I originally intended to write a blog post about ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey during Banned Books Week (27th September – 3rd October). However, I fell a bit behind with my reviewing around that time and while it’s important to have these events to spread awareness, reading banned books needn’t be restricted to just one week of the year. First published in 1962 followed by an equally famous film adaptation in 1975 starring Jack Nicholson, the story is set in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon and follows the lives of the patients who live under the controlled regime of Nurse Ratched. However, the arrival of a new patient, Randle McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his prison sentence in what he believed would be more comfortable surroundings, soon changes everything.
There have been repeated attempts to ban ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ over the last few decades in the United States. In one example, five residents of Strongsville, Ohio sued the board of education in 1974 to get the novel removed from schools on the grounds that it “glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination.” More recently, it was challenged at the Placentia-Yorba Linda, California Unified School District in 2000 after parents complained that teachers “can choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again.”
I watched the film adaptation of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ starring Jack Nicholson for the first time last year. The film is mostly very faithful to the events in the original book and McMurphy’s charismatic personality comes across as powerfully in the book as Nicholson’s performance on screen. However, one key difference is that the story in the book is told from the point of view of half Native-American Chief Bromden, widely believed by the other characters to be deaf and dumb. His constant presence as a long-term patient at the institution yet without any significant participation in most of the events he witnesses offers a unique perspective for the reader.
The patients are classified either as Acutes who are potentially curable along with Chronics, Disturbeds and Vegetables who can’t be cured and will never be able to leave the institution. Although the power struggle between the patients and the institution has been widely commented on, the most compelling aspect of the book for me was the increasingly blurred distinction between what can be defined as sanity and insanity. Although I already knew how the story was going to end, the final scene itself was still just as shocking to read even in its relative brevity.
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is a fascinating read and serves as a reminder that it’s no coincidence that many of the most frequently banned books also happen to be widely celebrated classics confronting the most significant social and political issues which continue to affect the world today.
Have you read any banned books recently?
A Little Blog of Books 
Hoping to get to “The Well of Loneliness” one of these centuries, so hard to choose what should come first. Also have OFOTCN on the shelf and really keen to read it – thanks for this great review of the book and comment on the film.
LikeLike
I’ve been making more of an effort recently to tackle the books which have been on my TBR list for years including this one – definitely worth doing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I keep discovering old favourites that have been banned at some point or other – like To Kill A Mockingbird (which I really don’t understand)! The next on my reading list is probably Fahrenheit 451 which I first learned about through a list of banned books.
LikeLike
Yes, I read it a while ago but Fahrenheit 451 is excellent t00 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you read Asylum by Patrick McGrath yet? We’re reading it for book club at the mo and I think you might enjoy it 🙂
LikeLike
No, I haven’t read it yet – thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
LikeLike
That reminds me of high school…
LikeLike
I think it would be an interesting book to study at school – in the places where it hasn’t been banned!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There haven’t been any more recent attempts to have this book banned, I hope? The idea of banning any book at all is just completely absurd to me.
LikeLike
As far as I know, there haven’t been any further widespread attempts to ban the book but it’s certainly possible. If I’m wrong about this, please let me know!
LikeLike
I read this for the first time only a couple years ago. I thought it was an excellent book. I might have to watch the movie too!
LikeLike
The film is excellent and definitely a classic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read this one a few years ago and enjoyed it. Admired it, too, though it does seem a little dated, just a little. It’s a very good book. I recall wondering in the end just how much of a ‘here’ McMurphy really was since so many of the “inmates” were there willingly. That was interesting, the idea that those who cannot cope would choose to live in the institution.
LikeLike
Yes, it is a book of its time but I think it will still be read for decades to come. The range of characters and their reasons for being there are very interesting too.
LikeLike
I’ve still not read this – thanks for the push.
LikeLike
I had this on my TBR list for years. It’s worth getting round to eventually!
LikeLike
Pingback: My Books of the Year 2015 | A Little Blog of Books