Cuckoos Nest – Book Review

“One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest” – Ken Kesey

Well it took me about 4 months of on again / off again reading to get it done but I finally finished it while on my recent trip waiting for a delayed plane in Las Vegas.

Cuckoos Nest was my Yr 11 text. I had never read it properly as I always struggled to read a book when I had a deadline. Instead I relied on the movie and York’s notes to explain the general story and hopefully give some insight into the literary content. The Board of Studies always tended to ask about the literary content and not the movie unfortunately.

While the Oscar winning movie, starring Jack Nicholson, was very good in it’s own right, the book (as most books) was much better than the movie. However, having seen the movie did help me visualise what was happening as I read book.

The story is set in a mental institution in the mid west state of Oregon, USA. It’s narrated by one of the committed patients, Chief Bromden. Nicknamed Chief Broom, as he is a native Indian who doesn’t speak at all, instead spending most of his time cleaning the floors with a broom given to him by the staffers on the ward.

We are introduced to Nurse Ratched. She runs a tight ship and enjoys having a strict, inflexible routine, which must be adhered to at all times by all patients on the ward. It’s therapeutic she would suggest.

To shake up her world and that of all the patients on the ward, in strolls Randall Patrick McMurphy. A career con artist who appears to be faking mental illness to get out of the prison work farm. He turns the routine upside down through his brashness and confidence in his ability to get “up Nurse Ratched’s skirt.” McMurphy continues to get up to mischief even after finding out he won’t be let out until the doctor’s and nurses agree that he is ready to be let out. He never lets up until the very end where you will have mixed emotions as to what happens to all the patients in the ward.