I enjoy going back periodically and reading books I read long ago or are considered classics of literature. Now, to be honest, I can’t remember if I ever actually read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey before. I do remember seeing the movie adaptation with my grandmother. Spending time with my grandmother watching old movies and television shows is one of the more loved memories I have of her. I have a love of movie musicals, films from the 1930s through the 1950s, and cheesy television Westerns like The Rifleman and Big Valley; all because there was one television and she controlled what we watched and cartoons and kid specific programming only came on Saturday mornings. I know for some reading this, the concept is absolutely unbelievable. There are just so many more options for occupying our kids (for good or bad). So, when I needed a contemporary reading break, this title caught my eye.
The blurb on book read: “In this classic of the 1960s, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, back by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax.”
Now, you know as much as I remembered when I picked it up. It was in many ways a shockingly realistic picture of 1960s mental health in America. This to say, there are horrible medical practises in place such as shock therapy and lobotomies which today no one would think to be a reasonable or acceptable standard of care for the mentally ill. It also includes vernacular of the day which is demeaning to black people. If these ideas are offensive, I certainly suggest not reading the book. But I caution those who dislike reading or studying historically accurate snapshots of the past, those snapshots help us see where we were wrong and how we can hopefully improve. Many also speak to the dichotomy of the big bad nurse who is there to thwart all happiness in the men she is supposed to care for and the boisterous ideal of a “real man” who doesn’t go quietly along with her domination. He blows in and looks around and seems to decide that all these shrugging, quiet men are in need of toughening up to the status quo. But to me, the real gem in this book is the narrator, he is a mixed race man of great stature who we learn early on has been here a long time and is faking at being deaf and voiceless (dumb in the book). The Chief as he is called, is part Native American (the book is not so correct in its wording) and part white and tall, but no one pays him much attention and as such he sees all. His thoughts on the rules and rulers of the medical ward are fantastical such as you might expect from the mentally ill, but they are superb examples of how our actions to assimilate and control can be viewed as a mindless machine, much in the vein of ‘Big Brother’.
The writing is full of imagery and flows in a very conversational tone. You feel like you are sitting in on a secret being whispered and you feel a little honored to be in on it all. There are many characters peppered in the story and you will find yourself horrified, saddened, angry and probably exceedingly invested in what happens to each. This novel gives it all to you and you feel like you are there amidst the white walls and green patient uniforms.
Go checkout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and be transported as I was. I believe you will be glad you did or you just might be a little upset, that is good too. The writing will stay with you long after the last word is read.