One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

I absolutely adored this book. It's the best thing I've read in a really long time, and I wish I had this blog going while I was in the midst of reading it, because it was changing my life.

It's almost impossible to mention the book without mentioning the film, which is such a classic. I saw the film a few years too young - I spent half an hour crying after it was over, but if you had asked me at the time, I wouldn't have been able to explain why. I could explain why, now, but the explanation would be all talk and symbolism and politics. There remains no way to properly communicate the raw emotion of this story.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to stop thinking of Nicholson while reading this, but Kesey's description of both McMurphy's and the other characters' physicality is so sparse and visual that Nicholson doesn't stand a chance.

In case you don't know, the book is narrated first person by "Chief." This is an excellent move, since you can see the narrator's illness through his own words, even if he can't see it. It's a very effective style, because you're also able to interpret the sanity to his delusions. To some extent, it leaves you wondering if Chief isn't insane so much as some kind of poet.

This is the last book I've read that made me weep. Not just the typical end-of-the-novel oh boo-hoo thing, but also in joy at times. Wonderful crests in the story and characters.

Don't buy the Signet small paperback copy of this book - the back cover synopsis ruins the ending, and there were a ton of typos in mine. Aside from sloppy publishing, I would say that this book is perfect. Kesey ascribes characteristics to mental patients that we should all be wise enough to see in ourselves - at first you're afraid of the asylum's inside, and then you can see that the asylum is everywhere.

I know that's a trite ending point, but there is no way to reformulate this novel without sounding trite. The ideas are basic, sanity vs. madness, chaos vs. order, freedom vs. control, The Will, etc. Classic stuff. But this is a classic in the same way that Hamlet is. Beyond being a good piece of literature for its time, Cuckoo's Nest is bound to be an excellent piece of literature for much time to come.