Rating: 
Summary: Better than the movie
Review: As is often the case, the book is better than the movie. However, that is saying a lot in this instance as the movie was also quite good.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a captivating novel about a sane man's time in a psychiatric ward. There are many interesting characters and plot points that keep the novel continuously moving. I would definitely reccommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: I was not expecting much from this book. I hadent seen the movie and I hadent read the book before last week. I was at the airaport and I was looking for a few good books to take back home. I got one by Dickens and a few other books. I saw this book on the a shelf and while I was looking at the back of the book the lady that worked at the store looked at me and said, " that is a great book I reccomend it." So I got it. While I was in the airaplane I looked at all the books I had bought and then decided I would read this one. The book gripped me from the first page, all the characters were so realistic. The book was sad, funny and even a littile scary in some parts. My favorite character was Randle McMurphy and Chief Bromden. I was unable to set the book down and read it quite quickly even though it was a hectic week for me. I loved the book and so will you if you read it! It is a book in first person, the book is told thorugh the eyes of Chief Bromden. Chief Bromden is in a mentel instatution along with many other men. There are sections in the mentel instatution, Cheif Bromden is part of the Acute section. The acute section is the place for the people that have a chance of regaining there sanity. There is a character named " The Big Nurse" they fail to include a name of this lady, but she is unfair to the inmates and at sometimes cruel. When McMurphy comes to the mentel ward, he stands up to her. The Big Nurse is not ready for such a person and at times it is like a full out war between them, but in the end The Big Nurse always wins. I wont tell you any more. Just go buy the book! I reccomend it to anyone who wants to read a great book!
Rating:
Summary: One of the great books
Review: This is a truly great book and one that you have to be read, whether or not you have seen the (also brilliant) movie. Kesey tells a gripping story in a wonderfully sympathetic, humorous manner. And like so many great works of fiction it is written in a fairly simple manner, without using too many stylistic devices. If you are not gripped by the story of the patients and their suffering under the sadistic nurse, you are probably just not meant to be a reader! The book does have one big advantage over the movie, though. It has the character of the giant Indian, the Chief, as a narrator, and he is much more important to the book than to the movie. His personal battle against debilitating fear would have been enough of a plot to sustain a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Read it.
Review: This is a must read. It is extraordinarily written story, and one that everyone will enjoy experiencing. Cuckoo's Nest is Catcher in the Rye in a mental institution. The language is beautiful, the story is vibrant. Read it, and you'll never forget or regret doing so.
Rating: 
Summary: In Appreciation of a good novel
Review: I personally think that the book was a real interesting book. The way the author put everything into perspective. It began a little slow, however the contents were extremely elaborate. I enjoy the book and I highly recommend everyone to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: This is an amazing book; I honestly wish that I would have read it long before I saw the movie. Try as I might, I still cannot help but picture Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher whenever McMurphy or Nurse Ratched were "on stage." Much more complex than the movie, the novel works on many levels. The characters are gripping, and the psychological undertones amazing. I read this first in high school, again in college, and twice during adult life, and each time I see something new in it that I hadn't seen before. In short, it is a modern masterpiece. The book is told from the Chief's viewpoint. Chief deeply troubled psychotic, and pulling this off is Kesey's tour-de-force. Every utterance of this schizophrenic character rings true as he moves from the "fog" of fear into the real world. Not only does this progression make the novel more interesting than the movie, it makes you question certain elements of the movie. For instance, was Mac a savior, or simply a dangerous whacko? The movie points towards savior, but the savior interpretation is merely the interpretation of a troubled mind yearning to be free in the novel. The nurse, too, seems less intimidating when you move back from the Chief's interpretation of her. I imagine that she was more humane than his inner fears and the fog that stands between him and the world would allow him to see. Once this is understood, the characters of Mac and Big Nurse become less "cut and dried," and more real, more vital and much more ambiguous. And Kesey's true purpose seems to surface. The actual characters of Mac/ Big Nurse are not important; how they react on the Chief's psyche is. Seen in this way, the novel traces one of Joseph Campbell's grand mythic themes: The liberation of the masculine psyche from the chaotic rubble of the mother dominated chaos (can you tell this interpretation is based on my college paper?). This journey, which Campbell describes in his "Hero With a Thousand Faces," is a man's major mission early in life. To be free, a male must liberate himself from the feminine and establish himself in the real world. Mythic literature the world over teems with this theme. A man's inability to liberate himself from this dark, restraining yet safe world is a major cause of many psychoses. Kesey has managed to bring that myth into the modern world, and the effects are just as amazing and relevant as the original myths were. By the way, I received an "A+" on my college paper, which took the novel apart along these lines. I hope that a student here or there stumbles on this. There is ample room for exploration in this book that seems so simple on the outside, but so deep and complex the deeper you dig. This is, after all, the mark of a truly great work of art. At the same time, don't let all this "noodling" ruin such a perfectly enjoyable book. [Noodling (v)- The cursed blessing of a liberal arts and science education. :-}]
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I thought that this novel could be read on many levels. First of all a straightforward, yet thoroughly good story of a ward in a mental hospital, containing humor, pathos and high drama. Yet it can be viewed as an allegory of modern life - the individual is merely an automaton in a highly-regulated world. If you don't fit (or become defective) you have to be repaired - hence the mental institution. The narrator uses the term "the Combine" for the larger machine governing everyone's behavior - the term is never really defined, but could be taken to allude to society as a whole, government, and big business. A very 1960s message, but one which reverberates down the years, for example as advertising becomes more all-pervasive, are we becoming even more conditioned? Also, the novel could be treated as an examination of male insecurity - Nurse Ratched is both a pseudo-sexual and mother figure. The men in the ward either submit (impotently?) to her, or rebel - ultimately using sex. There is lots going on here - overtones of marriage tensions and mother-child relationships. I found this a clever, and thought-provoking read.
Rating:
Summary: The book beats the movie version
Review: The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that the movie version hindered my interpretation. Although the movie is wonderful, the book is much more visual. The characters are more realistic and better developed than they were on screen. Even though Jack Nicholson gave a memorable performance, I think I liked R.P. McMurphy from the book better. I could see him, and all the others much better through Kesey's excellent descriptions. The ascending tension between Big Nurse and McMurphy plays out better in the book for you see everything that leads up to their clashes. Kesey does a wonderful job of building up the confrontations between McMurphry and Big Nurse. Much like a boxing match that goes 15 rounds. I also got a better sense of Nurse Ratched. How she used her authoritative and cunning ways to manipulate the hospital to follow the rules. This was always one that I wanted to read and I am glad that I did. Even if you have seen the movie, this well deserves a look.
Rating: 
Summary: One flew east, one flew, well you know the rest
Review: This book broke the mold. But it appeals to a different type of reader; the taste buds required to enjoy this novel are absent in our reading pallets. When we started reading this book I thought that it would be good because it was is a classic but I was wrong, it had a horribly slow start and was predictable. However, once the book got going it was all right, some passages are captivating, but then the next couple droll on so we lost interest. The story starts out in a mental hospital where the staff has everything under control when a new patient is introduced into the hospital. It's about then when things began to go haywire. At first nobody listens to him but as the book goes on he begins to rally support and one by one he wins over the acute patents and eventually the narrator of the book. When the new patient whose name is McMurphy finds out what the Big Nurse is trying to do to him he decides to play the game her way so for the rest of the book he tries to push her buttons, get her goat, and she doesn't ever take the bait. Then McMurphy organizes a deep sea-fishing trip with his aunts, which are really prostitutes only one shows up and the Dr. goes with them, once they return things are different... If this kind of stuff I guess it would be a good book, however like I said we don't like this kind of book. However I must say that I kind of like the style, how the narrator compares everything around him to a metaphor or a simile. It makes you think a little more, I think it would be cool to be able to talk like, I don't know why I just do. Now that I've reflected back on the book I realize its not as bad as I thought it was but I still would have rather not have read this book, I would have read a better book, but I guess that's the beauty of reading books, you don't know which ones you will like until you read them. For those of you out there wanting to read this book I suggest that you think back on the books that you have read and have liked, and compare it to other reviews as well as what mine says about the book then if it sounds like it would be something that you would like go for it. I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars because it had a slow start and in my opinion that is what makes a book or brakes a book.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good ,but not as good as reviews lead one to believe
Review: This book was for the most part pretty good, however, I was still a bit disappointed in it. Having read some of the reviews on this board I was expecting more from the book. But it just never pulled me in until the end. There were some good parts, but for the most part I would say it was just an average read that I was glad to have over so I could start on something else.
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