One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken KeseyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
What inspired me to read this book was the movie. I had seen the movie years ago and really liked it. When I found out that there was a book, I had to read it. The story is about Randle McMurphy, a wily and rambunctious man who gets himself committed into a psychiatric ward to spend the rest of his prison sentence. Chief Bromden, a fellow patient in the ward who pretends he’s deaf and dumb, narrates the story of McMurphy’s antics and rivalry with the authority of Nurse Ratchet.
I was really excited before reading the book and my expectations were well met. The first few chapters were a bit slow. However, by the middle of the novel, I knew I was giving this book five stars. Seeing the ward through Chief Bromden’s eyes and his internal dialog was great. It gave the story a very unique edge. The writing is marvelous as the little isolated world of the ward and the patients are painted before the reader. As the plot progresses, the story also explores themes dealing with the human spirit.
I loved this book and highly recommend it.
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"You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself." -Chief Bromden
Musings & Trivia:
- Book(1962) & Movie(1975): The movie and book are generally the same, but of course some things are changed. The biggest difference is that the movie is not narrated by Chief Bromden. It is more of a third person presentation of the story and the Chief is just another character. Not to spoil anything I'll only say there are other various elements that are re-arranged and merged together in the movie. No major plot elements are left out in the movie. In the film Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy and won an Academy Award for Best Actor for this role. Actually, in total the film won five academy awards and was nominated for four others. Quite a decorated film.
- You know, in print you find typos every once and a while. It happens but this is something else:
- About the Author: Anyways, after some googling, page 5 was the correct one. Ken Kesey was born September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado and then his family moved to Oregon. In 1957 Kesey received a degree in speech and communication from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism. In 1958 he enrolled in Stanford's creative writing program. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was inspired by Kesey's experiences as an orderly at a veteran's hospital in California in 1959. He passed away November 10, 2001 at the age of sixty six from complications after a surgery.
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Have you read this book? or seen the movie? If so what do you think? What is the worst typo you've ever found? Feel free to reply here or on twitter @MandyCalvin . Comments are appreciated.
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