One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

Finished a classic read, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, a book I have wanted to read for a long time (especially since I have never seen the movie).  The setting is a psychiatric, in-house hospital located in Oregon, which houses both ‘acutes’ and ‘chronics’. “Chief Bromden” is the narrator, who is a deaf and mute Native American patient.  The main focus of the book centers on Randle Patrick McMurphy, who is faking insanity after being arrested to avoid prison.  McMurphy causes all types of problems for the head of the hospital, Nurse Ratched, by encouraging the patients to think for themselves, which is very much against the daily routine that creates (or tries to create) calm and quiet among the men.  McMurphy galvanizes the others to push back against authority.  He organizes daily gambling tables, a deep-sea fishing trip, selects what to watch on TV, and dictates how loud the music should be played.  As time goes on, the Chief actually opens up to McMurphy and reveals that he can actually speak and hear!  For their bad behavior, both McMurphy and the Chief face electric shock therapy, but McMurphy continues his efforts to change the environment.  He plans a party one night that involves bringing in prostitutes for Billy Babbit, an emotionally distraught, virgin young man with a stutter, breaking into the medicine cabinet to hand out pills to patients, and lavishing them all with liquor. Nurse Ratched is furious to find the place in ruins and is shocked to see Billy asleep with a prostitute.  She threatens Billy by saying she may tell his parents, which causes him to commit suicide.  She later blames McMurphy for his death, prompting him to strangle her, but he is stopped by two orderlies.  While she is away recovering, patients start to be separated from one another. When she returns, she is unable to speak due to the injuries sustained in the attack by McMurphy.  When McMurphy returns to the ward, he is a changed man, having undergone a lobotomy and left in a vegetative state.  Bromden gives him ‘mercy’ by placing a pillow over his face until his life is extinguished.  The insanity of insanities…inside the ward of a psychiatric hospital, where one really doesn’t know the actions of those who are in charge, and where patients create a bizarre subculture.  A riveting story, which we listened to on our 10-hour round trip to a wedding in New Hampshire.  Was that how the psych hospitals ran in the 1960s?  I look forward to watching the movie someday.  Such meticulous detailing by the author.  Great character development, emotion, and display of how power and patience are exercised by different people in the ward.