One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Author: Ken Kesey
Published: 1962
Genre: Drama!
Pages: 320




I did not think I'd like this book as much as I did. I mean, I'd seen the movie at some point, and it has always haunted me a little, so once I found the book I thought it'd be worth a read, but I didn't really know I'd like it this much. Lunch breaks flew by!


One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is narrated by Chief Bromden, an apparently deaf and mute inmate of a psychiatric hospital. The ward is run by nurse Ratched, who has the patients and the doctor firmly under her heel, kept there by her three underling orderlies. All is as orderly and serene as it can be, until a new inmate comes. McMurphy has faked insanity to escape prison and spend his sentence at the hospital, thinking it a better place. Not the best of ideas, as it turns out, but McMurphy sets out to make the best of his stay, and to give the patients some of their spines back.


I seriously loved reading this book. I had only vague memories of the movie, a general idea that it won't end well, basically, and some characters. One of my favourites this year for sure, this and the Hexslinger-books. There's just something about wild redheads, I guess.





   "Patient McMurphy" --the boy with the pipe feels he should try to defend his position and save face just a little bit-- "does not strike me as a coward."
   I expect her to get mad, but she doesn't; she just gives him that let's-wait-and-see look and says, "I didn't say he was exactly a coward, Mr. Gideon; oh, no. He's simply very fond of someone. As a psychopath, he's much too fond of a Mr. Randle Patrick McMurphy to subject him to any needless danger." She gives the boy a smile that puts his pipe out for sure this time. "If we just wait for a while, our hero will--what is it you college boys say?--give up his bit? Yes?"
   "But that may take weeks--" the boy starts.
   "We have weeks," she says. She stands up, looking more pleased with herself than I've seen her look since McMurphy came to trouble her a week ago. "We have weeks, or months, or even years if need be. Keep in mind that Mr. McMurphy is committed. The length of time he spends in this hospital is entirely up to us. Now, if there is nothing else..."