Rating: 
Summary: The best book I've ever read
Review: I first read this book when I was 14, and I've reread it five times since. It is, quite simply, the best book I've ever read.
This is a story about rules -- who makes them, who enforces them, and why. Randall P. McMurphy is a boisterous, bawdy gambler/conman who's faked his way into a mental institution. Nurse Ratchett is the dictatorial head nurse who *does not like* any disturbances on her ward. These are two high-ego and passionate characters who lock horns.
Ken Kesey's writing is exceptional. The characters are believable and the dialogue spurs you through the book. The book is even better than the Oscar-winning movie with Jack Nicholson.
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful, and Hilarious, Anti-Authoritarian Novel
Review: Ken Kesey himself will be forever associated with the happenings of the 1960s, but "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (1962), like other great novels, transcends its countercultural origins. Nearly forty years on, with over 8 million copies sold, it has become an essential part of postwar American literature. The setting: a mental hospital in Portland, Oregon, in the 1950s. The terrified, ill-treated inmates cower under the evil Nurse Ratched, who is all-seeing, all-controlling. Enter the hero, Randall Patrick McMurphy, a brawling, gambling womaniser who, as his initials suggest, is there to induce a revolution. The slowly escalating conflict is played out in a simple four-part structure, building towards an inevitable and moving climax. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is narrated in the first person by Chief Bromden, a half-Indian thought by all to be deaf-mute, and his extended flashback of events allows Kesey to mix reality and hallucinations to brilliant effect. By presenting the mental hospital, explicitly, as a microcosm of broader society, Kesey urges us to consider our own lives in the light of the events he describes. Its simple structure belies the fact that "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is a feast of allegory: of good versus evil, man versus machine, sexual freedom versus repression; of McMurphy himself as humorously subversive Christ figure, as bringer of fertility, and many more - and watch out for the white whale shorts and stuttering Billy, "Faulknerian brain burning", and even some hidden rhymes at the end of part 3! But spare us the half-baked Freudian interpretations which Kesey himself so roundly mocks. And pay no heed to the charges of sexism and racism levelled at Kesey's novel: his playful plotting and comic-strip characters make such criticism futile. Kesey balances it beautifully: amidst the ribald humour, there is just enough realism to keep us engrossed; and this reviewer little doubts that the systematic cruelty and dehumanisation practised by Ratched and her aides is commonplace in our prisons, mental hospitals and wherever else we lock away the "undesirables". Indeed, it isn't surprising to find that Kesey worked in a mental hospital before writing "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and his acquaintances there filtered into the novel; some a little too obviously, perhaps, viz. the (originally female) "Public Relations" who sued Kesey in order to get her character changed. Kesey also tried out electric shock treatment firsthand, and was part of a government program testing psychoactive drugs, his experiences with LSD forming the basis of Bromden's electrifying hallucinations. Now, although Kesey himself may be pretty wacky, he has no personal experience of schizophrenia, and his portrayal of mental illness and its causes has been justly criticised as simplistic. But "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is not, primarily, meant as a contribution to psychiatric therapy, and criticism of it on these grounds is somewhat wide of the mark. We should be glad that Kesey successfully attempted a greater task: to write an anti-authoritarian novel of immense power, forcing us to question the "Combine" seeking to control us all. Kesey's next book "Sometimes A Great Notion" (1964) is more subtle: a long, complex, involving tale set in an Oregon logging town. Fans of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" should perhaps first try "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe, in which Kesey himself challenges 1960s America with some crazy escapades of his own, thumbing his nose at authority in the same spirit, one senses, as his hero Mr McMurphy.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever
Review: Easily my favorite book. There are 4 or 5 characters that are so interesting that they could have written an entire book about them alone. The book never fails to surprise you, right up til the very end and has a good message about living life to the fullest.
Rating:
Summary: Look at the world inside-out!
Review: What is the world you see when you read this book? It may not be real, but that doesn't make it any less true. Here is a place where feelings become sensations and overpower the "real world". On the face of it, the action takes place in a lunatic asylum. It could just as well be our world. It's populated by a lot of characters that feel more sane than the keepers of the place. The maker of all the rules - the Big Nurse - is the scariest of all, in her confidence that this is entirely her world, run as she likes. Enter Randall Patrick Macmurphy. Rules? What rules? They don't exist as far as he's concerned. This world is just another to be moulded to his liking. Within a minute of his entry, he's run up against the Nurse. Every inmate sees something new about life- it's possible not to follow someone else's rules and live to tell the tale. The Nurse's world cracks up, bit by bit. R.P.Mcmurphy too realizes the extent to which it's possible to fall into the games life creates. This is one character you'll remember forever - and the lesson he preaches. All the inmates - you included - learn that the game is a game only as long as you know you're playing it. Get caught up and you're just a token on the board. Ken Kesey talks through Chief Bromden - an indian who plays at being deaf and dumb in an effort to run from the game. Grammar is an easy prey to the Chief's onrushing thoughts as he struggles to keep up with the speed of events around him. The prose sparkles with electricity as he "sees" his feelings and expresses them as events. Hostility in the air becomes a chill, and the sensation of death is falling into a furnace. This is a book that reads like walking through a "hall of crazy mirrors". You look back on yourself and don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Rating:
Summary: wkrc wcpo cpo drehz
Review: Your mother is insistent...
What do you do for a living?
memetic foraging money methods mother
drez thinks he's Uncle Al calling a mother
world biochemical com totes krc?
milch sagte drez softly
rob lang kit tim?
the fullerene bucky tube from try our pineal TATA homeobox
we have an array of handsome technology for you to have
and to cherish until death do you part
Synchrotron Lithography Div.
The Great Imitator is an Illusion.
what daedalus
blinks of target character on tube..
pings for each time they blink
your exchange can list odds
somebody after drehz?
not us... we work too
drehz say goodnight drehz
jesus save borneo horticulturists cup for you drehz...
Tomorrow testing the olfactory electronics and blink timing chain
only needs to be hooked up
Rating: 
Summary: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Review: Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a classic anti-authority novel and a pretty good read. The story is told by Chief Bromden, a fragile giant who has delusions about the Combine, a conspiracy that runs the economy and keeps the population under control. In the mental hospital where he lives, the Combine is capably represented by Nurse Ratched, a rather tightly wound mother figure. Using a combination of psychological manipulation, drugs, and shock therapy, she and the rest of the staff keep the inmates in a passive state of acquiescence until her system is upset by the arrival of McMurphy, a red-headed drifter and non-conformist. The point of the book, of course, is to show how socialization processes have a homogenizing, leveling effect. Societies work best when people are interchangeable; exceptional people, or people who can't fit in, are usually not welcome.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgetable -- and Brilliant!
Review: In his attempt to convey what he believed to be "the essentially schizophrenic nature of mankind," Kesey, rather than telling the tale from the perspective of an uninvolved "God-Narrator," or from that of R. P. McMurphy, who might have been too involved in the main action, opted to present the story from the point of view of one of the psycho ward's bystanding schizophrenic inmates; "the Big Chief."
By telling the tale through the Chief's schizophrenic eyes, Kesey was able to, not merely "tell" the tale from an "eye witness perspective," but actually "show" the tale in a sort of "poetic-sensurround;" the reader would come to understand and appreciate the healing effect provided by McMurphy's inspiring individualism as the Chief's narration became progressively less "schizophrenic," and more concrete and objective as the story moved forward.
Additionally, it gave Kesey a viable way to provide the story with a mystical, supernatural quality. This, in turn, enabled him to give full force and effect, through the Chief's altered perception, to his allegoric and metaphoric symbolism; allowed him to have the Chief see and hear impressionistic and imaginary stimuli as though they were solid objects and real actions and occurrences, allowed him to turn the verbal and mental sparring between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched into epic battles waged between mythical, larger-than-life titans, between the very forces of good and evil itself. In sum, it enabled Kesey to convey a deeper, more personal and more spiritual reality in his story, on a variety of psychological levels, and in a manner that allows the reader to experience events 1st hand, as a bystanding schizophrenic, rather than merely collect story-related data like a detached observer. This is certainly one novel you simply don't want to miss! Unforgetable in every way. Along with ONE FLEW, I'd like to recommend another Amazon quick-pick: THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating: 
Summary: one flew over the cookoo's nest
Review: This book was a very interesting read. Never giving much thought to the way mental health hospitals worked myself, I found it very eye opening to see just how wrong one could go. Yes I know the book is fiction, but it was very believable. MY favorite character was Randal McMurphy. "Is he really insane? Or is he just faking it to get out of the work camp and to make some quick money off these crazies?" You won't find out until the end if his intensions are noble or not. I really loved this book. The men on the ward break free from the over powering Nurse Ratchet and McMurphy leads the way. The book is never boring. The Patients are constantly testing the Nurses patients and control.
Rating:
Summary: An Assignment that I Chose for my Contemporary Lit. Class
Review: I chose this book to read as my selection for this section of four weeks around. My Teacher, Mr. Hoest was impressed that I would choose such a strong book as this. If I had not ever seen the movie, I think I too would have gone for something easy. This book was very,... different compared to most books.The Plot was interesting because of how it started off and caught you off guard beginning with the Chief just cleaning. Then, it slowly edged into McMurphy becoming the new patient and what the Cheif thought of him. I originally thought it was in the view of McMurphy (Because the Movie was like that, I believe?), but it was in the view of the Chief and that was different to me. I just assumed it was in the view of him I guess. I figured it was him talking about his experiences with someone but it wasn't. My favorite character was definatly Harding. I didn't think he even belonged in that insitution. He was the odd Acute out to me. The Big Nurse was a good "Antagonist" because she was the head on the ward and I was glad that eventually McMurphy could teach them to stand up for what they thought was right instead of always backing down in fear of the Shock Shop or getting moved to the Disturbed Ward. I did however have to read some parts over to understand them. But that's not at the fault of Ken Kensey. I am a bit young to be reading something like this. I loved the book, and I'm sure that I read it over again when I'm older.
Rating:
Summary: Little has changed in 30 years and what's old is new again
Review: This book is a masterpiece of American Literature. The writing is wonderful and the insight into this facet of "The Human Condition" is unmatched. I feel that this book should be required reading for all medical students and should be part of a required medical ethics class at all medical schools.
This work has profound implications far beyond the those related to the medical community. This book raises questions regarding due process, habeas corpus, and American civil rights in general. Proof that this book is truely a classic has already arrived. These problems have returned upon our nation and what is old is now new again. Consider the shocking, current, real-life case of the crusading Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, a prominent Harrisburg Pennsylvania psychiatrist, in these articles:
the Philadelphia Daily News, Wed, Jul. 07, 2004
"Lawsuit: State fired shrink for exposing abuse"
By NICOLE WEISENSEEEGAN
the British Medical Journal, July 10, 2004
"Whistleblower charges medical oversight bureau with corruption"
Jeanne Lenzer
These articles are related to the "mental health initiative" that was announced by GW Bush and was based heavily on the Texas TMAP guidelines, which were developed and implemented in Texas while Bush was governor. The initiative was announced by Bush's "New Freedom Commission on Mental Health" and apparently involves wholesale testing of Americans, even school children, for mental illness and the administration of drugs to those found "wanting in sanity".
It appears that corrupt drug companies are currently trying to turn all of America into "the Oregon mental hospital" written about in this book. With the enormous Vioxx scandal in the news right now, is this really hard to believe? It shouldn't be.
In many states now one phone call can result in an innocent person being stripped of their rights, detained, interrogated, and possibly drugged to dangerous levels. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" should concern anyone who believes that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are more than just words.
If you appreciate the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", I also recomend the following
Books:
"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf
"The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
TV:
"I Am Furious Yellow", Simpsons episode
Movies:
"Anger Management", staring Adam Sandler
"Chicago", staring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger
"A Perfect Murder" staring Michael Douglas
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