"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey Official Discussion

[Tenley Nadine]

Read it.
Discuss it.
Blurb it.

This will be the blurbing book club book from November 1st to November 30th.

[Katie Johnson]

I love this book! I really enjoyed how it was muddled and confusing in the beginning, but then cleared up as his mind did. Such a fascinating story.

[Rocker]

Our drama club is doing the play of ofocn! I am not in it because drama class was the same hour as freshman honers reading, but my sister is a senior so she in auditioned and got the part of nurse ratchet.I love the book and the movie and i cant wait to see the play! I so cried when billy died! I HATE RATCHET!!!!

[Kip Hart]

I just finished the book, completely oblivous that there was a discussion for it. It had to have been one of the greatest books I ever read. I was compelled to pick it up after I read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, a book documenting the life of Ken Kesey; specifically his involvement with the Merry Pranksters. I really recommend both books to whomever hasn't read them

[Trick]

I actually read this book after reading Poppy Shakespeare, which is pretty similar in many ways. It's been a while, but I really enjoyed it - it made me think, and though it's cliché to say it, I laughed and I cried.
I'm going to go away now and try to blurb it, which may take some time.

[ChelseaHotel]

I loved this book. The movie is also excellent.

[Jasmine]

This is one of my favorite books ever. I think that by writing it from The Chief's point of view, Kessey gives a really unique insight into not only what was going on from both sides in the hospital (McMurphy and the patients / Nurse Ratched) but also into the human mind. Also, despite his unrealistic concept of "The Combine" , the Chief is still able to explain in his own way the political workings of Nurse Ratched and McMurphy.
This book made me laugh and cry, but more importantly it made me really care about the characters. I seriously wanted to kill Ratched after what happened to Billy [I ranted to my friend about it for an hour. :P) and he was such a minor character throughout most of the book.

[BoredJester]

Blurb.

There is always a price to pay. Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, will pay for her tyranny. Randle McMurphy, the upstart new patient, will pay for defeating her. And the Chief, the ward's small giant, will learn what it takes to become yourself again.

[Morgan Kerrick]

We need to read that book for my English class at school, and let me tell ya, it was a lot better than The freaking Scarlet Letter. But anyways, O.F.O.T.C.N., if I may refer to it as that, is an amaaaaazing book. Unexpected endings, memorable characters, a unique plotline...Maybe the school's standards are finally coming up to par...

[Ximena]

I love "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I read it in my A.P Literature class, and it was the best book we read. At the end of the year, we watched the movie and I was disappointed. Great book.

[casey zvanut]

I think the book also comments on the definition of insanity. Since it is human nature to outcast individualism (while ironically touting it) these guys, though they have problems, suffer not from insanity but from the crippling fear of the rejection of their uniqueness. The book asks whether fear and insanity are the same thing, or whether it is right to hide from the rejection we fear by simply dropping out of society. The Chief, by virtue of his actions, shows us that we have to return to the world that will almost definitely reject us, because life lived in fear is not life at all.

[Julia]

I adore all the symbolism and metaphors that Kesey puts into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The scene when Chief looks out the window and watches the young dog in the night is definitely my favorite part of the book.

[Frizz K. West]

I've read it several times. It's one of my favorites, a gem of literature, really. As for a blurb, I was under the impression that they had to be very short, and thought of something along the lines of "If he's crazy, what does that make you?" But, I think I might have subconscious plagiarized that from an ad for the film.

Edit: Shit. Word-for-word. Why do all of my best ideas turn out like that?