February Books 18) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

[nwhyte]

This is a pretty tough book, in many ways: the violence and abuse perpetrated by the staff of the mental institution where the story is set is uncomfortable to read (and I have a daughter who is permanently institutionalised, so it cuts rather close to home). Also I was rather dismayed by the racism and sexism of the story: the only black

Comments

[strange_complex]

I can strongly recommend the film of this if you haven't seen it. It's a slightly different animal from the book - I think a couple of plot points are changed, though I can't remember exactly how now. But it is equally hard-hitting and poignant, and brings out the themes in the book very effectively.

You might also find Tom Wolfe's book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, in which Kesey features as a character, of interest.

[drasecretcampus]

Key change is it's not from Chief Broom's POV - which may of course be the book's defense against sexism and racism; it's twenty years since I read Sometimes a Great Notion, and I haven't read the later novel(s) (I think there were two - Sailor Song and Last Go Round.)

I fear Kesey's of that generation of US writers where freedom meant as much freedom from getting women pregnant as equality of the sexes, and he was writing in a still segregated America. (The Beat Generation, to whom he was linked via Neal Cassasy, were hardly less problematic with women being represented, but idolised African Americans via jazz.)

The ending of the film and book still make me cry.

[The film would have been too Carrie/Shining if it had kept the slime oozing down the walls of the book, and has an astonishing cast. Brad Dourif as Billy; Nicholson rarely better and winning an Oscar, Louise Fletcher winning one for a thankless role of Nurse Ratchett. Danny de Vito and Christopher Lloyd working together preTaxi. Michael Douglas (if I recall having bought

[ext_177050]

I remember being amazed by Sometimes a Great Notion, the great book.
I also remember that my rule - see the movie first, then read the book, because the movie will be a mere shadow of the book - was prompted by Cuckoo's Nest. I had high expectations of the movie, due to its reaction and to my reading of the book. The movie wasn't bad, but it failed to live up to my perhaps unreasonable expectations.