Product Description

An inmate of a mental institution tries to find the freedom and independence denied him in the outside world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6561 in Books
• Published on: 1963-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Library Journal
Kesey's new introduction to this anniversary edition could very well be the last thing he worked on before shuffling off this mortal coil in 2001. Additionally, 25 sketches he drew while working at a mental institution in the 1950s, the inspiration for the novel, are littered throughout. Critics are divided on the meaning of the book: Is it a tale of good vs. evil, sanity over insanity, or humankind trying to overcome repression amid chaos? Whichever, it is a great read.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The counterculture embraced this allegory of individualism versus the establishment, which, as a film, gave Jack Nicholson one of his more memorable roles. Cowed by sadistic Nurse Ratched, the inmates of a mental hospital are galvanized by a new patient, the free-spirited McMurphy, who enters a pitched battle of wills with the nurse. Narrator Tom Parker does a workmanlike, if somewhat detached, job; his tone nicely mirrors the iconoclasm in his text but doesn't quite nail the personality of the first-person narrator. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
Ken Kesey was born in Colorado in 1935. He earned literary fame with his novels One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion.

Customer Reviews

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Multiple people told me before I read this book and while I was reading it that it's a great book and one of the best they've ever read. With only twenty pages left, I agree that it is a well written and very interesting. I would recommend it to almost anyone that is looking for something different to read.
I didn't have any idea what this book was about before I started reading it. About halfway through the book, I could almost say the same thing, I wouldn't be able to summarize what had happened at that point. This book is not hard to read or understand, but in the beginning not very much happens. Mostly beginning introduces us to the characters and allows the reader to get to know them, and it also describes the setting, which is a mental institution. The characters are all well defined and unique; they're very interesting to read about.
Ken Kesey writes in a descriptive way, but not to the point that it's boring. Actually this book isn't boring at all; it's the type of book that keeps you turning the pages. For most people, the situations and characters aren't familiar at all, and it's hard not to become intrigued. Of all the classic books that I have read, this is by far the best one.

One Flew East, One Flew West
'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' is easily one of the greatest novels ever written. Chief Bromden is, by far, the most humanizing narrator I've ever read. Though this novel is an unyielding social criticism, it's also a very effective one in that it forces the reader to empathize with confined characters while realizing the authoritarians' actions - particularly those of Nurse Ratched - seem even more villainous due to the demoralization which is felt when one is corrected or otherwise censored without being capable of understanding what it is they've done to deserve such.

A beautifully written and timeless novel.

Must Have
This book is a very good read. You feel as though you are truly experiencing the hospital through the eyes of the chief and it is refreshing to be in the third person from all the action. Found the book to be extremely refreshing.