One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
My 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.

View all my reviews

----------

"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.

Next Book Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Curious to know what other books I'll be reading? Click here to find out

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.

Cited:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/awards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_(novel)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0450181/

My Summer Reading List

The sun is shining, the temperature is rising, the bugs are buzzing, and I decided it's an ideal time to sit indoors and organize my reading plan.  I spent the past few days googling lists of books trying to sort out a few that I wanted to read this summer.  I jotted down ten titles and then painfully whittled them down to six, a goal possibly attainable. When making this list, I focused on a getting a diverse set of well-written books.  This isn't ordered in any particular way, I have yet to decide which one to start with.

• Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote.  The goings on of a female city socialite narrated by a man who is a tenant in the same apartment complex.  I'm not quite sure what to expect out of this novella, but Capote's work is well respected for his mastery of prose.  This novella seems to be mainly character driven, so I'll be getting a taste of that.
• The Postman by David Brin.  Set in post-apocalyptic America, a cold and hungry man finds a United States Postal uniform, and sack of mail and poses as a post man for food and supplies but also gives hope to the people.  I've read that the touching plot is what makes it worth reading.  I know there is a movie out there with Kevin Costner, but surprisingly I've never seen it.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.  A man fakes insanity to escape a prison sentence and instead goes into an insane asylum.  I've seen the movie and now I'm even more excited to read the book. 
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  Through he eyes of five Russian aristocratic families we see the story of Russia during the Napoleonic era.  The book delves into many philosophical discussions along as a historical narrative.  I am pretty sure I'll save this book for last and will likely finish it sometime before I die.  War and Peace is one of the longest books ever written somewhere over a whopping 560,000 words.
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.  A detective murder mystery that investigates the death of Roger Ackroyd, if you didn't catch that in the title.  Agatha Christie is considered the best of the best when it comes to detective murder mysteries, so I hear.  On top of that this novel is considered her best work. So I deduce that when it comes to detective fiction, this novel the best of the best of the best.
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.  A story about a boy growing up in Ireland who discovers that he wants to be writer and his struggles grow as an artist.  This story is suspected to be semi-autobiographical of James Joyce's own life.  It's said the style of writing in this novel is spectacular; that's why I'm reading it. 

I sure have my work cut out for me.  After I finish each book I'll do a review and analysis post.  For the lack of content in the last couple of months, I apologize.  I'll be getting back to my three posts a month in June.

Have you read any of these books? If so what did you think? What's on your reading list? Which book do you think I should start with?  Answer in the comments below or tweet me @mandycalvin .  I love feedback.
*edit- links added Aug 9, 2012