Book: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

 Book: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Author: Ken Kesey

Pages: 272

This is my 28th read for the year

This is the story of Randle McMurphy who is sent to a state mental institution from the jail to be evaluated.  He takes over his area of the hospital and encouraged the other patients to challenge the head nurse - Nurse Ratched.  Openly defying the rules and even leaving the hospital with a group of patients on a day outing fishing trip, he battles Nurse Ratched and the doctors on a daily basis for control.  

This was a weird book.  And it was okay.  I ended up watching the movie after I finished it just to kind of piece it all together, and that helped.  At first I thought the Native American patient was the main character because he has so many lines in the book.  But in the movie - that isn't true.  Probably because McMurphy is played by Jack Nicholson.  It is a bit of a disjointed book and the first half was slow.  It does pick up in the second half as the "battle" between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy comes to a head.  The rambling and dark undertones are what decreased the rating for me.

Stars: 3