One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
(Buy it at Amazon
I now bring you part two of the series of books-my-sister-has-spoilt-in-part-or-in-whole (the first of which being One The Beach).
I haven’t seen the movie so I only had a vague jist about what the book was about. Allow me to give you more of a jist. The book is set in a mental hospital, run by the iron-fisted passive-aggressive Nurse Ratchet. We are narrated throughout the book by Chief Bromden, a native American Indian who pretends to be mute. He proves to be a very endearing character (to me at least) and the fact that none of the staff know he can actually hear works as a plot device because he is able to listen in to the staff member’s conversations. However, this struck me as more of a convenience as opposed to a believable situation. I would have thought that sooner or later a staff member would realise The Chief’s reaction to some kind of noise. Anyway, the facility is more or less in a state of equilibrium with Nurse Ratchet having more or less total control over the patients.
Until…
…enter McMurphy, the brash felon who, after deciding that a mental institution may be less work than chain gangs, decides to get admitted. McMurphy is not your typical patient and, as Nurse Ratchet soon discovers, is far from content to be downtrodden and accept conditions as they are. None of this is really new, though. The premise of the outsider coming in to an established environment and stirring things up is old as time. What is fascinating is the cat and mouse game that Nurse Ratchet and McMurphy play throughout the book. All the time you wonder who is going to win in the end.
I enjoyed this book a lot, although it took a dive when I ‘accidentally’ found out the ending.
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