Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Author: Ken Kesey
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
reviewed on + 20 more book reviews


In this classic novel of the 1960's, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy 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 openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Big Nurse, backed by the full power of authority...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.