Nick Davies's Reviews > One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I have seen the film, and I enjoyed it, but that was twelve years before I picked up the novel second hand. Enough time had passed to remember only the basic premise and the themes explored, which didn't blunt my enjoyment of the book.

There's relatively little I have to say about the basic plot. McMurphy, a cocksure criminal chancer obtains a transfer from a prison work farm into a psychiatric hospital as he sees this as an easy alternative, and locks horns with the authoritative head nurse Ratched. The novel explores the impact of his chaotic and confrontational nature on the strict and restricted atmosphere imposed on the ward by the aforementioned controlling matriarch.

The novel is readable and entertaining, and has a number of important points to make. The first-person perspective (from the POV of The Chief, a psychologically mute/deaf resident with a somewhat privileged opportunity to observe) of the novel works differently to that of the excellent film, and there are differences in how aspects of the narrative are handled in the two formats. It certainly made for a thought-provoking read, I certainly understand the critical acclaim received.

Of course it also reminded me of my feelings seeing the film that - call me sociologically 'conservative' if you will - I felt myself siding more with the authority figure, favouring the rules and necessary restrictions and calming the situation, than the supposed hero and his meddling immaturity and desire to have his own way, fuck the consequences. Which perchance might say something about the time it was written/set compared to now.