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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780141181226
ISBN number: 0141181222
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 312
Printing Date: December 31, 2002
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 29646
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Product Description:
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic endeavor to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned.
With a Preface and Illustrations by the author
Introduction by Robert Faggan
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Rated by buyers 
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I truly enjoyed reading this classic novel. It really opens your eyes to that specific time period and to the world in general. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" reminded me of "Brave New World" by Audulous Huxley because of the fact that everyone is different and if you don't fit into that mold, you are taken out of view, so to speak; and made to be better or "normal".
You can't help but fall in love with McMurphy. He is a character who has so much spirit and life. He brought that to the other ward members. This story is one that everyone should read because it makes sad, happy,and angry.
Mrs.Ratchard was a horrible person. I watched the movie shortly after reading the book and she's not portrayed the same way. In the book it's easier to envision her. She is an egregious woman, purposefully controlling the men and their masculinity. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" is all about that, women controlling men's masculinity, demeaning them.
McMurphy befriends all of the ward patients but he pays attention to one in particular;Chief Bromden, a gigantic Columbia indian man who is thought to be deaf and mute. No one pays any attention to him especially the nurses. Chief really knows what's going on around the ward.
Not only do you get to know Chief, you also get to know Harding, a man who voluntarliy committed himself, Billy Bibbitt; a stuttering 30-year-old man who looks like a young boy, Cheswick; a overally sensitive guy, etc.
I highly recommend this novel. Its truly enlightning. You enjoy the characters, happy when they are happy, upset when they are upset, and so forth.
Rated by buyers -
The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, (a six foot seven big Indian) who has everyone fooled that he is deaf and dumb. He is trusted by the doctors and nurses, since, he doesn't pose a threat of telling anything he over hears,on them. Bromden tells of the orange-red haired man named Mc Murphy, who comes into the patients world and lifts them out of a fog. He brings hope and laughter back into their worlds of constant routine. Nurse Ratchet, is a menace to the mental ward. She controls everything that you may do and even say. Bromden and the other patients are terrified of her. McMurphy changes the patients views of Nurse Ratchet, they begin to see her as no threat to them. When McMurphy sneaks Candy ( the prostitute) in for his friend Billy, they get caught. Thats when everything hits the fan.She does the most inhuman thing to McMurphy. There is no happy ending to this story. But does leave you with a knot of pain.
Rated by buyers -
The mixed reviews baffle me a little bit, for there is nothing mixed about my feelings for this brilliant novel. I can somewhat understand ones initial boredom with the novel, for it is written slightly longwinded, but the prose is so genuinely engaging that its style quickly becomes its biggest drawing point.
Many know of `One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest', not as a novel but as an Oscar winning motion picture starring Jack Nicholson. While the film is brilliant on just about every level, it all started here, with this fantastic novel. Ken Kesey had inside knowledge of his subject, having worked the graveyard shift at a mental hospital himself, and this knowledge is present on just about every page. He beautifully (albeit tragically) filters through the lives of the patients and the staff, exposing the darkness (masked in humour at times) that permeates the lives of those living in such conditions. The novel pits two very strong willed and independently centered individuals against one another in a game of `good cop/bad cop' as either one attempts to attain complete control of the ward.
First we have the ruthless Nurse Ratched who establishes order through an iron fist. She forces and manipulates and destroys those in front of her, namely the patients as well as fellow staff. She degrades the men in her ward and blackmails the doctors, all the while carrying a sense of duty, as if her actions were for the betterment of those around her.
Next we have McMurphy, the rookie patient who is a Vietnam vet with a history of violence and insubordination. He opted out of the work camp and chose to serve his time in the mental ward, hoping for a quick pardon. He uses his time to try and selfishly dethrone the evil Nurse, masking over his actions with the air of sincerity, as if his actions were for the betterment of those around him.
The novel is narrated by the Chief, a large patient thought by all to be deaf, dumb and unintelligible. This allows him to watch everyone and judge accurately, for they are open around him, thinking that he cannot understand. He takes us up close and personal, letting us into everyone's circle and exposing their true intentions.
What I remember most about the film was that it left me conflicted as to my thoughts on insanity. The film painted so vividly the thin line that runs between the stable and unstable that I found myself wondering if we all weren't just a little insane. The novel does this very same thing, just to an impressively grander degree. Each character is fleshed out in a way that his mental imbalances come across in subtle waves, and then violent crashes, almost hiding them before our eyes only to explode before us. We start to see them as normal human beings, and this scares us because when they do expose their weaknesses we are stunned. The reverse can be said of the seemingly normal ones, like Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. Both characters come across abrasive and childish throughout, only revealing their calm and controlled presence in rare splashes of reality. This allows us to see them as the monsters, as the crazy ones, only to be chilled once again when the fact that they are in fact that `normal' ones sets in on us.
We see them, yet we don't truly see them.
Kesey's brilliant novel has been hailed by many, and the film adaptation swept the Oscar (rightfully so). Both are fantastic examples of the supreme style of manipulation, allowing us to see what we want to see only to crush us with the undeniable reality of it all.
Rated by buyers -
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?
Rated by buyers -
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.
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