One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

I recently read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the first time in my life. There are a series of books I mean to read throughout my life - the cult classics, the old time favourites and the must reads. Some of these include: 1984 (read), The Bell Jar (read), Catch 22 (just bought and reading), Animal Farm (not read yet), A Brave New World (read), Of Mice and Men (Not yet read), The Colour Purple (read) etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and slowly but surely I will read them all.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's blurb reads: "Chief Bromden, half American-Indian, whom the authorities believe is deaf and dumb, tells the story of a mental institutions ruled by Big Nurse on behalf of the all-powerful Combine.

Into this terrifying grey world comes McMurphy, a brawling gambling man, who wages total war on behalf of his cowed fellow-inmates. What follows is at once hilarious and heroic, tragic and ultimately liberating."

Anyway, the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... it's a novel one, that's for sure (excuse the pun). It's odd how so many of these supposed classics are so strangely written. I found when reading this book that I was often focusing so much on the style of the writing that I would loose my way with what was happening with the plot and have to re-read whole sections again. When conversations ensued it became a battle to understand who was saying what as Kesey often stated it once and left you to figure out the rest through punctuations and the back and forth style of writing.

Chief Bromden is the narrator of the story which flickers between present day ward reality, Bromden's childhood and the unreality of his own mental thoughts and illness. I've heard much about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest before I came to read the book and expected a deep heart wrenching tale of life in a mental institution that led to liberation for the inmates through the arrival of the lively McMurphy. While reading the book I found it not to be the case, it was interesting and readable but the style of writing made me come to dislike reading the book and wished to reach the end. It felt slow moving and too details in areas I didn't care about but at times skimmed over things I wanted to know more about.

I can see how the style of writing is adapted to fit in with the mental state of the patient narrating the story but it was extremely tiresome in the beginning and especially when he talked about the Columbine/Machines in the walls of the ward. When more interesting things start to happen in the ward with McMurphy and Bromden such as when they're sent for Electro Shock Therapy I began to become more engrossed in the story and it is possible to see the strength inside McMurphy and the way in which he can help the other inmates realise their own strength.

For such a dramatic ending of the story it appears to occur extremely quickly and without much tension, one minute McMurphy's alive the next he isn't and you've reached the last page... I can see there is an extremely good story hiding in the mixed up words of this book but reading it didn't seem to bring it out too well. When looking back at the story of the book I can see it is a very good story with lots of ins and outs that would enthral the viewer it's just the style of writing I did not like that marked the book down in my opinion. I have recently bought the DVD of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and hope that it is better than the book and shows the story for what it is without tripping itself up on the language used in the book.

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Read reviews and/or buy the DVD

I will do a DVD review once I have watched it.