Whanganuilibrary.com
Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

One flew over the cuckoo's nest / Ken Kesey ; with illustrations and a new introduction by the author ; text introduction by Robert Faggen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Viking, 2002.Edition: 40th anniversary editionDescription: xxiv, 281 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0670030589 (alk. paper)
Subject(s): Review: "In the early 1960s, fresh out of Stanford's creative writing program, Ken Kesey supported himself by working as an attendant at a psychiatric hospital. It was there that he wrote what became his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which Viking released on February 1, 1962. This hardcover edition, which includes new introductions and more than twenty-five line drawings that Kesey made while composing the novel, commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the publication of this American classic." "Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, this is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome power of the Combine. Hailed upon its publication as "a glittering parable of good and evil" (The New York Times Book Review) and "a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them" (Time), this powerful book is as bracing and insightful today as it was in the 1960s."--BOOK JACKET.
List(s) this item appears in: Banned and Challenged Books Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Alexander Library | Te Rerenga Mai o Te Kauru Stack Room Stack Room KES 1 Available T00382401
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An international bestseller and the basis for a hugely successful film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was one of the defining works of the 1960s. Marking the fortieth anniversary of Viking's publication of this American classic, this deluxe hardcover edition includes a new introduction by Robert Faggen and drawings Kesey made when he worked at the psychiatric hospital that was the inspiration for the novel.

A mordant, wickedly subversive parable set in a mental ward, the novel chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raising, life-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 down, starting a gambling operation, smuggling in wine and women, and 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 Nest , Kesey created a work without precedent in American literature, a novel at once comic and tragic that probes the nature of madness and sanity, authority and vitality. Greeted by unanimous acclaim when it was first published, the book has become an enduring favorite of readers. This new edition-modeled on the popular fortieth-anniversary edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road -will bring Kesey's genius to a new generation while delighting his loyal fans.

"In the early 1960s, fresh out of Stanford's creative writing program, Ken Kesey supported himself by working as an attendant at a psychiatric hospital. It was there that he wrote what became his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which Viking released on February 1, 1962. This hardcover edition, which includes new introductions and more than twenty-five line drawings that Kesey made while composing the novel, commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the publication of this American classic." "Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, this is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome power of the Combine. Hailed upon its publication as "a glittering parable of good and evil" (The New York Times Book Review) and "a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them" (Time), this powerful book is as bracing and insightful today as it was in the 1960s."--BOOK JACKET.

11

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Life and Background of the Author
  • Introduction to the Novel
  • Critical Commentaries
  • Part 1 They're Out There
  • Part 1 When the Fog Clears
  • Part 1 The New Man
  • Part 1 In the Glass Station
  • Part 1 Before Noontime
  • Part 1 One Christmas
  • Part 1 First Time for a Long, Long Time
  • Part 1 Come Morning
  • Part 1 All Through Breakfast
  • Part 1 There's a Monopoly Game
  • Part 1 There's Long Spells
  • Part 1 A Visiting Doctor
  • Part 1 It's Getting Hard
  • Part 1 There's a Shipment of Frozen Parts
  • Part 1 I Know How They Work It
  • Part 2 Just at the Edge of My Vision
  • Part 2 The Way the Big Nurse Acted
  • Part 2 In the Group Meetings
  • Part 2 Up Ahead of Me
  • Part 2 Whatever It Was
  • Part 2 They Take Me with the Acutes Sometimes
  • Part 2 I Remember It Was Friday Again
  • Part 2 Crossing the Grounds
  • Part 3 After That
  • Part 3 Two Whores
  • Part 4 The Big Nurse
  • Part 4 Up on Disturbed
  • Part 4 There Had Been Times
  • Part 4 I've Given What Happened Next
  • Character Analyses
  • Critical Essays
  • CliffsNotes Review
  • CliffsNotes Resource Center
  • Index

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Sketches Psychedelic sixties. God knows whatever that means it certainly meant far more than drugs, though drugs still work as a pretty good handle to the phenomena. I grabbed at that handle. Legally, too, I might add. Almost patriotically, in fact. Early psychedelic sixties... Eight o'clock every Tuesday morning I showed up at the vet's hospital in Menlo Park, ready to roll. The doctor deposited me in a little room on his ward, dealt me a couple of pills or a shot or a little glass of bitter juice, then locked the door. He checked back every forty minutes to see if I was still alive, took some tests, asked some questions, left again. The rest of the time I spent studying the inside of my forehead, or looking out the little window in the door. It was six inches wide and eight inches high, and it had heavy chicken wire inside the glass. You get your visions through whatever gate you're granted. Patients straggled by in the hall outside, their faces all ghastly confessions. Sometimes I looked at them and sometimes they looked at me. but rarely did we look at one another. It was too naked and painful. More was revealed in a human face than a human being can bear, face-to-face. Sometimes the nurse came by and checked on me. Her face was different. It was painful business, but not naked. This was not a person you could allow yourself to be naked in front of. Six months or so later I had finished the drug experiments and applied for a job. I was taken on as a nurse's aide, in the same ward, with the same doctor, under the same nurse--and you must understand we're talking about a huge hospital here! It was weird. But, as I said, it was the sixties. Those faces were still there, still painfully naked. To ward them off my case I very prudently took to carrying around a little notebook, to scribble notes. I got a lot of compliments from nurses: "Good for you, Mr. Kesey. That's the spirit. Get to know these men." I also scribbled faces. No, that's not correct. As I prowl through this stack of sketches I can see that these faces bored their way behind my forehead and scribbled themselves. I just held the pen and waited for the magic to happen. This was, after all, the sixties. Ken Kesey Excerpted from One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken kesey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This excellent version of Kesey's classic novel does not supplement the fine Recorded Books edition (Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/93). However, this Blackstone version is a worthy companion, based on the reading skills of narrator Tom Parker. Parker does an exceptional job of bringing to life the characters of Randall Patrick McMurphy, Big Nurse Ratched, Chief Broom, and the others occupying the Oregon mental hospital. He is especially good with Chief Broom, the story's narrator, presenting the chief's state of mind in seeing dark forces behind the nurse's actions plus the changes he undergoes through McMurphy's rebellious, fun-loving nature. Parker's skills and the continuing popularity of this work make this version a required purchase for all collections, even those libraries that have the earlier edition.‘Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Powered by Koha