Ken Kesey Books

This book deserves to be a classic and may remain one for quite a long time. The first reason is that it is an adventure book in a strange country, beyond all frontiers and borders, in a psychic world, that of an asylum. It is full of suspense and typically the fight between two people, an inmate, a man, on one hand, a nurse, a woman, on the other hand. Both white with the rest of the personnel being black and the rest of the inmates being europeans, except for one who is an Indian. Clear cut adventure and action with blood, violence, wit and enough sex to be appealing. The second reason is that it is an extremely detailed trip down into the psychiatric health system, into the institutionalizing of all displeasing people, all disrupting people, all disquieting people, in one word people that cannot live in society without causing some kind of a stir. All types are studied here and all cases are refused as being the results of some repressed personal sexual drive. It may be the case, but most of the time it is just plain repressed individuals, rejected individualities, refused personalities. They are locked up away from society for this society to go on thinking all its members are beautiful, clever and brilliantly aware of what the future will be and what they have to do to make it come faster. But that is not all. The novel is an allegory too, an allegory of what changing a society may be, of what historical change may mean. The allegory follows a pattern. Change can only come from the rebellion of the victims of the dominant social order, the Combine as Chrief Bromden calls it. This is the typical revolutionary pattern. But Kesey adds the fact that this rebellion of the main victims can only come if some particular person arrives among them and wakes up in them the energies they need to become rebellious, to recapture their freedom from the Combine. The pattern of the Savior, the guru, etc. But this pattern is defeated in a way because the Combine's strategy will be to isolate this leader, victimize him in order to reduce his influence, or even destroy him if necessary, in this case with a good old lobotomy that leaves him a vegetable for everyone to admire in fear and awe. And yet things will fail for the Combine, because in any modern democratic society people are individuals and they use their individual rights to vote with their feet against the Combine. In a word the Combine fails because everyone runs away from it and leves it alone in the battlefield which is no longer a battlefield but a plain empty wasteland. That's how the Combine is forced to accept change and to change. This optimistic ending is contained in the symbolic last scene or episode, that of the self-liberation and escape of the Indian Chief. He finds out and we find out with him that nothing was wrong with him, except that his presence was disruptive for the plans of the Combine that required his village to be bought up and its inhabitants to be scattered and taken care of with good old fire-water. And that is the last level of allegory : the repressed past of a country, people, culture, individual will always finds its way to freedom and regeneration, and then the whole world will have to make do with it. The Combine, the establishment of any society, can always sacrifice some people, leaders or not, on the altar of their established power, sooner or later this established power will crumble under the pushing from those it has repressed and exploited since it took over from another establishment before it. Cyclical instating of one establishment against another and of its falling down in front of a third one. Is there any meaning in these historical cycles ? No one knows and no one can know, though quite too many people pretend to know and have a ball of crystal in the back of their eyes. One flaw however at the beginning of Part IV: Chief Bromden loses his grip on the narrator's point of view and suddenly knows the private thoughts of our dear Queen Ratched.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne

The book One Flew over the cooko's nest was a really good book. The way that the author wrote it through the mind of one of the characters I think was pretty cool. My favorite part of the book was when McMurpy taught Cheif and all of the other men how to stand up for themselves and not let Nurse Ratched control them or their decitions.

I like how the story functions as a metaphorical apologia and still have an exacting terra incognita. When Broom describes the way Pete's hand turning into ball, he says that with a feeling like that was an excrescence, or an abnormal growth. He says everything like it was sweet as a cyclamen and cheap as a flophouse. In recapulation, the book was great. It shows a man's look from the outside of a place where he shouldn't be.

This book may not be uplifting, but is masterfully written because it grabs hold of the reader and does not let go. I could hardly put this book down, and when I did, the only thing I could think about was how much I hated the Big Nurse. She is truly one of the worst villains I have ever encountered in literature. She needed psychological help perhaps more than any of her mental patients. The symbolism and imagery used throughout the book was wonderful and I thought about this book long after I finished it. The ending was bittersweet, yet satisfying. I would recommend this book to just about anyone.

The book, One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, written through the point of view of an Native American, named Bromden, who has a sophisticated way of looking at things. He sees right through the facade of the physical and into the hearts of man. The subtleties are not to decieve this simple man, but they do imprison him. He lives in an asylum for rehabilitation into society, yet their life affirming egoes are put down by the "Big Nurse" whom acts as if conforming is to be spiritually dead. To change all of this is R.S. McMurphy, a country wit who has the biggest ego of em all, boasting to win every bet even life. He doesn't plan to stay in this nut house, he is saner than any man could possibly be; he loves to be alive. By being in the asylum, he contradicts all activity that occurs, he laughs and sings, and everyone else, is dead.

McMurphy's antics disrupt the Nurses control over the asylum, and they start what can be called a psychological war. The Nurse is declared savior of the asylum, yet through Bromdens insight we clearly see the opposite, as the men in the asylum are destroyed by the pressure placed on their minds. These two dominating charachters create two choices for the men; to stand up for their identities and gamble them in life, or to leave their minds to be molded in the Nurses structure. The antics of both maintain the book full of thrills and anticipation as the showdown between the Nurse and McMurphy comes to hand. The ending will move you. This has the benefits of genius, Ken Kessey writes so that every detail be investigated, and he affirms that with every defeat comes a more intricate victory.

This tall tale from the late sixties concerns Ken Kesey's six month stint in jail, his 'straight time'.

In some respects this journal is a art deco paisley snapshot of an uncomfortable moment in Kesey's life. Like Leary, Ken had a good time tuning in, turning on, and dropping out, but the sub-text of this cheerily defiant counter-culture rave, like the poem at the beginning of Demon Box, is that he paid for it dearly.

That aside, Ken's writing in the jail journal as in Demon Box, was pretty damn good. Reading his clean, wry, and self-reflective prose, I wish he had continued to turn out this kind of writing (Perhaps he did?). One can only imagine the blog he would have put out.

In short, popular culture depicts the later Kesey as a kind of burnt out counter-culture warrior but these two bits of writing suggest otherwise.

Get ready for quite a trip...this really isn't a book, it's a time machine. Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the journey, courtesy of the one and only Ken Kesey.

Many of the icons of the counterculture movement spent 1967's famous Summer of Love in places like Swinging London, Monterrey or Haight-Ashbury. Kesey was far removed from the heart of the action during those months--he was serving out a jail sentence for his conviction on a marijuana possession charge. Thanks to his lack of a previous record, Kesey was able to do most of his time in a sheriff's honor camp, an experiment in rehabilitation nestled in the California redwoods.

Kesey managed to keep a journal of his days in confinment, pouring forth his raw emotions, vivid dreams, sometimes gentle, sometimes agressive encounters with authority figures and fellow prisoners. He supplemented his writings with a series of vivid paintings and drawings that helped capture the chaotic nature of the experience.

After his release, Kesey had hoped to publish the journal, but found that the available printing technology couldn't do his illustrations justice. By the mid 1990s, he had revived the project, and was in the final stages of preparing it for publication at the time of his death in 2001. So, if you are a lover of Kesey's works, get this volume, read it, celebrate it, and hold it close. This is a stream-of-consciousness, often profane, nakedly honest record of a pivotal summer in one of the great creative lives of the 20th century.--William C. Hall

i love the artwork in this book - and keyz's letter to a friend named jerry at 710 ashbury street certainly doesn't hurt at luring your attention.. i bet even if you couldn't read you could find something stimulating about this book - check it out

The main question examined in this boisterous, original work of art is when you should "hold your mud." Ken Kesey - Hippie Number One - spent the summer of love incarcerated for a drug conviction. He was America's most promising young novelist when he announced that he was taking an indefinite break from writing novels. His first creative work after this was an unfinished marathon film of a bus ride to Furthur. What he produced next was an amalgam: a personal collage that grabs the reader's eyes and heart on every page.

If Kesey's Jail Journal had been published in its entirety when it was finished, (instead of decades later with some pages lost to prison guards) it probably would have been a sensation. At least it would have gotten a wide audience to see how a blend of images and words could be more immediately affecting and powerful than straight prose. Most pages of printed text are accompanied by that text incorporated into a collage drawing he made in jail. These pages appear like displays of Japanese Calligraphy at the Met. The words are given extra meaning by how they are presented visually.

His illustrations are disarming and masterful. The accompanying text tells easily understood stories in simple, poetic prose. These are seemingly small snippets of life, but Kesey uses them to demonstrate the power structures, personal motivations, and racial tensions underlying every interaction. Kesey wants to create, be free and play - but he must hold his mud enough to keep from losing all of his privileges; along with the book that he is making - which begins to have an importance of its own.

Every page of this book is an ode to the artistic spirit. In prison and at a work camp, Kesey has to contend with the whims of guards and their rules in order to keep his book alive as he creates it. On some pages, he has more varied materials to draw with than on others. The dance between Kesey's creative impulse and the repression of the state institution plays out within and above the book. The effect is a touching display of creativity rising above the obstacles it encounters.

Anyone who wants to have a discussion or book group on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" should read this genre-busting book. From the institutional setting; from the imprisoned individuals who have transgressed society's mores; from the blunt way rules are imposed on the deficient; from the wily, red-haired, Oregonian protagonist; from the detailed look at the daily mechanisms of an on-going power structure; all the way down to the farcical (and mandatory) group meetings: there are numerous parallels to Kesey's first novel.

But this was Kesey's real life, not McMurphy's fictional morality play. Kesey has a wife and kids on the outside. He does not reach a point (like McMurphy does in "Cuckoo") where he sees a moral imperative to throw himself into a bitter and mortal struggle on behalf of his fellow inmates. In his Jail Journal, the real Kesey is careful to hold his mud: keeping a lid on his emotions, allowing guards to paint over his decorated shed, at times hiding and smuggling his book.

While he looks out for himself, he looks out at others and provides touching portraits of interesting characters he meets.

Kesey is a master at understanding power and how it is used and abused. His Jail Journal (which the publisher, holding his mud, calls "Kesey's Jail Journal" instead of its real title, "Cut the M************ Loose") is a universal description of the struggle of the individual against the institution. (played out externally against the power structure's guardians and within the individual who pits his courage and principles against his pragmatic self-preservation)

It is also an important document of its time. Kesey sees and unflinchingly displays the divisiveness of race - the veneer of calm on the surface with root conflicts simmering below. Kesey also demonstrates the distrust of the establishment towards drugs, and how conservatives viciously defended the status quo on day-to-day behavior in the sixties. His fate and his evolving ideals serve an important counter-point to the standard tales of reckless freedom and blindness to consequence that are often set in the summer of 1967.

Highly recommended.

I recently saw the original Jail Journal on display in Eugene, Oregon at an art museum. It was filled with excellent illustrations (very 60s, of course) and some wonderful diary entries by Kesey (who really has a way with words). I had a great time reading the pages, which were arranged on the walls in order, and am going to be pruchasing this book so I can have a version at home to look at in the future.

Next to Jay Stevens' classic "Storming Heaven" and Don Snyder's wonderful photographic essay "Aquarian Odyssey," make room on your bookshelf for Peter O. Whitmer's seven-dimensional biography "Aquarius Revisited." Combining well-written history and targeted recent interviews, we meet seven of the elemental forces who shaped the counter-culture of the Sixties as the outrageous, facinating, and above all intelligent souls that laid the groundwork for the last great movement our century will see. William S. Burroughs; Allen Ginsberg; Key Kesey; Timothy Leary; Norman Mailer; Tom Robbins; Hunter S. Thompson: some are gone, some are still with us, but all come together here to make a biography not only of seven people, but of a way of life, thought and hope.

A great collection of tales from "the greater generation"

Peter O. Whitmer is a writer and clinical psychologist and Bruce Van Wyngarden a magazine editor, both "children of the sixties." First published in 1987, "Aquarius Revisited" offers readers a penetrating look at some of the iconic figures of what the authors describe as the "Acid Generation," reflecting the degree to which drug use fueled at least some of the creativity the era spawned.

In AR, we meet seven of the personalities who gave shape and color to the counterculture of the 1960's: unconventional, intriguing, and, for the most part, profoundly wise souls that built the philosophic, spiritual, literary and aesthetic foundations one of the most significant movements that the twentieth century has produced.

AR is well-written history with penetrating interviews of William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Key Kesey, Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins and Hunter S. Thompson. Illustrative background information is offered with chapters on the Esalen Institute, UC Berkeley and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's Rajneeshpuram commune.

These seven fathers (they are, for some reason, all male) are all avatars who in a large sense created a movement that changed America, hopefully for good. As a group they are the aesthetic of evolution, the wellsprings of revolution, and, in the author's words, "they peer into the future, saying `there is always more.' They are the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night."

This is a delicious book, a treat for the soul, that realistically portrays some of the reasons for "the way we were."

Happened upon this nifty book in the counterculture section of my local bookstore and bought two copies.

The author takes us on a spirited, insightful sojourn through the backalleys of America's true icons and offers up zillions of interesting sidetracks along the way.

He doesn't mince too many words when disclosing the nitty gritty opinions that each of the protagonists has of one another - this makes for a more interesting read than many works which simply glorify all their subjects.

Additionally, somehow the author has an uncanny finger on the pulse of what we really want to hear about on the way, such as the piece on James Dean - his significance and his death. The section on Hunter S. Thompson is a riot!!!

This is a nice addition to your psychedelic editions.

This is an excellent, well-written book. It provides a probing first-person look at some of the great acid heroes of the sixties; Leary, Kesey, Ginsberg, Thompson, etc. My only criticism is that even though the author has a somewhat critical eye towards the foibles of these Great Men, and gets in a few zingers at their expense, theres nonetheless a slightly fawning tone, partiularly towards Timothy Leary, surely one of the most dispicable figures to rise from the dregs of the 60s. If you're curious about reading more about these guys you might wanna check out my manuscript-in-progress simply titled "ACID" which I'm writing on-line on my website, www.geocities.com/acebackwords2002

what the hell?? i can't beleive the book's out of print, this bokk is amazing!! a work of pure genius!!!!!! ken kesey retells the entire story of the pranksters and the further bus in script form, with over 100 color pics!!!!!!!!!! get this book!!!!!!

"Are you on the bus or off the bus?" That was the crucial question posed by proto-hippies Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady and their band of Merry Pranksters who toured the country in the original Magic Bus on the first Magical Mystery Tour, most famously recounted by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In The Further Inquiry, Kesey examines the trip 25 years after the fact through a surreal courtroom drama. While the text itself is not as engrossing as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Kesey's first book which catapulted him to early fame at 23), devotees of Beat will find the bus tramscript snippets of interest and the layout and full-color pages throughout make this big bad hardback a treasure worth hunting.

The exceptionally good design anticipates hypertext in a way which few printed books have done (the collaborations of McCluhan and Fiore being other notable examples). With color photographs, film stills, and other enhanced imagery, the book is a visual feast with many whimsical touches, including a black-and-white flipbook movie of a dancing Cassady in the right margin. It is less an inquiry than a celebration. As one character proclaims of Cassady: "He was joyous. He could take social and emotional and cosmic changes just like he could take ninety-degree corners...on four wheels or two. My god, didn't you ever read On the Road? He was a living legend!"

This book is about the ghost of Neal Cassady being put on trial for his part in the Merry Prankster bus trip. Kesey wrote a pretty funny book which touches on the highlights of the famous bus trip told through a courtroom drama with various Pranksters testifying. The book has a lot of interesting photographs taken from the trip. Do not read this book looking for a lot of detail about the trip and the Pranksters(Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool Aid Test" covers that). This book is a fun, quick read.

This play follows more closely the book than the movie, the dialouge is a little flat at times, but ultimately stays true to the authors story.

How many works of art have three hit incarnations?

This was an outstanding novel, an outstanding movie, and is an outstanding play as well.

Randle McMurphy seems like the kind of boisterous rowdy that you could love or hate after meeting him in a bar. He is full of vitality and humor, and is never afraid to stand up to any authority he perceives as being wrong-headed.

When he's sentenced to an asylum, and comes into conflict with the wonderfully wicked Nurse Ratched, a war ensures that escalates beyond all reason. Ratched is determined to preserve her dictatorial authority over the ward, and McMurphy is equally determined to rebel.

The story line also features a cast of unforgettable supporting characters, from the strong and stoic Chief Bromdem to the pathetically vulnerable Billy Bibbit. Their background noise, and their status as pawns in the ongoing chess match between McMurphy and Ratched, breathe life into the play and elevate it above other plays.

While the issue of patient abuse in mental wards has long since become old news (thanks in part to the novel), the universal issues of human dignity and compassion are what ultimately makes this play tick.

I recommend this play, both to prospective readers and to theater folks trying to decide on their next production. This is a story that doesn't get stale.

I saw this play last night, and I have to say, it was probably the most powerful and moving experience I've ever had. It is, of course, also, one of the most depressing and terrifying things I've seen. I was still shaking the next morning. Absolutely incredible. If you see a performance advertised, SEE IT.

This collection of writings chronicling Kesey's life in the decades following his dual notoriety as leader of the Merry Pranksters and one of the brightest literary lights of his generation is full of surprises. Kesey pulls no punches in outlining how the golden dream of the '60s turned to ashes over time, with many of its symbolic leaders falling away. He spares no one, least of all himself, in these pages.

And yet, this is not a grim or depressing read. Detailing with tremendous humor and gusto his journeys to China and Egypt, as well as offering poignant observations on the passing of personal heroes like John Lennon and Neal Casssdy, Kesey emerges as a fully realized person whose flaws only make him more fascinating.

While Demon Box can hardly compare to a towering masterwork like Sometime a Great Notion, it is a deeply rewarding book. One that can be revisited on numerous occasions with enhanced, not diminished, enjoyment.

Using Kerouac's technique of writing autobiographical fiction (the events may be true, but the names have been changed), Kesey presents DEMON BOX, a series of short shorties and vinettes depicting his life on his farm in Oregon.

Relating a variety of experiences, ranging from scary hangers on to adventures with farm animals, and fallout from the drug haze of the '60's, Kesey vividly captures specific times and places. His humor, characterization and descriptions of geographical space (my native Oregon)all remain intact and on a level with his finest work.

Some vinettes are obviously more memorable than others and often the writing seems unfocused and in need of editing.

This is really a small matter considering that this is the closest to a autobiography the world will ever get. DEMON BOX certainly makes for a strong and worthwhile read.

The passing of Kesey last month led me to the Demon Box. I immediately fell under his spell...again. His classic third person writings are on glorious display here. Most short story collections usually are interspersed with good and bad and that is the case here. However, the good ones are great and Kesey has turned me on once again with his psycho-traumas. Kesey proves he is the best at stream of conscience writing. From the bulls on his farm to John Lennon on the night he died to his reluctance to revisit the ward, Kesey very neatly puts it all in perspective. A truly enjoyable read. He will be missed.

ken kesey is one of my favorite authors. sometimes a great notion is one the best novels i have ever read. after reading the electric kool aid acid test, demon box is a logical followup.

this series of short stories has highs and lows. the very best is now we know how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall. written about the death of john lennon, kesey, through interactions with people immediately before, at the time of,and immediately after the murder, shows the transition of culture from the sixties to the eighties. the death of lennon is the end of the dream of the sixties. it alone is worth the purchase of the book.

another great story is the tranny man over the border. its most interesting part deals with kesey's father.

a story about his farm animals, abdul and ebenezer, is hilarious.

this book gives the kesey fans a better understanding of the man, his family, and his friends.

ken kesey is my favourite author, his books just beg to be read and this was no exception. it's a collection of short stories and so of course it's not all going to be great, though the parts you least expect to like are for the best part the highlight of the book. the story about killer, the stories written from the viewpoint of his grandmother and the return to the mental ward which was the inspiration for one flew over the cuckoos nest are all great stories and there are so many others. read and enjoy. prepare to be baffled, confused and dumbstruck but above all prepare to be taken to other places, better times and marvel in the genius that was ken kesey. may he rest in peace.

I enjoyed this book very much. It gave a wonderful yet somewhat depressing look into the lives of mental patients during the sixties. It also showed how rebellion only got you deeper into the hand's of the government. Through the main character's eyes, you got to know and maybe even understand each and every one of these patients on a different level of intensity. Some made it passed the system and others did not. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Set in a mental hospital, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a fiction novel by Ken Kesey, describes how R.P. McMurphy, a very spirited patient, takes over not only his ward, but the Head Nurse and other patients as well. He takes extreme measures to make the other patients basically come out of their shells and stand up to Nurse Ratched. The story is told by a schizophrenic patient called Chief Bromden, who all of the other patients and authoritative figures believe to be both deaf and dumb. The battles between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are what bring the story its most interesting points.
I found this book to be quite hard to read. The words got kind of confusing at times, and the descriptions of different things seemed drawn out. Most people find this book fun to read, and I think I would have too if I wouldn't had had to read it for school. That always seems to make a difference. I would recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to anyone who enjoys books involving mental hospitals, interesting plots, medical studies, or the main character always fighting for what he believes in.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful book that reveals the cold hard truth about life in a mental institution. Seeing the ward through the eyes of the main character, Chief Bromden, gives new prospective to what you think you know. The thing that makes it most interesting is the fact that it is so real you feel as though you are there on the ward, forced to be part of their daily rituals. Ken Kesey paints a picture that makes you want to believe that what Chief Bromden is experiencing is what is actually happening. But at the same time the language Kesey uses makes it hard to decide whether or not things are really happening to Chief. You find yourself thinking, 'This is all a hallucination...isn't it?'
You begin to form an almost personal relationship with each of the characters throughout the book. The relationship between the two main characters is powerful and intriguing. The problems each character is experiencing are problems we have all had, just not to the same extent. This familiarity is what makes the book so easy to relate to, it takes what we all experience and expands to an almost unbelievable level.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a novel written by Ken Kesey regarding a mental instituion. The story is told from the point of view of one of the patients named Chief. Chief is a Chronic, meaning he is in the ward for life. Chief, along with the other patients, live out their days at the hospital under the close watch of Nurse Rached. Everyday was routine; nothing changed. Things were so montonous that the patients had even forgot how to laugh and be happy.

Things all changed one day though when McMurphy came to the ward. People say he wasn't really crazy; he just thought that a mental instution would be a good place to relax for a few months. A bed to sleep, free food to eat. Right from the start, he began to challenge the nurse and the rules of the institution. McMurphy fought back againist their way of life and their restrictions. Pretty soon, a power struggle erupts between McMurphy and the Big Nurse.

At first it started just as a game, but as McMurphy slowly realized the more horrific side of the hospital, things began to get rough. The other patients don't know what to do. They like the way McMurphy makes them feel about themselves, but they are scared too. They are scared of the power that the Big Nurse possesses. More importantly, they are scared of what will happen if McMurphy wins.

Seeing this book on the shelf for many years, I had a preconceived idea of what it may be like. I thought it was going to be detailed, dry reading about those living in a mental institution. I couldn't be more wrong. This story was told as a first person narrative and gave the reader the opportunity to drop any stereotypes he or she may have concerning mental illness. The characterization was fantastic. The ending, for me, was quite a surprise. The characters and story will stay with me for quite some time.

I'll preface this review by saying that I'm an unabashed admirer of Kesey and the Pranksters and listening from that place, this is a significant recording. It's a perfect companion to the recently released videotape of the '64 bus trip. I realize that most rational folks will hear this as just so much noise but if you listen closely, you'll hear the spirit of the real revolution that went on in the fabled sixties.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of the residents and staff of a mental ward, centered around the power struggle between McMurphy, the new, sane patient, and the dictatorial Big Nurse.

The novel is written in the present tense, which is often problematic, but here it works well enough. The use of Chief Bromden as the narrator is problematic at times, and the reader may find himself repeatedly skimming or skipping entire pages of mentally-unbalanced monologues. The end of the novel seems rushed, and as a result the impacts of many of the novel's climactic events are diminished.

All in all, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is an interesting read. But maybe, just maybe, the movie is better.

RECOMMENDED

If u can follow this, and @ times it gets difficult, u can see why its classic. The observations reming me of 1984 and Animal Farm. Big Brother movin in to control us all, put us in our little molds, and if we dont fit... who knows where this world will lead us, eh?

All part of the great american adventure. Randall P. McMurphy is my new hero . Very enlightining because we always think about the movie but what I liked about the book was, it was chief's story as much as macks. I feel the movie was censored. I must admit when McMurpy spoke it was with Jack Nicholson's voice

This review is for the Penguin Books paperback edition, 2003, with illustrations by Ken Kesey and introduction by Robert Faggen. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, first published in 1962, was Ken Kesey's debut novel.

The setting is a ward at a hospital for the mentally ill, probably in the late fifty's. Chief Nurse Ratched has absolute control over her ward. Through insinuation and intimidation, she has oppressed the patients, aides, junior nurses and even the ward doctor into wimps. We see this through the eyes of the narrator, Big Chief Bromden Jr., a half-Indian who pretends he is a deaf-mute. The staff ignores him, and allows him to clean the staff room during their meetings. He's the all knowing fly on the wall.

Enter the new admission, Randal Patrick McMurphy, the roughneck gambler who got himself transferred to a mental hospital to escape the rigors of a prison work farm. McMurphy considers most of the patients essentially sane, and cannot understand why they have allowed Nurse Ratched to dominate and humiliate them. McMurphy rallies his fellow inmates towards mutiny in a long battle to undermine Nurse Ratched's authority.

Weaved into ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is a social commentary on the mid-century ideas for treatment of those who could not or would not conform to normality. The novel, and the subsequent movie and play, undoubtedly helped popularize the need for change. Although that is behind us, this entertaining and often hilarious read remains.

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kasey *****


One of the most important pieces of literature ever, and not just for American literature. One Flew Over The Cuckoos nest is simply put....perfect. It is the classic tail of good versus evil as told through the eyes of an Indian Cheif as he watches his once comfortable solitude be interupted by a one McMurphy who is just claiming insanity to escape a court ordered work farm. The head nurse, Nurse Racthed is maybe the most hanious villion in all of American literature. The book cronicles the up rising of the insane wards 'inmates' and their struggle to maintain their new found power. Easily one of the five best novels ever written.

I knew this book as one of the anthems of the sixties, bringing to the fore the themes of rebellion against arbitrary authority and the rejection of conformity. But I did not actually read the book till recently.

I found that Kesey's "sixties" novel passes the test of great literature. It transcends its moment in time and gains universality. The struggle between the individual and the demands of society is nowhere portrayed as sharply and brilliantly as in this novel. McMurphy is a bit extreme, as is Nurse Ratched, but the interplay of extremes is fascinating.

Do not ignore the fact that Bromden, the narrator, actually shows serious signs of mental illness. His constant references to the "Combine" and his fear of the "fog" are paranoid delusions. It's an amazing tribute to Kesey's skill that he chose to tell the story this way rather than in a more conventional mode of narration, and that he succeeded.