One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey
List Price:
Our Price: $4.66
You Save: $5.33 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.24 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Ken KeseyEdition: Paperback
Published: 1963-02-01
ISBN: 0451163966
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Book Review: Probably the best novel written during the 1960s
Summary: 5 Stars
I think you could make a solid case that this is the best novel written during the 1960s. Differing greatly from the movie, the book is seen through the eyes of the Amerindian character, Chief Broom. McMurphy comes off in a similar, but also different way than the McMurphy in the movie. The biggest difference to me was that in the book McMurphy was the best therapist in the whole hospital, helping various patients get over and deal with their issues. He even makes the head shrink on the ward feel like a real living man again during the fishing trip where the Doctor catches a huge fish. The Chief while showing obvious signs of real mental illness, some of what is used to showcase that, the "Combine" and the "Fog" are also obviously symbolic of some very real things. But I don't want to get into a bunch of mental masterbations about what various things and characters in Cuckoos Nest are representative of. I'll leave that to the eggheads of the world. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a great book and I'll leave it at that.
But what about Kesey himself? Ken Kesey had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. So they give out keys to the medicine chest to the nighttime janitor and he knows just what those fancy new fangled drugs that make the crazies act even crazier are called eh? Ha ha! Yeah man give me a break. I believe Kesey was given LSD to dole out by certain people for specific reasons.
Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.
Summary of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
These deluxe editions are packaged with French flaps, acid-free paper, and rough front."A glittering parable of good and evil . . . a work of genuine literary merit."--The New York Times
Other Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
My Antonia by Willa Cather
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Best of the Best
The Virgin Suicidesby Jeffrey Eugenides
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1994-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.46
Price in other shops:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novelby Lisa See
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-02-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Into the Wildby Jon Krakauer
Anchor; Published: 2007-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops:
Catch-22: A Novel (Simon & Schuster Classics)by Joseph Heller
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1999-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.09
Price in other shops:
Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury
HarperVoyager; Published: 2004-08-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.22
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)by J. K. Rowling
Arthur A. Levine Books; Published: 2007-07-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Memoirs of a Geishaby Arthur Golden
Vintage; Published: 2005-11-22; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.89
Price in other shops:
To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee
Audio Partners; Published: 1991-05; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $64.99
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Poster by Francis Cugat, 24" x 34"AllPosters.com; AllPosters.com; Kitchen
Best price: $12.04
Brave New World (P.S.)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.30
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestNICHOLSON,JACK; Release date: 1997-12-17; DVD
Best price: $5.11
Price in other shops:
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dreamby Hunter S. Thompson
Vintage; Published: 1998-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.47
Price in other shops:
Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury
Del Rey; Published: 1987-08-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.66
Price in other shops:
1984 (Signet Classics)by George Orwell
New American Library; Published: 1961-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
On the Road (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)by Jack Kerouac
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.03
Price in other shops:
The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D. Salinger
Back Bay Books; Published: 2001-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 1999-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops:
Catch-22by Joseph Heller
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
A Clockwork Orange (Norton Paperback Fiction)by Anthony Burgess
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1986-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: