One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Review
Last updated: 5 hours, 30 minutes ago
By Ken Kesey
Reviewed By Oren Raynes
Book 17 of 2026
The Writing
This was my first Ken Kesey novel, and it was such an interesting read.
Right off the top, Kesey establishes that the narrator is untrustworthy. The narration is done from a first-person point of view of Bromden, a patient at an Oregon psychiatric hospital. Bromden sees and believes things that aren't real, and he often describes things as based on how he feels about them, not how they actually are. Because of all of this, I spent most of the book trying to figure out what was real, what wasn't real, and how or why Bromden was interpreting things. I don’t think I have ever experienced an untrustworthy narrator before; it was interesting and fun.
Kesey can switch between comedy and horror so fast that the book is genuinely disturbing at times. An example of this that hit the hardest was near the end of the book. The group had just spent the night having a party, and the nurse walked in on Billy and Candy together. We get a moment of fun as Billy greets the nurse without his stutter, and Candy is trying to get her clothing. Then the nurse starts in on Billy about telling his mother and how disappointed his mother is going to be. Billy gets scared, his stutter returns, and he starts begging her not to tell and blaming the other patients. Then, moments later, Billy has killed himself, the nurse walks up to and blames McMurphy, and then McMurphy assaults the nurse. Coming from the party scene into the suicide and assault scene was emotionally devastating!
The Story
The story follows a group of patients in a psychiatric hospital. The story is told from the first-person point of view of Chief Bromden, who is proven to be an unreliable narrator. The story focuses on McMurphy as the newest patient and how he challenges the authority of the head nurse (and the whole institution). We watch as all the patients seem to get better throughout the book thanks to McMurphy's antics: gambling, drinking, fishing, and power struggling with the nurse. Slowly but surely, the nurse and her staff lose all authority and control over the ward.
The Movie
This story is another book to movie adaptation, and I have never read this book or seen this movie before. I looked up the cast prior to going into this movie and three big actors are in this movie; Jack Nicholson, Danny Devito, and Christopher Lloyd. This movie was made in 1975 though, and all three actors are so young!
There are very few major changes in the film. The biggest change but also the most obvious change is that the film revolves around McMurphy instead of having Bromden as the narrator. From a filming point of view, this makes sense to me, and I'm not upset about the change, but it did lose a lot of Kesey's style turning the movie into a straightforward depiction of the events that happened.
Other than that, there weren't too many significant differences. All the washroom scenes were removed, almost all the nudity was removed, and all of McMurphy's were changed from premeditated to more of a spontaneous pretense. Overall, I think that the movie did a good job of staying true to the book as best as it could.
The Bans or Controversy
This book has seen some controversy and has been challenged, removed, and banned in several locations. According to American Library Association, his book has been labeled "pornographic," it has been charged with "glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination."
Another article talks about how the story teaches children how easy it is to smother someone. The article also says that the book teaches secular humanism and exposes kids to inappropriate ideas and words, while others say that they are already exposed from other students, TV, and life in general.
I don't believe that this book should be banned, but if we are exposing our kids to this, then they should at least have some guidance from teachers and parents. I think that there are important concepts in this book, such as standing up to bullies (McMurphy to the Nurse) and the dehumanization of the populace by the institutions (categorization of patients by hospital vs McMurphy treating patients like people).
The Takeaway
I loved Kesey's writing and will be looking for more of his books. This book was interesting, fun, and emotional. I don't know if I will read it again or not. I would recommend the book or movie to others, but it definitely would not be one of my go-to recommendations.
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