One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Don't overlook this novel...
Review: Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of R.P. McMurphy, a con artist who goes from life on a prison work farm to life inside a mental hospital run by the evil, conniving Nurse Ratched. By refusing to follow "ward policy," McMurphy joins forces with the other patients and makes it his sole objective to defy and defeat Nurse Ratched, whatever the cost may be.

After purchasing the movie version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I wanted desperately to read the novel because I felt that it too could prove to be a classic. It was. Kesey's book is vivid, alive, and shocking. It provides an insightful look at life on a mental ward in the early 1950's and 1960's. If you are ever in a book store or a library and happen to come across this novel, don't hesitate to pick it up. Every second spent reading will be worth it. I guarantee it.


Rating:
Summary: A great read.
Review: I had the pleasure of reading this classic a few months ago after I chose it off a list of books for an english paper. Little did I know that I had made a great choice. I have always enjoyed books that centered on individuality and rebellion's against the rest of the society. This book is no different. It follows the story of Randall McMurphy, who throughout the novel tries in every which way to disobey those with power in order to find a way out of the mental hospital for himself and to help the other members of the ward in escaping as well. He becomes a teacher for the ward, a helper for them. Many characterize him as a Christ like figure, as Kesey does provide enough evidence that he may have been notioning such an idea from the beginning through language, character descriptions, and events that parallel events from the Bible. This novel has become one of my favorites and opened up my heart to other classics such as The Great Gatsby and Catch-22. If it were not for "One Flew Over," I'd probably still be content with more recent novels. Thank you, Mr. Kesey, for such a fantastic book. It reads rather quickly and leaves you with a satisfied feeling at the end. "One Flew Over" has one of the best endings I've read in a very long time, possibly ever. I did not believe it would end as it did, but it makes complete sense when you sit back and think of the novel as a whole. Well done, Kesey, your effort is well appreciated and strongly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: A great read.
Review: I had the pleasure of reading this classic a few months ago after I chose it off a list of books for an english paper. Little did I know that I had made a great choice. I have always enjoyed books that centered on individuality and rebellion's against the rest of the society. This book is no different. It follows the story of Randall McMurphy, who throughout the novel tries in every which way to disobey those with power in order to find a way out of the mental hospital for himself and to help the other members of the ward in escaping as well. He becomes a teacher for the ward, a helper for them. Many characterize him as a Christ like figure, as Kesey does provide enough evidence that he may have been notioning such an idea from the beginning through language, character descriptions, and events that parallel events from the Bible. This novel has become one of my favorites and opened up my heart to other classics such as The Great Gatsby and Catch-22. If it were not for "One Flew Over," I'd probably still be content with more recent novels. Thank you, Mr. Kesey, for such a fantastic book. It reads rather quickly and leaves you with a satisfied feeling at the end. "One Flew Over" has one of the best endings I've read in a very long time, possibly ever. I did not believe it would end as it did, but it makes complete sense when you sit back and think of the novel as a whole. Well done, Kesey, your effort is well appreciated and strongly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Ken Kesey's "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a modern classic and an excellent novel. Cuckoo's Nest follows the life of Chief Bromden as he silently observes the antics of the patients and staff of Big Nurse's ward in an insane asylum. Cuckoo's Nest is well written and after the first 50 or so pages I was hooked.

This is the type of book that raises a large number of questions about our society. On one level it treats the issue of man vs. machine as the inmates square off with the emotionless staff at the asylum. On another it will cause you to question who really is insane and are those people insane because they are truly mentally challenged or do they simply see the world differently than the majority? Kesey shows how even the insane remain human and desire freedom and emotion and thus follows the tale.

While very different in approach, this novel shares some central themes with the modern "Life of Pi". This connection is revealed in perhaps one of the most thought provoking statements of the novel "It's the truth even if it didn't happen"

I would recommend this book to all who can stand a serious, thoughtprovoking read.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid Prose, Juvenile Ideas
Review: Two stars for the occasional vividness of Keysey's writing--and no more for the tiresome use to which it's been put. Stanley Kauffmann, mentioning this book in his review of the film version, referred to it was one of those books he "needn't read--simply outlive." And perhaps the time will come that this story of a psychopath looking for a cushy ride in a mental hospital and locking horns with the tough nurse in charge is seen as the whinings of a perpetual adolescent and not some epic struggle between freedom and conformity. All Randall MacMurphy wants to be free to do is steal and cheat and toy with women sexually. Subtract the hero-worshipping tone, and we have a denizen of a true-crime magazine story, the sort of lowlife the cops pick up after a string of violent rape-murders or robberies. In the end, you don't have to like Nurse Ratched to wonder if she might have done the world a favor . . .

Rating:
Summary: Vivid Prose, Juvenile Ideas
Review: Two stars for the occasional vividness of Keysey's writing--and no more for the tiresome use to which it's been put. Stanley Kauffmann, mentioning this book in his review of the film version, referred to it was one of those books he "needn't read--simply outlive." And perhaps the time will come that this story of a psychopath looking for a cushy ride in a mental hospital and locking horns with the tough nurse in charge is seen as the whinings of a perpetual adolescent and not some epic struggle between freedom and conformity. All Randall MacMurphy wants to be free to do is steal and cheat and toy with women sexually. Subtract the hero-worshipping tone, and we have a denizen of a true-crime magazine story, the sort of lowlife the cops pick up after a string of violent rape-murders or robberies. In the end, you don't have to like Nurse Ratched to wonder if she might have done the world a favor . . .

Rating:
Summary: Funny, Interesting, Not-quite-as-brilliant-as-kesey-thinks
Review: While Kesey's Nest is imaginative, it hardly seems the world-bending peyote-inspired trip that Kesey and reviewers claim. The novel is solidly constructed, but tends to run shallow at times. The Freudian reduction of all psychology to sex is perhaps titillating (see climax), but is banally anachronistic (hopefully). Kesey's McMurphy, like Kerouac's Moriarty, is a character of astounding vitality and transcendant humanity; and it is Kesey's portrayal of McMurphy's tragically madcap antics that makes this book worth reading. The episode of the "psycho-ceramic" salmon-fishing expedition is particularly hilarious. Some of the details of the psychiatric ward are haunting, but Kesey doesn't depict the fragility of sanity or the horror of power as poignantly as others have. Kesey's absurdity is too entertaining to be that disturbing.