"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a novel written by Ken Kesey regarding a mental instituion. The story is told from the point of view of one of the patients named Chief. Chief is a Chronic, meaning he is in the ward for life. Chief, along with the other patients, live out their days at the hospital under the close watch of Nurse Rached. Everyday was routine; nothing changed. Things were so montonous that the patients had even forgot how to laugh and be happy.

Things all changed one day though when McMurphy came to the ward. People say he wasn't really crazy; he just thought that a mental instution would be a good place to relax for a few months. A bed to sleep, free food to eat. Right from the start, he began to challenge the nurse and the rules of the institution. McMurphy fought back againist their way of life and their restrictions. Pretty soon, a power struggle erupts between McMurphy and the Big Nurse.

At first it started just as a game, but as McMurphy slowly realized the more horrific side of the hospital, things began to get rough. The other patients don't know what to do. They like the way McMurphy makes them feel about themselves, but they are scared too. They are scared of the power that the Big Nurse possesses. More importantly, they are scared of what will happen if McMurphy wins.

I enjoyed this book very much. It gave a wonderful yet somewhat depressing look into the lives of mental patients during the sixties. It also showed how rebellion only got you deeper into the hand's of the government. Through the main character's eyes, you got to know and maybe even understand each and every one of these patients on a different level of intensity. Some made it passed the system and others did not. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Set in a mental hospital, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a fiction novel by Ken Kesey, describes how R.P. McMurphy, a very spirited patient, takes over not only his ward, but the Head Nurse and other patients as well. He takes extreme measures to make the other patients basically come out of their shells and stand up to Nurse Ratched. The story is told by a schizophrenic patient called Chief Bromden, who all of the other patients and authoritative figures believe to be both deaf and dumb. The battles between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are what bring the story its most interesting points.
I found this book to be quite hard to read. The words got kind of confusing at times, and the descriptions of different things seemed drawn out. Most people find this book fun to read, and I think I would have too if I wouldn't had had to read it for school. That always seems to make a difference. I would recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to anyone who enjoys books involving mental hospitals, interesting plots, medical studies, or the main character always fighting for what he believes in.

I'll preface this review by saying that I'm an unabashed admirer of Kesey and the Pranksters and listening from that place, this is a significant recording. It's a perfect companion to the recently released videotape of the '64 bus trip. I realize that most rational folks will hear this as just so much noise but if you listen closely, you'll hear the spirit of the real revolution that went on in the fabled sixties.

this book is an absolute dream for those of us who were not able to join Kesey and the Merry Pranskters first hand. And after reading Electric Koolaid it was nice to hear first hand what went on. I loved this book. ---young but still on the bus

While the themes K. deals with in this novel are interesting and important (the vanishing of wilderness; pollution; the morally corrupting impact of capitalism and American mainstream entertainment in particular; the possibility of catastrophic environmental change in our lifetimes), much of this novel reads like a screenplay.

This distracts from K.'s ideas and from the creation of atmosphere....which K. can do so well. It's a shame to have Alaska's wilderness pushed so far to the background (and Australia, which Kesey has visited, dismissed rapidly and superficially early in the book). This is especially so as the human interactions are fairly predictable, as are even the most eccentric of the characters, and as the plot leans heavily on natural events and wild animals, especially near the somewhat frenzied ending.

Compared to earlier works, including the shorter, better focused pieces in Demon Box, Sailor Song is frustrating: on the one hand too short (spookily powerful descriptions of wilderness are cut off, interesting ideas such as the psychic life of indigenous people are only hinted at) and too long (we're given a lot of detail that leads us absolutely nowhere). Has Kesey been let down by his editors?

I read 8 other reviews of this book, and I am still buying it, for the second time. I was captivated by the issues, characters, and story line that was depressingly promissing. Hope. I do agree that all could have been wrapped up differently in the end. It was too quick and well empty. But it is not the joy of the top of the mountain that has us climb. It is the climb. Enjoy the ride! Enjoy Sailors Song.

Up front: I'm a long-time fan of Ken's -- including the videos, the CDs, and his classic periodical SPIT IN THE OCEAN. I liked SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION a lot better as a book than a film. So that's where I'm coming from...

SAILOR SONG is superb, remarkable and unmatched in contemporary literature. Ken's grasp of the human condition is extraordinary: man/woman, inter-family, small town, international, global, you name it and Ken's got it in SAILOR SONG. It's an easier read than NOTION, but not as clearcut as NEST.

So many posts here question the ending; not me. I trust Ken ended this the way he saw fit, like the master he was. Life doesn't end cleanly, even though it begins with promise and evolves with careful plot. I don't think any other writer has addressed the scenario of the poles shifting, so while this isn't quite an "end of the world" tale, surely it's clear why Ken dubbed this his science fiction novel.

The characters are unforgettable, and yes the novel reads like a screenplay because it is so extraordinarily vividly written. There are plot twists and curlicues galore -- that's the skill and scope of Kesey coming across. SAILOR SONG, like his other novels, is brimming with quotable phrases and passages that ache for outboarding and inclusion in BARTLETT'S BOOK OF QUOTATIONS. He's that good.

The scenario overall is unforgettable, and the pace is so beguiling that despite the novel's length; when it was over my ONLY regret was that there wasn't more superb literature to keep me riveted. If you are anxious to be engaged, challenged and rewarded by a book time and again, savor SAILOR SONG to the last drop. There ain't no dregs here, just sweet wonderful language coming from a mind without equal. Ken's passing last November was a loss without measure, but we readers are blessed with these words. Enjoy!

Henry James, The Spoils of Poynton (Dell, 1897)

The Spoils of Ponyton is the first novel James wrote in his "later style," in other words, drawing-room satire that isn't really about much of anything at all. For some odd reason, later-era James is what's universally praised in lit classes around the globe, while the early stuff, which is actually worth reading, is largely ignored.

To be fair, James did get better at satire as time went on, but The Spoils of Ponyton has all the hallmarks of being a first attempt at a stylistic change. The novel centers on two characters who are utterly incapable of action, which wouldn't be so bad if the characters who were doing the acting were more involved. Such is, sadly, not the case. Owen and Fleda just sort of drift and react; as the book is told from Fleda's point of view, we end up with page after page of something that, in the hands of a better author (even a later James, had he re-written it) would have come off as uber-Tevye; weighing the various merits of various courses of action, not being able to decide on a course, and letting fate take her where it will. In Fiddler on the Roof, it works (largely because Tevye's monologues are brief and to the point); in Poynton, it blithers on endlessly, with all the fascination for the reader of watching cheese spoil.

If you're new to James, by all means do yourself a favor and start with something he wrote earlier in his career. Leave Poynton until after you've developed enough of a taste for James to pick up later-era works, and then read the major ones before diving into this. *

I give this three stars in an internal world where 5 is James at his best. In comparison to most fiction the rating would be higher, but as a DEVOUT fan, I live in my own internal world. In that world, James who was more critical than any of us, would understand that in comparison to other later era work and even middle period work, Spoils does not live up to his best. It is fun and light, another reviewer mentioned obvious signs of a stylistic shift perhaps being too obvious here. That feels on the money to me. That said, if you've read almost everything, it is a light turn with the Master and that has something delicious in it no matter what.

I read this one a few years ago, and I have to rank it at the bottom of the list (along with "The Europeans").

Though Fleda Vetch can be fascinating in a Hamlet-esque way (through her infuriating inability to act), this novel is far from a must-read as far as James goes.

This Ken Kesey story is a mix of truth and fiction. Located in Pendleton, OR in 1911 at the original rodeo or Round Up as it is still called. The main characters are Jonathan Lee Spain, an Indian named Jackson Sundown and a black man named George Fletcher. It is a tightly focused story of a few days in their lives at Pendleton along with a sub plot involving Buffalo Bill Cody and a very strange wrestler named Frank Gotch. The book contains photos from those early days so you know that some of these fellows really lived including on of Spain that continued to rodeo even after he lost a hand in a roping accident.

This one is great fun and uses the mortar of fabrication to hold the rocks of truth in place. It's a quick and easy read and does offer a glimpse of yesterday but be warned it has neither the depth or polish of Kesey's earlier works such as "Sometimes a Great Notion" or "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

I must take issue with Pati Reitenour's complaint that the book was not historically accurate. I'm sure that's true, but that is why it is a "dime western." It is in the tradition of western adventure books published in the 19th century which would take real characters and weave a tall tale from a thread of truth. The point is entertainment, which this book delivers.

If you are looking for a complete and perfect, factual, historical and deathly boring scholarly tome on the first big Pendleton rodeo, this isn't it. What this is, is a great little book that tells a great yarn about some people who may or may not have any resemblance to people that may or may not have been in Pendleton, OR around the time that this book is set.
The characters are vivid and the relationship between them is both ribald & enlightening. The young Spain comes up against the elder Jackson & Fletcher. They show him around their world, a world that they have made a niche in for themselves in, and Spain comes out the other side older & wiser. Kesey points out many of the injustices that faced the Indians and Afro Americans in the new west. Spain learns about strength, weakness and right and wrong is an age where they are still working out what these things mean.
Kesey shows some of the great mastery of language that made him a hero to many readers with Sometimes a Great Notion. There are sections of this book that are as good as any he ever wrote. (As Spain is nodding off to sleep in Jackson's teepee he watches the smoke curl toward the roof, turn into snakes and then into tiny delicate horses he doesn't want to scare away.)
This is a great read. Apparently there are people who have an issue with Kesey for taking people out of history and creating a story from their legends, and having a different interpretation form the accepted legend. Kesey was a storyteller, not a historian. There are great pictures of the real people whose story Kesey has attempted to fictionalize. If you want a fun and light book from a master storyteller, this is a good choice. Don't get hung up with facts, enjoy yourself and buy this book.

There were no cuckoos or nests, and the only crazy person is me for reading this

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is a MASTERPIECE, dont let the review by the ignorant Korean fool you. This is truely a great book. The Protagonist is an Indian in a mental institution and it involves his life in the mental institute. It wasn't meant ot be about birds btw.

after reading one flew over the coocoo s nest, i thought that the book was definitely worth reading although i did notice a lot of unnessasery information. i definitely find that the book was quite boring until i got at a certain point in it. i admire the characters,espacially chief,for his actions. anyways, i liked the book but if i had to suggest anything, i would suggest you watch the movie because it is amazing and is quite close to the book, except that the book s ending is different. hope you enjoy your book!