Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

loved; detractors were being written by a man, decades ago, and in a style that is intentionally satirical as well, and neglecting to rectify some background/early info ab characters &/or some sexist, racist, otherwise offensive terms used & descriptions of women & sex by men ick

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lizardddd's review

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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therat8's review

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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cb1984's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Read for book club. Pretty sure I'd read it before, but with the film confusing things it's a bit hard to remember!

It's clearly a great book. There's a reason it's a classic. I guess I felt like the impact was a bit lessened with the plot being so familiar. It'll probably be a good one for book club discussion though.

I was going to say that there were elements that haven't aged well (the constant casual racism), but in some ways that actually helps develop some of the characters really well, in that it reveals some of their inner horribleness.

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akacasper24's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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hleary's review

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slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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asolis's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm reading classics this month, and I came to this book as a bit of unfinished business. I think I read about 5 pages in high school and not much more. I remember thinking it was strange.

I wonder what I would have gotten out of it if I had read it all the way through back then. But reading it now, its richness was a pleasant surprise, and it is well-deserving of Classic status not just due to age but because of its quality. Now, I appreciate the many layers to this book, and the invitation to consider its themes of race, gender, sexuality, power, and conformity. A remarkable exploration of what it's like to be a kind of person society tries to erase.

By reading it now, I got to connect with the PNW setting, and understand the implications of the various places mentioned. The Native narrator, albeit written by a white man, brings in some exploration of treaties, land rights, and the generational trauma of displacement. This piece is a great companion read to contextualize that aspect of the book: https://commonplace.online/article/ken-kesey-meets-lewis-and-clark/

Many summaries describe Nurse Ratched as the ultimate villain. And while she is the primary adversary, this ignores the whole point that she is only the local arm of the "combine," the societal machine that enforces conformity and compliance. If Professor Umbridge is the evil middle-aged jailer of our (millenial) generation, Nurse Ratched was her literary ancestor. But where the professor is pure evil and as such wholly unsympathetic, the cracks in the nurse's facade, the pain we know shaped her, makes her human. You may not root for her, but at least you understand her.

I felt pain when she was exposed at the end, the gendered violence, but it fit the book.

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hannchilada's review against another edition

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dark funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No

3.5

Hm, I guess I’ll have to compare this with other completely misogynistic books I‘ve read.

The writing style could sometimes be engrossing and sometimes really drag. Readers will find themselves rooting for the characters, and honestly their behavior, while unpredictable, felt like a natural progression of the plot. I was so surprised at the turn it took at the end, but I found myself surprisingly hopeful and satisfied for such a long and often sloggy read.

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