One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Rating:
Summary: Little has changed in 30 years and what's old is new again
Review: This book is a masterpiece of American Literature. The writing is wonderful and the insight into this facet of "The Human Condition" is unmatched. I feel that this book should be required reading for all medical students and should be part of a required medical ethics class at all medical schools.

This work has profound implications far beyond the those related to the medical community. This book raises questions regarding due process, habeas corpus, and American civil rights in general. Proof that this book is truely a classic has already arrived. These problems have returned upon our nation and what is old is now new again. Consider the shocking, current, real-life case of the crusading Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, a prominent Harrisburg Pennsylvania psychiatrist, in these articles:

the Philadelphia Daily News, Wed, Jul. 07, 2004
"Lawsuit: State fired shrink for exposing abuse"
By NICOLE WEISENSEEEGAN

the British Medical Journal, July 10, 2004
"Whistleblower charges medical oversight bureau with corruption"
Jeanne Lenzer

These articles are related to the "mental health initiative" that was announced by GW Bush and was based heavily on the Texas TMAP guidelines, which were developed and implemented in Texas while Bush was governor. The initiative was announced by Bush's "New Freedom Commission on Mental Health" and apparently involves wholesale testing of Americans, even school children, for mental illness and the administration of drugs to those found "wanting in sanity".

It appears that corrupt drug companies are currently trying to turn all of America into "the Oregon mental hospital" written about in this book. With the enormous Vioxx scandal in the news right now, is this really hard to believe? It shouldn't be.

In many states now one phone call can result in an innocent person being stripped of their rights, detained, interrogated, and possibly drugged to dangerous levels. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" should concern anyone who believes that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are more than just words.

If you appreciate the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", I also recomend the following
Books:
"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf
"The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
TV:
"I Am Furious Yellow", Simpsons episode
Movies:
"Anger Management", staring Adam Sandler
"Chicago", staring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger
"A Perfect Murder" staring Michael Douglas


Rating:
Summary: Bull Goose Loony
Review: This book is so well written I can call it flawless without giving it a second thought. I can see why Kesey had a problem with the way the screenplay was put together. Kesey himself couldn't have done this book justice as a screenplay. This one of the few "classics" that deserves all the hype it gets. If you read it once you'll end up reading it five times.

Rating:
Summary: A Better Book To Discuss Than Read
Review: There are books that are great reads. Then there are books that are great to read and discuss. However "Cuckoo's Nest" is more of a great book to discuss.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a story set in an asylum in what appears to be the 1960's. The asylum is run with precessions by the female nurses and their black orderlies. The men in the asylum have all been beaten down by life. Now they are beaten down by a system implemented by their matriarch, Nurse Rachet. Along comes Randall Patrick Macmurphy, a boisterous charismatic convict, who thinks he's outwitting the system by pretending he's crazy. Over time Macmurphy becomes the inmates patriarch and ends up fighting Rachet for control. How the book ultimately ends hints at the author's cynical views on men, women and society.

The book's narrator is Chief Bromden, a half-breed Indian, who (unlike Macmurphy) is actually crazy. Understanding his train of thoughts, as he describes what is not only happening to him but to the other characters, is probably one of the more difficult things about this book. It does help to read an abbreviated version (i.e. Cliff notes) or read the book as a group (i.e. high school lit. class).

The themes of this book, I feel, are actually more powerful than the writing, female domination, male empowerment, societal systems, etc. In fact, it's likely to provoke a discussion that's far superior to the experience of reading "...Cuckoos's Nest".
(3 and a half stars)


Rating:
Summary: Simply amazing...
Review: Out of all the books I've read in my life, Kesey's "willing" masterpiece is nothing sort of perfect. Heavily emotional and compelling, Randle Patrick McMurphy is a beautiful character, "capable of doing no wrong". McMurphy is far from the average American, in that he willingly goes against the system (The Combine), and although he meets his fate in the end, his influence in the rest of the men in the ward is impenetrable as the book ends with Chief Bromden breaking out of the sanitary ward into nature, wild and free where life does not run on a schedule.
I won't say too much more about this book, but I definitely recommend either buying it here on Amazon or, if you don't have the dough, borrowing it from your local library. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest does have the potential to change your life...and change your heart.


Rating:
Summary: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the best books I've ever read. And I don't use that statement lightly, because I have read some excellent books. I loved this book for so many reasons...Kesey breaks all kinds of barriers in a reader's mind. I was literally pacing around as I finished the book. I was so involved in the character's lives, I cared so desperately about what happened to McMurphy, it was as if I was in the mental ward, watching all of this happen. I felt like an Acute, sitting with my deck of cards watching the lives unfold around me.
The other thing that this book left with me was the desire to question. From day 1, McMurphy questioned. He questioned the rules, questioned Big Nurse, questioned the Black Boys, questioned the system. His desire for dignity in the ward inspired the other inmates to question the system, and ultimately question the value of their lives. I loved getting to know Randal Patrick McMurphy, and I can't wait to read something else by Kesey.