A brilliantly twisted take on the struggle of a hero against the world. The villian, Nurse Ratched, is a perfectly honed tool of the social conspiracy; the hero, McMurphy, is a man with the courage and pride to take on an army; and the narrator, Chief Bromden, is a silent, all seeing, giant of a wise man. Each of them have enough chinks in their armor to keep things interesting, but they are each great stylized heroes that, in another setting could be comic-book super-heroes.

Kesey is a great eloquent writer, and though this book certainly was both a product of and defining factor in its era, it remains even now, a relevant and gorgeous book. ( )

There’s a Monopoly game going on in the day room..

I love that line. I love it because I know the chapter behind it will amuse me without fail, just as so many other iconic moments in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will move, delight or enrage me. I’ve read and reread this book from my early teens to my late thirties, and while there might be layers of meaning in MacMurphy’s subversion of Nurse Ratched’s ward, about the struggle between the inner tyrant and the inner anarchist, man’s simultaneous need for order and for freedom, I think I love it because it’s wonderful, and hilarious, and sad, and it solidly slays me every time I read it.

Chief Bromdon’s narration colours the whole story with imagery that stops just short of myth; prose that finds poetry in madness and tiredness and disconnection from the world. There are a myriad of character illustrations in the ward, from closeted, intellectual Harding to shy, vulnerable Billy. How MacMurphy’s arrival impacts on the entire dynamic and each individual and undermines the enforced institutionalisation that has paralysed each of them in their own way, is one of the most breathtaking works of genius I have ever read, all of it sleekly rolled into the newcomer’s fabulous antics on the ward and the marvellous dialogue between the inmates, the staff, and the ‘twitches from Portland’.

Yes, it’s desperately sexist… it’s set in a male mental ward run by a starched, sexless nurse, the protagonist is a self-confessed sex enthusiast, one of the principal characters is a married, closeted gay man and another has never had a successful relationship. The only two women who have any read-time, apart from the Nurse and Harding’s wife, are prostitutes, or good-time girls. If you sense that the text is sexist, perhaps rather than react negatively, consider that the emasculation of men is, in fact, a theme and rather important in the world of psychiatry (particularly in that era). There’s a quality of racism too; why assume either of these traits in the text is a flaw in author’s outlook, rather than an infusion of atmosphere, illustration, even a simply reality of attitudes in that time and place?

I will read this book again, and again. Every time I pick it up, I will murmur, ‘I been away a long time’, and revel in the Chief’s introduction of Randall Patrick MacMurphy - troublemaker, brawler, drinker, gambler, ladies’ man, authority-bucker - who overcomes his self interest in the process of tackling the inherent wrong he intuits without fully understanding; who, essentially, becomes a martyr to the cause of getting on with living, rather than being paralysed with fear by it, and to overcoming the restraints of the 'system', whatever they may turn out to be. ( )

Kesey's book is about counter-culture, all right; but which side is Kesey on? He certainly isn't for women's rights - every female character in his novel is either a monster or a submissive plaything. He doesn't seem to support the Civil rights movement - black Americans in 'One Flew Over...' are represented by the subhuman drooling imbecilic demonic familiars of the Big Witch, and by Mr Tunkle the good-natured but idiotic drunk junky night-shift toilet cleaner. Kesey doesn't seem to be against war - the book's two protagonists, McMurphy and the Chief, are both veterans, proud of their service, and, if anything, slightly sulky and not being treated like heroes.
What gives?

Thematic issues aside, I found the novel too contrived. Nurse Radched is a construct rather than a human being, starting from her name ('Wretched'). She is so manifestly evil and robotic it is impossible to take her seriously. McMurphy himself is far too archetypal. He is too red-blooded (so red-blooded even his pubes are red), too strong, too kind, too superhuman. He is not real. The suicides were not real - they were just plot devices. The whole novel felt as artificial and mechanical as the Chief's perception of the ward - and I don't think this was intentional.
Often the writing is too obvious. Kesey would make a point with some blatant symbolism, and then have the Chief explain exactly what is going on. A good example of this is the scene where McMurphy explains how the nurse has castrated the men.

'One Flew Over...'s strongest aspect is its critique of the psychiatric profession and the way 'mental illness' is perceived and treated in our society. Sane characters like McMurphy and Harding have no place in any psych ward. That they were ever admitted means there is something deeply wrong in the societal definition of 'mental illness' ( http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Szasz/m... ). Based on what I've heard of such places, Kesey seems to successfully capture the dehumanizing, depersonalizing atmosphere of psychiatric wards ( http://web.archive.org/web/2004111717... ).
Furthermore, the clinical treatment of patients, vividly described by Harding, is barbarous, disgusting, and downright insane. I don't understand how anyone can take the psychiatric profession seriously after debacles such as electro-convulsive therapy and lobotomy. Then there are all the pills, with all their side-effects.
Some contend that psychiatry has come a long way since the '60s. I find this view ridiculous - if psychiatrists were so wrong in the '60s, chances are they as wrong now, just in different ways. After all, the current method of 'curing' the countless ill-defined 'mental illnesses', still focuses on pills of questionable therapeutic value and obviously morbid side effects, designed to cure some clinically impossible to detect biological defect. Our society needs to rethink its approach to troubles of the mind. Consider the amount of addicting pills parents and doctors force children to take for no good reason at all. This is a serious matter. ( )

Book about mental illness. ( )

I loved this book. It is a brutal struggle to the end between the Big Nurse and McMurphy, with battles won and lost on both sides. Kesey had a great insight into human psychology of power and domination, of camaraderie and aloneness, of manipulation and abuse. A truly brilliant novel. ( )