week In Bedlam
      13 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Jun 18, 2021

      A young ventriloquist is performing at a bar in a small town. He’s going through his usual run of blonde jokes, when a big blonde woman in the fourth row stands on her chair and says, “I’ve heard just about enough of your denigrating blonde jokes! “W

      4 min read

    • Article

      Performance

      Nov 10, 2022

      “Wait here,” the guard said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me by myself. The floor inside the lab was polished, and the air smelled of disinfectant, and yet the room felt unclean. Leaves shook on a tree outside the window, making shadows on

      18 min read

    • Article

      You Talkin’ To Me?

      Jul 26, 2019

      IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH JARED HARRIS Are you talking to me? Well, no one else is here. You must be talking to me, surely… I remember that poster really well. I already knew that I was fascinated just from that image, the loner walking through th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2021

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      What We Are For

      Dec 1, 2023

      At the Stop and Shop I joke with the girl helping me find the star anise that it looks like someone left her a chicken bone on the shelf. Oh, isn't that nice, she laughs. They wanted you to have a fun surprise, I tell her, tell the checkout lady I lo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      Good Yarn

      Apr 1, 2022

      Good Yarn
      3 min read

    • Article

      My Prison Experiment

      Jun 26, 2016

      My Prison Experiment
      124 min read

    • Article

      The Sunrise Manor Routine

      Jun 1, 2019

      The Sunrise Manor Routine
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    4.5/5

    422 ratings119 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is more than a social commentary: it is an allegory-like hyperbole of the psychopathic obsession of the 1960s. The decade marked a drastic proliferation of books that looked at psychiatry and mental illness but garnered little diagnostic or therapeutic value. Despite the prestige of these publications that usually attuned to academic standard in intellectual circles, none of such literature had the widespread impact of this novel written by Kesey who worked the graveyard shift at a mental hospital in Menlo Park, California. He participated in government-sponsored drug experiments during his employment with this hospital and became sympathetic to the patients and began to seriously question the boundaries that had been created between the sane and the insane. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is an unforgettable story of a mental ward in which the despotic Nurse Ratched reigns over the doctor and all the inhabitants. She exercises a somewhat cultic tactics to render her patients completely submissive. In what she embellishes a Therapeutic Community, an outwardly democratic entity run by patients, she imperceptibly manipulates them into grilling each other as if they are criminals. She has over the years has welded an insurmountable power over the ward that even the doctor is rendered frightened, desperate and ineffectual. She has no need to accuse or to enforce obedience because all it takes to maintain that tight grip of power is insinuation, which allows her to force the trembling libido out of everyone without an effort. The Nurse's unchallenged tyranny begins to whittle as McMurphy, a 35-year-old Korean veteran who has history of insubordination and street brawls, resolves to oppose her every step of the way and raises the racket in her ward. His defiance is justifiable: he is surprised at how sane everyone is in the ward. Nobody and nothing in life have got much of a hold on this boisterous personality, who knows that there is no better way in the world to aggravate somebody (like the Nurse) who is trying to make it difficult for him than by acting like he is not bothered. McMurphy's fun-loving arrival at the ward brings about a different shade of opinion among the staff and the patients. The latter come following him as if he is their Savior, for he is utterly different and has not let what he looks like run his life one way or the other. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is narrated by a patient in the ward, a Columbia Indian whom everyone thinks deaf, mute, and unintelligible, but who throughout the years of his commitment has overheard all the trickery of staff meetings. He epitomizes the mishap of the erroneous boundary with which the sane separates them from the insane. McMurphy's arrival and his friendship with the Indian Chief spur him on to recover his own identity and rebuild his self-esteem. The novel examines the notion of madness in the sense of its own and in the sense of the term being patronized by mental institution. The narrator's seamless observation and eagle-eyed description of the ward illustrate salient flaws of such a mindless system that targets only at reducing patients' mental capability. Kesey considers whether madness really means the common practice that confines to a mindless system or the attempt to escape from such a system altogether. Like its audacious protagonist, the novel itself is a literary outlaw.
    • 5/5
      What a masterful book! I had seen the movie years before reading it and had my preconceptions going in, but the book - by far - has more to offer. It deals with post-colonial Native Americans, the psychiatric system, and the desire to be free. It took some getting used to because of the way Kesey handles the point of view, but it is definitely a must read.
    • 3/5
      The first half of this book is somewhat slow. It does have its funny and sincere moments though. If the first half of the book was as well written as the last half, it would deem five stars. The protagonist in this tale is a good natured lug who tries to inject the spirit of life into a ward of patients of mental illness. He unveils the hollowness and darkness they live day in, and day out, while striving to weaken the clinical hold over them by the head nurse. It is a touching and heartwarming story. It illuminates the contemptible views we had, and to a large extent still have of "mental illness."
    • 4/5
      I just finished One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest and I am happy to report I enjoyed it. I have wanted to read this book since I saw the movie in 1975 so it has only taken me 37 years to get around to it. Thanks to this group and the focus on Medicine and Illness for this month's theme!I am a nurse and, in my training in 1970, I spent time in a Psychiatric hospital in St. John New Brunswick. The locked wards with many patients who were severely developmentally delayed and vegetative were a real shock to me as a sheltered, middle class 17 year old.I saw 'old style' ECT at that time and was appalled at the barbarity of it all. Although, certainly, I did not see it being used as a punishment, as described in this book.It was interesting to me to read that Ken Kasey had worked as an orderly in a psychiatric facility which has given him a real understanding of the treatment (or lack therof) of the times. The book feels 'real' as if it could have been a non-fiction book rather than a novel.I couldn't help but compare the book to the movie and the movie is one of my all-time favourites. It won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards that year.Although I liked the book I would not have it up at the top of my list! Time Magazine has it as one of the top 100 novels from 1923 - 2005.
    • 4/5
      One of those books I was forced to read in high school (and college) that I actually enjoyed. It takes a look at life in a mental institution...an absolute classic!
    • 5/5
      This is a very well-written, beautiful and profound book. I would highly recommend it as I found it utterly engaging and absorbing from the first page. Naturally, comparisons will be drawn with the film. I personally think they are both great in their own ways and they certainly both can be independently appreciated.Kesey was a character in his own right and it is a shame he did not write more.
    • 5/5
      Mention this book and naturally Jack Nicholson jumps to mind. The movie was excellent and yet the book is even better, although it's difficult to avoid seeing Nicholson as the brash Randle Patrick McMurphy. The story is told by Chief Bromden, one of the disturbed patients who makes out that he is a deaf mute while witnessing everything. I feel like I got know each one of the characters personally, cheering on McMurphy, applauding when he, or indeed anyone, scores against the Big Nurse, and commiserating with each patient. The writing is beautifully descriptive. On the negative side, there are racial and misogynistic stereotypes - an indication of the times in which it was written. Funny, chilling, tragic, and utterly captivating. This is one of my favourite books.
    • 5/5
      Once again I have to say thank you to whoever compiled the 1001 list because despite loving the film I would otherwise probably not have read the book and would have missed out on a real cracker.For those of you that have recently arrived from Mars and as such not seen the film, the book is set inside a mental hospital ward where the residents have been beaten down by the 'Combine' in the form of Nurse Ratched,who is a complete control freak, belittled by the staff and afraid to even laugh out loud. Into this mix is thrown Randle McMurphy a convicted brawler who sees this as the easy option after moving from a penal farm. McMurphy is large,loud and a gambler unafraid to show his emotions and immediately ruffles the sedate waters on the ward and in particular Nurse Ratched. The residents are looking for a hero to stand up to the system and look to McMurphy to be just that and he soon obliges. McMurphy, however, soon realises that what appears the easy option is in fact much harsher than the prison he left and that he is no longer even guaranteed a release date from his sentence. He also finds out that most of his fellow residents are voluntary in-mates unlike himself and as such able to leave whenever they choose. I won't spoil the ending other than that it does not end well for McMurphy, he is after all one man fighting against the system.Ken Kesey apparently worked in a mental hospital and based the book on his observations of the patients within and became particularily interested in the workings of the human mind as he himself experimented with LSD. The characters are beautifully drawn and Kesey makes every sentence count, and while the way mental patients are treated may have changed over the years the story itself has stood the test of time. In particular I loved the character of Chief Bromden, the narrator, who despite being a bull of a man feels marginalised, so much so everyone believes him deaf and dumb despite the contrary being the case. A man within looking out. Many people see this book as a modern parable about good and evil but to me it is more about the anachiac effects of one man's attempt to fight against an overbearing, controlling system because while I cheered for McMurphy and booed Ratched it is a bit simplistic to call one good and the other evil, certainly McMurphy is no angel. Perhaps the real moral of the story is that unless we speak out against the system we become part of it however much we may dislike it, preferring instead the status quo.
    • 5/5
      One of the better quotes from this book is actually its dedication:"To Vik Lovell who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs."We have been told throughout childhood and beyond there are no such things as monsters and demons. But ask anyone who has found themselves on the outside of society’s definition of “normal”, and you will find a fearful world where they really do exist, but not always in the guise of evil wishing to do us harm.To maintain a healthy community of individuals, society demands that we rarely act like one, and only in a manner that still must conform to some type of moral and ethical standard.Those finding themselves outside those boundaries are often “judged”, or in this case diagnosed, as needing psychiatric help.Truly, who gets to define sanity? Where does rationality and irrationality begin and end?Not to long into this read, you will be asking yourself just that.Are the patients in this story the truly irrational ones?Kesey wrote of what he knew. He once worked as a night attendant in a psychiatric ward. This experience led to the writing of this book.Demons do exist. Those we imagine, and those that we struggle against when trying to maintain that sense of normalcy which is expected of us. Some demons come in the form of those who try to help us, telling us that electric shock treatments, drugs, and even lobotomies are the only way to help us be free of what ails us.But what if it is all a form of control, a way to keep us all in line - - to keep the status quo?As Nurse Ratched notes: "A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society . . . because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them."The men in this novel face such a challenge. Emasculated emotionally and psychologically by their experiences with society, they commit themselves to the one place they thought they would be safe, and hopefully cured. This haven eventually becomes their prison. They become so controlled, so institutionalized, they willingly give up their freedom for this sense of safety.Emasculation is a strong term, and I am not saying this book is misogynist in nature, but men adversely affected by domineering women is a strong theme throughout and helps in understanding what the characters have experienced and their difficulty in standing up for themselves against Nurse Ratched.Along comes a man to show them that there is a potential for them to do so. Randle Patrick McMurphy, "[a]. . . boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, [he] rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched."But this defiance does not go unanswered. It is frightening knowing about the truth which lies behind the story Kesey tells. To anyone who has seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. Having never seen the film, this book and its ending was more powerful than I can relate.The strongest impression I am left with is one I have made note of on my white board. Even when he knows he will fail, McMurphy still tries in order to show the others that one’s will can never be broken — only given away.This book has been challenged many times due to strong language and discussions of sexuality. However, I cannot find that any of what I read was obscene in any form or fashion.In fact, I would make this a must read on many, of not all High School curricula.If like me, you have never seen the movie, I urge you to read the book first. If you have seen it, and never read the novel – please do.This will be one of those books that will have a permanent place in my personal library. I don’t know if I can give it a higher recommendation than that.
    • 1/5
      This version of the audiobook is not true to the Ken Kesey text and leaves out significant portions of the book. I was really disappointed by this.
    • 4/5
      There is no review that can do this book justice. Wonderfully devised, wonderfully executed. Vitally important life lessons. I can't say enough good about this book. Really, really amazing story. A must-read for all.
    • 5/5
      I had seen the movie version of this book years ago, so I knew that this would be a humorous story about a mental hospital and the smart aleck patient Randle McMurphy and his battles against the evil Nurse Ratched. But as usual, the book is SO much better than the movie - and the movie was pretty good. McMurphy gets himself admitted to a mental hospital to avoid time at a prison work camp. His wing of the hospital is run by a sadistic Nurse Ratched who on the exterior appears kind, but gets pleasure by cruelly demeaning the patients. At first, McMurphy pulls pranks to entertain himself and his fellow patients, but eventually, he becomes the leader and savior of the inmates. The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a half Indian inmate who appears mute and has been a patient for years. What I loved about this book is the transformation of both McMurphy and Bromden, both overcoming some inner demons to become the heroes of the story. The audiobook was amazing - impressively narrated by Tom Parker. Loved it!
    • 3/5
      wonderfully narrated. i understand the reverence around this novel - the prose is masterful - and i know that it was published a while ago, but i can’t completely separate it from the racism and misogyny throughout.
    • 2/5

      Seven out of ten.

      Set in an American mental hospital full of gradually decaying inmates, one ward is taken over by the newest patient - a boisterous, fun-loving rebel who openly defies the dictatorship of the matriarchal Big Nurse and battles her for the hearts and minds of the other inhabitants. The story is told through the eyes of another character, the Chief - who is one of the first to grasp the heroic battle against authority that is being fought in his name and the toll it takes on it's participants. A strange book that is both uplifting and depressing, revolutionary and conservative - well worth reading though.

    • 4/5
      The movie left me unable to speak afterward, so I had to read the book. As is often the case, the book was more complex and diffused, and some of the characters are different--and the ending lack's the movie's high drama. My old college paperback was getting pretty yellow around the edges, so I spent some money on this beautiful slipcased edition. Just got the movie on bluray too.
    • 5/5
      What's to stop the machine, the 'combine,' from taking you over, too? Telling you what to do, what to think, what to say, what to feel, what to write..."So she works with the an eye to adjusting the outside world too. Working alongside others like her who I called the 'combine,' which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the outside as well as she has the inside, has made her a real veteran at adjusting things."The fog descends upon all, and Chief Bromden realized that there was safety in the fog, so instead of fighting the fog, he used it as a cover, an impenetrable shield of being lost in the all-encompassing, ever-present world of the combine. He was safe there, in the system, until McMurphy, a burly, well-built IrishMAN showed up. McMurphy descended into the fog and pulled the chief out of it, made it clear to see, perhaps for the first time in decades, what life was, or what life could be, for a man. What life could be if you lived it on your own terms, in your own way, without anyone else putting limits on how you live. McMurphy was the last primal male. He was the last of his kind before the fog rolled in and 'civilized' him. "Peckin at your balls, buddy, at your ever lovin balls."The genius in Kesey using the Indian to show the connecting fight between the last Indian males to fight the system, and losing, and how it is now the white man's turn. The last brave Irishman before the system takes out his kind, too. The age of the white male is over! "Papa says if you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite."The prototype manly man that had the power, the balls, to fight the system, the combine, by taking on one of its head enforcers, the male impostor, Nurse Ratched. Through the total tyranny of the ward, Nurse Ratched would squeeze the pressure on the men bit-by-bit. She never let the men get to her, and she knew that she would always get her way, at least in the end. And she did. "wait for a little advantage, a little slack, then twist the rope and keep the pressure steady. All the time.""It could no longer conceal the fact that she was a woman."This book is quite the ride down modernity lane. Like Kafka, Kesey shows us the myriad of complex, invisible lines that pull and push on humanity, without ever being visible to us. The rules and policies can be maddening, but them's the rules, friend! McMurphy gets lost in the combine, picking his battles where he can to fight it. But the combine is bigger than he is. Bigger than all of us. When we are gone, it will still be here. When our children are gone, it will still be here. Rolling out and rolling over anyone that opposes it. "It's not just the big nurse by herself, but it's the whole combine, the nationwide combine that's the really big force, the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them."Progress!! "This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the week. You must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We Must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?"
    • 5/5
      A really very enjoyable and moving book.Firstly it's a very well constructed and touching story about a group of inmates at a mental hospital in America. The story flows very nicely and there is plenty o humour along the way to keep things a bit more light hearted. The ending is particularly moving and a fitting tribute to the rest of the book.Having the narrator of the book not be the star of the show was also a nice touch I felt, and the way that all the inmates looke dup to McMurphy meant that this worked well. The batlle of wits was excellent between McMurphy and nurse Ratched and kept me going, the pace and intensity of the battling going right up untl the end.Overall it was an exceptionally good book and I'd certainly look for more from this author.
    • 5/5
      I put off reading this for some time under the misapprehension that since I saw the movie, the book couldn't be that different. That may be a mistake that many people make now, but that’s definitely a wrong assumption. Patients in an asylum trying to make sense of the world. Chief Brandom is the narrator. This asylum represents man against conformity, McMurphy, a new patient and may not belong there (but then, do any of patients?) fighting the Big Nurse in a battle of wits for his own freedom and the freedom of the other patients. His loud large self is the only thing that can breathe life into those who have given up. He hasn't been ground up by the combine like everyone else. He resists it! The main problem of the patients is one of confidence, of being able to deal with their problems on their own instead of giving up their freedom as a refusal to deal with it. Furthermore, the perspective of Chief Brandom provides the same analogy to how his people were treated by authority. His perspective is the most powerful and what makes the story very different from the movie. The Chief’s perspective is the one twist if you have seen the movie first. It makes this story much more powerful. His idea of the combine is such a great analogy to everyday life. People, society, do not like non-conformists and there is always a way to tear down idealists. A bunch of patients in an insane asylum come to realize that they have the power to control their own destinies and each do in their own way. It takes a con man to erase that fear and to set everyone free.Favorite Passages: "I’d think he was strong enough being his own self that he would never back down the way she was hoping he would. I’d think, maybe he truly is something extraordinary. He’s what he is, that’s it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is. The Combine hasn’t got to him in all these years; what makes that nurse think she’s gonna be able to do it in a few weeks? He’s not gonna let them twist him and manufacture him." p. 120"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." p. 185"I thought back on the night, on what we’d been doing, and it was near impossible to believe. I had to keep reminding myself that it had truly happened, that we had made it happen. We had just unlocked a window and let it in like you let in the fresh air. Maybe the Combine wasn’t all-powerful. What was to stop us from doing it again, now that we saw we could? Or keep us from doing other things we wanted? I felt so good thinking about this that I gave a yell and swooped down on McMurphy and the girl Sandy walking along in front of me, grabbed them both up, one in each arm, and ran all the way to the day room with them hollering and kicking like kids. I felt that good." p. 226"Fear. Self-belittlement. I discovered at an early age that I was–shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better, more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society was pointing at me–and the great voice of millions chanting, ‘Shame. Shame. Shame.’ It’s society’s way of dealing with someone different.” p. 228"We couldn’t stop him because we were the ones making him do it. It wasn’t the nurse that was forcing him, it was our need that was making him push himself slowly up from sitting, his big hands driving down on the leather chair arms, pushing him up, rising and standing like one of those moving-picture zombies, obeying orders beamed at him from forty masters. It was us that had been making him go on for weeks, keeping him standing long after his feet and legs had given out, weeks of making him wink and grin and laugh and go on with his act long after his humor had been parched dry between two electrodes. "p.237
    • 3/5
      There is no rating for "this was very disturbing."
    • 5/5
      What follows is not a profound statement. Movies cannot pick up the nuances that are present in a novel. And so it is with Cuckoo’s Nest. I have seen the movie numerous times, but never read the book until recently. The movie is excellent. The novel is the next level. Which all goes to prove, I think I would rather watch the movie first, then read the book. In this case, I’m sure I would have been disappointed in the movie had I seen it first. (And an interesting sidetrack. I just finished “No Country for Old Men” and found it to almost perfectly mirror the movie [as I had been told by others]. Now, there was more I got from the book, but I really didn’t get the satisfaction because I was only getting what I’d seen in the movie. It would be interesting to have done those in the other order – book then movie – to see what difference it made.)All the memorable scenes from the movie are here, but there is a deeper context. This is achieved by telling the story through the eyes of the Chief. In the beginning, that story is colored by his brush with insanity. But reality slowly intrudes, just as McMurphy intrudes into the perfect system of the asylum. Through the Chief’s eyes we see the triumph of McMurphy. No, McMurphy doesn’t beat the system. But in his defeat others survive. Maybe this sounds trite, but in Kesey’s hands it is a true exploration and revelation. There is a grittiness to its reality, and the story moves along nicely. It is easy to understand why there was a desire to translate to a movie, and it is just as easy to see why this is such a successful book
    • 4/5
      “…Three geese in a flockOne flew EastOne flew WestAnd one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”The book’s narrator, Chief Bromden, who has been institutionalized since the end of WW II shared the ward’s events through his eyes. While he may have mental instabilities, he had the clearest vision seeing through what will set off who and how. He protected himself by acting deaf and mute. While the narrative centered primarily on Randle McMurphy, a character made famous by Jack Nicholson in the film, it is Bromden himself, his imaginative words describing what he sees and his background, that truly made this book a triumph.McMurphy is the newest patient into the ward; he orchestrated his own transfer from a prison work farm to the ward to avoid the hard labor. He immediately took over being the top dog and started a series of antagonizing events to gain additional freedom from the iron fist of “Big Nurse”, Nurse Ratched. While such freedom provided temporary relief, the price paid was also high. Weaved between these tales, we learned of Bromden’s father, Chief of the fictional Columbia River tribe (though there are genuine tribes that occupy the river), the interference of the government that brought about the demise of the tribe and ultimately his father to alcoholism. Several characters, including Bromden and McMurphy, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTD) as a result from their military time served. Bromden’s mind is invaded by screams of “AIR RAIDS” while McMurphy has a vacant emptiness that needs to be occupied by his random acts of rebellion. While I don’t recall the movie, I am aware of the ending which contaminated my enjoyment of the book. Having read the book now, I readily place Chief Bromden as the central figure instead of McMurphy. The exploitation of Native Americans, the PTSD of veterans, and the maltreatment of patients in mental institutions are all heavy subjects that are cleverly mixed with poker games, prostitutes, the World Series, and a fishing trip. Interestingly, Ken Kesey volunteered for a paid experimental study with the U.S. Army to take mind-altering drugs. He also worked as an attendant in a hospital’s psychiatric ward. These experiences led to the writing of the book. P.S. He hated the movie script and never watched the movie.Some Quotes:On Familiarity – no matter how twisted it is:“I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at.”On Alcoholism:“And the last I see him he’s blind in the cedars from drinking and every time I see him put the bottle to his mouth he don’t suck out of it, it sucks out of him until he’s shrunk so wrinkled and yellow even the dogs don’t know him.”On Laughter as a necessity:“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.”
    • 5/5
      Great book, I've seen the movie a few times so was curious about the original, very moving and entertaining story.

      This reading is very good, manages to carry the humour without minimising the impact of the drama underlying the events as they unfold.
    • 3/5
      Set in a hospital mental ward in the 1960s, this novel follows the story of Randle P McMurphy, a swaggering bullish gambling wisecracking man with a fighting heart who has engineered his committal to the hospital in order to avoid serving out his sentence on a prison work farm.What he finds on the ward is about 20 chronics, patients who are so far gone that they will never be cured or even interact rationally with the world around them, and about 20 acutes, patients who theoretically have a chance of successful treatment but who in reality are so rabbitlike in response to the “tender” mercy of the seemingly omnipresent and omniscient, big-brother style ward nurse (Big Nurse) that their true prospects of recovery seem to be slim to non-existent. The narrator is one of the chronics, “Chief” Bromden, a long term inmate who has pretended to be deaf and dumb for so long he has almost forgotten how to speak.McMurphy does all in his power to chivvy the patients out of their passive misery, starting a gambling school, organising a basketball team, standing up to the Big Nurse, joking and teasing all the way. His task seems hopeless. Yet he doesn’t seem able to stop, despite knowing that he is committed at the Big Nurse’s pleasure and that he is better off keeping his head down and his nose clean – he is on a collision course, risking his liberty, risking committal to the Disturbed ward, risking EST, even risking lobotomy. And for what?This is a chilling account – and it shows us in the clearest possible light how the inhuman treatment of people with mental illness can strip them of their dignity and self-esteem and can perpetuate or exacerbate their illness, or even cause a perfectly sane person to lose himself completely.As well as chilling, and tragic, the book is chock full of black humour and beauty. But for its built-in racism and misogyny, I might even be recommending it… Ho-hum.
    • 2/5
      I'm sure I'll be in a minority here but I didn't get on with this one at all. The Chief's back story was interesting, but I found the rest quite difficult to follow, and hard to care about
    • 5/5
      This is the most flawless book I have ever read. (Not the best--though probably in my top ten--but flawless, and efficient.) I went back a second time and could not find a spare sentence, not a spare word. I also went back to study how he conveyed Nurse (Ratched?), because she was so indelible, and I also recalled her coming across so quickly. She is there on the first page--page 3 of the book, I believe, or thereabouts. In one page, everything Louise Fletcher conveyed in the film--which was brilliant--was already there. Stunning.And the book never lets up. It is masterful from the first page to the last.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written book. This is an instant classic. I enjoyed it thoroughly, laughing and crying and being utterly confused at most parts. One of the best books out there.
    • 4/5
      Admittedly it took me two attempts to read this book, but I'm glad I picked it back up and finished reading it. The book was probably better than the film - although I enjoyed the film very much. There were a number of differences, and a lot of the characters were not as they were portrayed in the film.
    • 5/5
      This book was great! Take the greatness of the movie and then multiply it by a thousand, and you'll get a fraction of how great this book was. It was so hard to put down. I was really sad when it ended because I wanted there to be more.
    • 5/5
      I've been sitting on this one for years. The film has been one of my all-time favorites for a very long time, and I always intended to read the book one day, but I don't know why it has taken me until now to finally do it. I bought this copy some years back and it has been stacked amongst my unreads all this time. I think part of the reason I kept putting it off was, having seen the film, I knew how it would end and I wasn't sure I was ready for what I knew would come. But, having watched the film recently as part of a film list I was working through, I figured it was finally time.First, I have to say that I love Kesey's decision to have the story narrated from the perspective of Chief Bromden. While it is clearly McMurphy's story in the movie, it is also the story of how McMurphy helped the Chief and all the other patients under the tyranny of Nurse Ratched, so having Chief tell us how he felt before McMurphy and how the things he did affected someone who had come to accept life on the ward really helps the reader understand exactly why this story is so powerful, so important.I read through this one fast because it was hard to put it down. The Chief's descriptions of the Combine, all the works he saw that went in to the patients, the gears, the electronics, the surveillance equipment; all meant to grind a man down and control him so he fit into society, it is all so striking and really makes you think. This will definitely be going on my all-time favorite book list. I almost can't wait to read it again, though I'm going to give myself some time before that happens.
    • 5/5
      a true hero story, be prepared to meet one of the coolest guys in fiction. but which is better, the book or the movie? sad bitter and funny..