One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey; 10/10

(Read by Tom Parker)

This book WINS. What a great freaking novel this is. So much here to like-- it captures the zeitgest of the era that was to come, it has metaphors and themes that serve as an indictment of American society at its time in fascinating and compelling ways, it has brilliant dialogue and wonderfully complex characters, and the writing is, in general fantastic. I never had this book assigned in school, and wound up instead originally ingesting it in the form of the excellent film (which I was too young to understand and have yet to revisit. Need to do that).

The story is told from the point of view of an inmate in an insane asylum in Oregon in the late 1950's. Everyone he interacts with is crazy, but more than this, they hate each other and get into fights and are generally dominated by a repressive set of guards led by the inimitable Nurse Ratchet. This is all until a new inmate, McMurphy, arrives on the scene to shake things up, and gives the other inmates a sense of purpose, unity, and dignity, over the opposition of the villainous nurse.

There is so much going on here thematically. Kesey drew a large amount of inspiration from his "day job" (mostly at night, I gather) working at a Veteran's hospital with patients who had been labelled "insane." Kesey already identified well with social outcasts, having draw inspiration from (and written two unpublished novels partially about) the Beat generation, and having significant early experience with drugs through his volunteering as a subject for the CIA's experiments in the MK ULTRA program. He looked at the men he was assigned to care for not as irretrievably lost "crazies," but rather as social misfits and outcasts. This is the nugget, the idea that nonconformism is worthy of respect and even admiration, that makes One Flew such a prophetic voice for the generation that was rising at the time (it was written in '59, published in '62), and such an indictment of people, institutions, and cultures who attempted to knuckle under eccentric or different individuals into a collective "normal," like the cookie-cutter existence Americans were offered through popular media of the 1950's.

Great movie. Better book.

The book has one very strong argument to recommend it over the movie: the narration and the character of the narrator. Frankly I barely remember the Chief Bromden of the movie outside of two key scenes where he has a major presence. In the novel the Chief's awareness becomes a prism through which every observation and event must be challenged, reconsidered, and in some cases discounted. The many has been labelled "crazy" by society, after all, and not entirely without reason. He is one of the great unreliable narrators, up there with A Clockwork Orange's Alex in that discussion. And how fitting that is with the thematic message of this novel, for in truth, how reliable is your perspective, or mine?

One of the best books I've ever read, and you should totally read it. Tom Parker was stellar and I would recommend the audio book big time. If you can get ahold of it, do. If you already did read it, have a look at this theory I have, which is mine, my theory, below the fold.

SPOILERS follow.

There is one theme, however, that I did a bit of asking about/internet research on and did not really find addressed to my satisfaction. That the asylum can be not only a literal setting but also a stand-in for American culture is obvious. However, it struck me more and more as the story progressed that the asylum, its occupants, and McMurphy in particular could be seen to correspond, though perhaps perversely, to the New Testament. Appears Jesus (McMurphy) to a band of misfits, outcasts, lepers, criminals, prostitutes, etc, who live without dignity under the thumb of the Romans (guards/nurses/society that ruled them "insane") to offer the radical message that they should stick up for each other. They follow him and suddenly find themselves gaining self respect, support, and confidence. To break their new spirit and put down this spiritual rebellion, which threatens their authority, the hospital staff finally condemn McMurphy to lobotomy, essentially death. He puts up no fight, but sacrifices himself essentially on their behalf to serve as an example, though they deny him and deny having supported him during and after the fact.

As I made my way through the book, though I didn't seek the analogy out and am almost completely innocent of seeing Christ analogies in literature, this comparison pressed itself onto my subconscious mind, and finally onto my conscious mind. AFTER I had already begun toying with this notion, I got to the climax of the novel, where McMurphy is condemned to something like death. There is a part where Ratchet sends him in to get the operation and the doctor there first refuses to do this without (my memory slightly fails but I think it was) more proof that McMurphy cannot be salvaged. Nurse Ratchet presents him to his companions, who deny him, and then he precipitates one final innocent that pushes her over the line and seals his fate. In the New Testament there is a similar episode (a bit of historical politics, actually) where Jesus is sent by the Pharisees to the Romans for execution. Pilate initially declines to execute the prisoner, because he believes Jesus has done nothing against the Romans. However, the Pharisees, afraid to kill Jesus themselves and lacking the religious authority, send Jesus back to Pilate again and convince him that Jesus has denied the right of Caesar to rule, which Jesus does not deny, leading to his execution (by means of crucifixion, a Roman method of execution, the Jews of the era preferring stoning to death).

Anyways, this is a bit lengthy of an analysis, and I usually revolt against the imposition of symbols of this kind, but I was already wondering about it before this final episode which seemed like a very close correlation. I don't know, but maybe this is a thing?