One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (original 1962; edition 1963)

by Ken Kesey (Author)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
24,874	301	146	(4.14)	600
Fiction. Literature. HTML: Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. You've never met anyone like Randle Patrick McMurphy. He's a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the ward of a mental hospital and takes over. He's a lusty, profane, life-loving fighter who rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and at every turn, openly defies her rule. The contest starts as sport, with McMurphy taking bets on the outcome, but soon it develops into a grim struggle for the minds and hearts of the men, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Big Nurse, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Big Nurse uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story's shocking climax. .… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	vitosbooks
Title:	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Authors:	Ken Kesey (Author)
Info:	Berkley (1963), 272 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by	RRCDQCLib, uncollecting, KateRitter, jimsob8, massimogiallo, Shappas, m.thompson, Zafira0801, PhilFinnimore, Ballyennis
Legacy Libraries	Jack Kerouac, Valeriya Ilyinichina Novodvorskaya, William Gaddis, JeffBuckley

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

80
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (lucyknows)
lucyknows: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey may be paired with A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess or The Outsider by Albert Camus. All three novels explore the them of society versus the individual.
30
Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates by Erving Goffman (BeeQuiet)
BeeQuiet: When reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest there were two books that immediately sprung to mind, both non-fiction and the latter of which I'll post above. I think anyone captivated by the relations in this book, particularly the way in which the inmates are made to perceive themselves will get a huge amount from this book. It's wonderful, and Goffman has a very lucid, accessible way of writing, which certainly helps.… (more)
52
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (mcenroeucsb)
mcenroeucsb: Books with Delusional/Enlightened Outcast protagonists
20
Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce (slickdpdx)
31
Screw, a guard's view of Bridgewater State Hospital by Tom Ryan (fundevogel)
fundevogel: A first hand account of the physical and psychological abuse of inmates at the Bridgewater Prison Hospital.
20
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault (BeeQuiet)
BeeQuiet: Furthering on my Goffman recommendation, Foucault here details what he sees as being the movement from "treatment" of the mentally ill through more violent means through to what is described in Kesey's book as "infinitely more human methods". What is shown through Foucault's work is that whilst leaving no physical marks, turning man against man and reducing one's sense of self can be seen as even worse.… (more)
20
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (sturlington)
10
Junky by William S. Burroughs (melancholy)
21
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (AriadneAranea)
AriadneAranea: Another chilling account of life in a US mental hospital - with a science fiction twist and a feminist angle.
32
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (lucyknows)
lucyknows: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey may be paired with The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks or even Awakenings by the same author. All three books explore the idea that once a person becomes ill or is institutionalised, they lose their rights and privileges.… (more)
21
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (mcenroeucsb)
mcenroeucsb: Books with Delusional/Enlightened Outcast protagonists
10
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle (slickdpdx)
00
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger (mcenroeucsb)
mcenroeucsb: Books with Delusional/Enlightened Outcast protagonists
11
Blindness by José Saramago (st_bruno)
st_bruno: per alienazione negli ospedali psichiatrici. Condizione umana
112
The Shawshank Redemption [1994 film] by Frank Darabont (lucyknows)
lucyknows: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can be paired with Frank Darabont's film The Shawshank Redemption based on Stephen King's short storyRita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Could also be paired with Dead Poet's society as well.

▾Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (50)

The Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (87)

Read the book and saw the movie (39)

» 98 more

Classics you know you should have read but probably haven't (109)

Favourite Books (67)

20th Century Literature (74)

Radcliffe's 100 Best Novel of the 20th Century (54)

Banned Books Week 2014 (50)

Mental health fiction (3)

BBC Big Read (101)

1960s, Best books published therein (6)

Our Favorite Banned Books (42)

1960s (4)

Books With the Most Memorable Titles (42)

Great American Novels (44)

New York Public Library's Books of the Century - All (31)

Set in the Pacific Northwest (1)

Time Magazine's "All-Time 100" (28)

LibraryThingers' 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (144)

Banned or Challenged Books (52)

1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (69)

Works with inappropriate subject headings on LibraryThing (2)

Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List (68)

Books With Numbers in the Title (14)

Best medical fiction (1)

Best Satire (45)

Jordan B. Peterson's Recommended Books (10)

Blue Pyramid 1,276 Best Books of All Time (239)

Dark Books for Winter Reading (26)

A Novel Cure (124)

Best of American Literature (19)

Time's All-Time 100 Novels (33)

Books Featured on Gilmore Girls (149)

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books (149)

New York Public Library's Books of the Century (87)

Readable Classics (59)

Unreliable Narrators (59)

Most Popular Penguins (25)

books i'd like to reread when i get the chance (1)

ban men from writing (2)

Novels/Poems/Short Stories/Anything Storytelling Related (73)

Speculative Fiction (15)

Protagonists - Men (7)

Books tagged unread (15)

LT picks: Blue Books (193)

Unread books (911)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 600 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (283) Spanish (4) Catalan (2) Portuguese (Brazil) (1) Swedish (1) French (1) Italian (1) Dutch (1) Hebrew (1) Finnish (1) German (1) Portuguese (1) All languages (298)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 283 (next | show all)

It takes a lot for me to be unsettled. This book left me feeling ill. I finished it but I was seriously debating giving up. It was unbelievably sad and horrific in its content and even now I still feel utterly devastated. It could be that that's not a good reason to judge a book "worst book ever" but as far as I'm concerned reading should be enjoyable whether that's pure "light reading" or because the book educates and challenges you. This book just made me sick. (

)

funstm | Dec 1, 2024 |

Absolutely loved it! Minor pacing issue, however. Great plot, loved the characters, and the setting was also pretty great. Highly recommend! (

)

blueday6 | Nov 8, 2024 |

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is now a new all-time favourite. Harrowing and heart-breaking, brilliantly written and thought-provoking I savoured every delicious word with frequent pauses to process and absorb.

Nurse Ratched runs her ward in the Oregon state mental hospital like a well-oiled machine. She controls the Acutes and the Chronics, the Walkers, Wheelers and Vegetables with an iron-clad fist and a rigid daily routine until Randle Patrick McMurphy rocks up, committed by the state from the Pendleton Farm for Correction on the grounds of insanity orchestrated by the man himself hoping for a cushier number. A self-professed con artist and gambler he immediately ups the ante betting he can deal the cards that will crack Big Nurse’s poker face.

The characterisation is sublime: Mack, the user and hustler, womaniser and disruptor with his red hair and big arms, cap, grin and swagger; manipulative and sadistic Miz Ratched preceded by her bolster bosom and wicker basket with her trepidatious, hand-picked minions bobbing along behind her and half Indian giant Chief Bromden, our befogged, paranoid and seemingly deaf and mute narrator sprang into life, burrowed into my brain and held me in thrall. There’ll always be a special place in my heart for stuttering, man-child Billy Bibbit.

Nurse Ratched has sedation and seclusion, the Disturbed Ward and the Shock Shop, therapeutic adjustment and surgical reconditioning at her fingertips to emasculate, subjugate and humiliate her charges. McMurphy has charisma and joie de vivre, playing the system and playing the fool, provocation and intimidation up his sleeve to sever the puppet master’s strings and transform his colony of timid little rabbits into a pack of teeth baring wolves.

Images from the film only served to enhance my overall reading experience. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. One of a kind! (

)

geraldine_croft | Mar 30, 2024 |

#362 in our old book database. Not rated.

villemezbrown | Feb 25, 2024 |

Life in the worst kind of insane asylum, more metaphorical than I could grasp, probably. (

)

mykl-s | Aug 13, 2023 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 283 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Kesey, Ken	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Bacon, Paul	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Bartos, Tibor	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Bash, Kent	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Bay, André	Avertissement	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Bofill, Mireia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Deutsch, Michel	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Fraggen, Robert	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Hermann, Hans	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kořán, Jaroslav	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Koning, Bert	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Krailing, Tessa	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Lehmusoksa, Risto	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Oddera, Bruno	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Palahniuk, Chuck	Foreword	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Pillau, Virve	Editor	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Reilly, John C.	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sacco, Joe	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Skogsberg, Ingvar	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sutherland, John	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Verhoeven, Wil	Afterword	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Blackbirds (1993.1)

BUR: Biblioteca universale Rizzoli [serie generale] (0215)

BUR: Narrativa [Rizzoli]

Eesti Päevalehe XX sajandi klassika (34)

Irish Independent Lifetime Reads (4)

Le livre de poche (4917)

— 11 more

Penguin Classics

Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions

Penguin Classics Graphic Deluxe Editions

Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century (1962)

Penguin Modern Classics

rororo (5061)

La scala [Rizzoli]

Stock, Bibliothèque Cosmopolite

Stock, La Cosmopolite

Stock, Le Cabinet cosmopolite

Superbur: Narrativa [Rizzoli] (46)

Is contained in

Penguin Modern Classics: 10 books set Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Day of the Triffids, The Jungle Books, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Room with a View, Goldfinger, A Clockwork Orange, A Kestrel for a Knave, Lolita and Orlando by Penguin

Has the adaptation

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [1975 film] by Miloš Forman

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest : A Play in Two Acts by Dale Wasserman

The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest by Russ Kick

Is abridged in

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Thumb Tripping / The End of the Road / The World According to Garp by John Barth

Has as a study

Mental Illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dedria Bryfonski

Has as a commentary on the text

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations) by Harold Bloom

Has as a student's study guide

CliffsNotes on Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Thomas R. Holland

Coles Notes on One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey by Coles Notes

Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Monarch Notes) by John Taylor Gatto

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (SparkNotes) by Selena Ward

(show 3 more)

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Barron's Book Notes) by Peter Fish

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: Rising to Heroism by M. Gilbert Porter

A Study Guide for Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Diane Telgen

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Nominee – 2001)

Golden Globe Award (Best Screenplay – 1975)

Distinctions

Notable Lists

100 best books according to Dystopia

100 books by foreign authors recommended for independent reading

100 лучших книг по версии журнала "Marie Claire"

1001 boeken die je gelezen moet hebben! (editie 2017)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006/2008/2010/2012 Edition)

50 States of Literature (Oregon)

ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009

BBC's Big Read (Best loved novel, No 157 – 2003)

BookDepository's 100 Best Books Ever

Bulgarian Big Read

Chris Hannan's top 10 tales of the American frontier

Esquire's 75 Books Every Man Should Read

Genome of the Russian soul

The Great American Novels

The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Family and Self)

Harenberg Buch der 1000 Bücher

Journal book lovers pick their own top 100

Koen Book Distributors Top 100 Books of the Past Century

I Migliori Libri del '900

The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Readers' List

New York Public Library's Books of the Century (Mind & Spirit)

Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List

Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

Time's All-Time 100 Novels selection

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books (7 points)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Original title

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1962 (1e édition originale américaine, Kiking press, New york)

1963 (1e traduction par Michel Deutsch et édition française sous le titre "La machine à brouillard", Stock)

1976 (Réédition française sous le litre "Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou", Le Cabinet cosmopolite, Stock)

1977 (Réédition française, Le livre de poche)

1993 (Réédition française, Bibliothèque cosmopolite, Stock)

(show all 7 items)

People/Characters

Important places

Salem, Oregon, USA

Pendleton, Oregon, USA

Oregon, USA

Important events

World Series

Epigraph

. . . one flew east, one flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
— Children's folk rhyme

Dedication

To Vik Lovell
who told me dragons did not exist,
then led me to their lairs.

First words

They're out there.
Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.

Quotations

It's the truth, even if it didn't happen.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

This is the novel by Ken Kesey. Please do not combine this with any other version.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Schorer, Mark

Kerouac, Jack

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)

Portal:Oregon/Selected quote/32

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time.

You've never met anyone like Randle Patrick McMurphy. He's a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the ward of a mental hospital and takes over. He's a lusty, profane, life-loving fighter who rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and at every turn, openly defies her rule.

The contest starts as sport, with McMurphy taking bets on the outcome, but soon it develops into a grim struggle for the minds and hearts of the men, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Big Nurse, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Big Nurse uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story's shocking climax.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is a novel written by Ken Kesey. It is set in an Oregon asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind.

Haiku summary