Book # 81 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

 I first read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest about ten years ago and found it to be much better than I had anticipated. Of course I had seen the film before and thought there would be no way that the book could have been better... and I was wrong. The first thing that surprised me is that the book is narrated by Chief Bromden. In the movie he mostly just stands around and doesn't say or do anything until the very end... so it is a bit shocking to find that his character gives us the story in the novel. The next surprising thing is that Chief Bromden's narration adds an extra layer of craziness because he seems to be schizophrenic with frequent hallucinations and severe paranoia. What is fascinating about these hallucinations is that they usually act as metaphors for what is going on in the ward.

The story is pretty simple. Chief Bromden is a patient in a mental hospital where he pretends to be deaf and mute so that he can try and avoid the attention of the nurses and attendants. One day a new patient, McMurphy, is admitted to the floor. He is a bit of a tough guy that is just faking mental illness to get out of being at a work farm where he has been sentenced for a few months. He quickly encounters Nurse Ratched who is in charge of that ward. She runs the place like a dictatorship and has made all of the other patients fear her.  McMurphy tries to rally everyone against her but most of the other patients have already been defeated by her. McMurphy also learns that his release is dependent on Nurse Ratched okaying it and that she has the power to give electro-shock treatment to anyone that displeases her.... however McMurphy just can't sit by and let himself be controlled by the nurse.

It is hard reading this book without imagining Jack Nicholsen as McMurphy... even though he doesn't really fit the description in the book...  I'd say read the book before you see the movie.  After reading a bunch of books written in the 1800's by European writers, it was nice to read something a bit more modern and with a definite American rebellious spirit to it. It was also refreshing to read something that was written while the author was experimenting with LSD.

On a second reading, I enjoyed this book just as much as the first time, though I'm not sure if I picked up on anything new this time. It was in my top 50 before and stays there. A.