One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Ken Kesey’s bracing,inslightful novel about the meaning of madness and the value of self-relianceand the inspiration for the new Netflix original series Ratched A mordantwickedly subversive parable set in a mental wardOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raisinglife-affirming hero Randle Patrick McMurphy and the totalitarian rule of Big Nurse. McMurphy swaggers into the mental ward like a blast of fresh air and turns the place upside downstarting a gambling operationsmuggling in wine and womenand egging on the other patients to join him in open rebellion. But McMurphy’s revolution against Big Nurse and everything she stands for quickly turns from sport to a fierce power struggle with shattering results. With One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestKesey created a work without precedent in American literaturea novel at once comic and tragic that probes the nature of madness and sanityauthority and vitality. Greeted by unanimous acclaim when it was first publishedthe book has become and enduring favorite of readers.