Kesey, Ken

Average customer rating:

Complex and tragic
Much Better Than The Movie
When the fog clears
Classic Individual Versus Society Type Deal
One of the great contemporary American novels

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451163966

Book Description

The imaginative characters and innovative story structure made Ken Kesey?s debut novel ripe for commentary. Take a closer look at One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest, which also enjoyed critical success as a play and a film.

The title, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Ken Kesey's One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Ken Kesey, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

Customer Reviews:

Complex and tragic.......2007-05-11

I have always regarded `One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' as one of the best movies ever made. I never read the book because, well... I'd already seen the movie. But the book was highly regarded and since I hadn't seen the movie in at least 20 years, I thought it was time to read Kesey's novel.

Ironically, reading the novel has ruined the movie for me.

After reading the novel, I felt compelled to re-watch the movie and was surprised to find how superficial it seemed to me. Kesey was not happy with the movie version of his novel (despite all those Oscars). I had never understood why, until now. The very essence of Kesey's characters were gutted by the movie (not just their physical appearance but the very core of who the characters are and what they represent). Nicholson's performance, which seemed like a tour de force before, now seems superficial to me.

The novel is written from the perspective of one of the patients (the Chief) who everyone on the ward believes is deaf and dumb. The Chief is essentially a `fly on the wall', observing all that happens, virtually unnoticed (at least initially). His tenacious grasp on reality (his hallucinations and paranoid delusions may be the result of drugs he is forced to take, mental illness, or a combination of both) provides a fascinating perspective and allows Kesey to use the Chief's altered sense of reality as a source for much of symbolism in the novel.

The movie may be good (possibly even great), but the novel is much richer, more complex and profoundly tragic. R.P. McMurphy is the ultimate doomed rebel. This is one of the best novels of the 20th Century (despite its inexplicable omission from Modern Library's `Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century').

Much Better Than The Movie.......2007-05-08

I debated reading this book, assuming that it was a pulpy best seller whose subject matter was already exhausted by a very good movie. But the book has true literary merit and is infinitely better than the movie. The story is told from the viewpoint of the Chief, whose struggles with his own demons and delusions adds a whole new layer of complexity to the story. McMurphy's character is at once more iconic and more subtle than that portrayed by the movie. He struggles with the burdens of being the hero, a bit like "Cool Hand Luke", to draw on another great movie. But the Christ symbols are also more present in the book. To be sure, it's a strange Christ who strangles Nurse Ratchet. Much as you want her to be strangled, I don't think that particular twist works any better in the book than in the movie. Still, Ratchet's role as the symbol of everything that's wrong with our overly controlled and bloodless social order and McMurphy's humanity are wonderfully conveyed in this book. It's a significant book and is better than a lot of highly ranked novels of the latter half of the twentieth century.

When the fog clears.......2007-05-01

The story is narrated by the Chief, an institutionalised American-Indian, who is repeatedly coming in and out of "the fog" designed by those little red pills given to him on a daily basis.
After experiencing a mundane daily routine day after day, the Chief's life is suddenly changed when RP McMurphy is suddenly housed at the institution and wages a war against the terrifying Nurse Ratched, and the institution staff.
Supposedly Kesey wrote this story whilst working in a veterans hospital and under the influence. This story is funny and tragic and speaks out for the little guy who has society pushing down on him to conform.
An excellent read.

Classic Individual Versus Society Type Deal.......2007-01-16

In Ken Kesey's debut 1962 novel, con man Randall McMurphy fakes mental illness to avoid serving his time in a prison work camp for a statutory rape charge. ("She was fifteen going on thirty-five Doc...") The story begins when McMurphy is transferred to an asylum in Oregon. He quickly establishes himself as the "Bull goose loony" (alpha male...I guess) and introduces gambling, drinking, women and other real life pleasures to the ward. The other timid inmates enjoy these new freedoms, but they go against the harsh rules of Big Nurse Ratchet. The conflict between Nurse Ratchet--backed by the full force of the state--and McMurphy escalates to the very end.

This book is funny, well written and at times inspirational. It's definitely could be described as a "Modern Classic". I highly recommend it.

One of the great contemporary American novels.......2007-01-03

This book is perhaps my favorite American novel of all time. Kesey's brand of storytelling is highly engaging and makes this book readable in one sitting. However, he is most admirable for his characters. The protaganist of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a brash and determined young delinquent with a devil-may-care attitude. McMurphy feigns a mental disorder in order to be moved from prison to a mental ward. Upon entering the mental institution, McMurphy stirs up all kinds of trouble by befriending and influencing a bevy of mental patients, all with their own interesting eccentricities. All of this is done to the dismay of the dictatorial "Big Nurse" who becomes McMurphy's nemesis. Interestingly, the story is told through the character Chief Broom who for years has pretended that he is a deaf mute, an aspect that affords him greater perceptability. I highly recommend this book--it will humor, sadden, move, and excite anyone who reads it. I have also concluded that--in my limited experience with literature--Randle Patrick McMurphy is the greatest character ever conceived by an American novelist.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

This entertaining and often hilarious read remains
Do not be misled by the teens writing bad reviews about Cuckoo's Nest....
Fantastic
One Super Fantastic Book
This book really messes with you...in a good way

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics)
Ken Kesey , and Robert Faggen
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141181222

Book Description

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here 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 powers that keep them all imprisoned.

With a Preface and Illustrations by the author
Introduction by Robert Faggan

Customer Reviews:

This entertaining and often hilarious read remains.......2007-05-09

This review is for the Penguin Books paperback edition, 2003, with illustrations by Ken Kesey and introduction by Robert Faggen. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, first published in 1962, was Ken Kesey's debut novel.

The setting is a ward at a hospital for the mentally ill, probably in the late fifty's. Chief Nurse Ratched has absolute control over her ward. Through insinuation and intimidation, she has oppressed the patients, aides, junior nurses and even the ward doctor into wimps. We see this through the eyes of the narrator, Big Chief Bromden Jr., a half-Indian who pretends he is a deaf-mute. The staff ignores him, and allows him to clean the staff room during their meetings. He's the all knowing fly on the wall.

Enter the new admission, Randal Patrick McMurphy, the roughneck gambler who got himself transferred to a mental hospital to escape the rigors of a prison work farm. McMurphy considers most of the patients essentially sane, and cannot understand why they have allowed Nurse Ratched to dominate and humiliate them. McMurphy rallies his fellow inmates towards mutiny in a long battle to undermine Nurse Ratched's authority.

Weaved into ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is a social commentary on the mid-century ideas for treatment of those who could not or would not conform to normality. The novel, and the subsequent movie and play, undoubtedly helped popularize the need for change. Although that is behind us, this entertaining and often hilarious read remains.

Do not be misled by the teens writing bad reviews about Cuckoo's Nest...........2007-04-16

As I commented on one young reviewer's post...there should be a rule stating that if you have not read the book then you should not be allowed to write a review for it or even rate it. Most of the poor reviews and low ratings for this novel are from ignorant teenagers whose reviews are barely coherent and furthermore who have not even actually read the book beyond a few pages. Rant over, thanks.

Moving on, I have owned this book for several years but simply never got around to reading it until now. Things to keep in mind: I did see a stage production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but I have never seen the movie. I am not going to summarize the book, I will just get to my point. I will say that Cuckoo's Nest is not by any means a breezy read, and I also had a little bit of difficulty in the beginning fully comprehending some of what was going on mainly because it is not written in any typical fashion and yes, it is written from the perspective of a mental patient whose perception is not always clear...or is it? Not only that but Kesey was volunteering to take part in LSD testing during the time he wrote the book, which he wrote from his experience working in a Veteran's hospital. The first portion of the book is a bit slow, but once you get past the introductions, so to speak, and adjust to the style of the narrator's prose it takes a turn and you can't help but care for these characters and feel what they feel and go through and how they change and evolve. You might even see some of your own experiences or selves in the situations in Cuckoo's Nest, mental patients or not.

I finished what started as a difficult read within two days and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding novels I have read in a long time. I actually cried; this is now one of only three books that has ever hit me in such a way! It's an inspiring and sad story about the power of ideas, spirit, conformity and freedom. Although it may be a little rough at the start, I highly recommend getting through that part and finishing the story...you'll be glad you did!

Fantastic.......2007-04-06

You know the plot. Rebellion against authority. You've seen it re-hashed a hundred times, but never treated this well. In Cuckoos Nest, Kesey has made the authority palpably evil - malicious and vindictive. He's made the innocents perfectly pitiable. He's made the rescuer a brash brawler fueled by testosterone - not admirable, but respected all the same.

The Big Nurse embodies the tyranny of small minds who gain power, absolute power, over those who are helplessly subject to them. She rules with cold authority over her ward of mental patients, twisting them inside so that they'll never escape her machinations until Randall McMurphy appears in the ward, having conned his way in to avoid work detail in prison. Thus begins a battle of the wills that is full of high comedy and tragic results.

Even told through the perspective of a giant Indian mental patient, McMurphy's acts are not glossed over as the pranks of a fun-loving mischevious kid. The hatred that he and all patients on the ward have for the Big Nurse seeps out of the pages. McMurphy's goal is to make them into men, not cowering rabbits, and his final Pyrrhic victory transforms the men around him.

This is a modern classic that you will not be able to forget.

One Super Fantastic Book.......2006-09-01

While One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has a slow beginning (perhaps an attempt by Kesey to explain to his reader the maddening monotony of a mental ward,) it quickly picks up an intriguing plot centered around the observant Chief Bromden and the boisterous R.P McMurphy. When McMurphy bursts into the lives of his fellow patients, his presence forces the others to reclaim the manhood they have given up upon entering the ward. Though his influence is short when compared with the amount of time the men have spent apart from society, his rebellious ideas change their outlook on their lives and situation in a drastic way. Thick with irony and the traditional themes of literature, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is by no means a common or ordinary read. By employing the escalating presence of power struggles, Kesey reminds his audience of the importance of inner strength and always making an attempt, even when a goal appears impossible and makes his work one to remember.

This book really messes with you...in a good way.......2006-09-01

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was at first slow, but as I read on, I realized how well written it is. Wanting to see what I was getting myself into, I read a brief summary and decided that it was going to be a tedious read. As I was reading, I thought my assumption to be correct until McMurphy was committed and brought some excitement to the ward. From there on, I could not put this book down. I became intrigued by the behavior of the patients. It was not until I finished the book that I realized what I read could have actually been complete nonsense. The novel is told from the point of view of Chief Bromden, one of the three patients that are actually committed to the asylum. I began to question the accuracy of the observations seeing that he could have been biased towards McMurphy and made him larger-than-life since he was one of the other committed patients. Then, I began to question the entire novel because the situations that seemed so peculiar, even for an asylum, because the narrator may have actually been insane. Not only was he committed, Chief Bromden was also a chronic, considered to be in a more serious state that the acutes, which further discredits his account. Regardless of the accuracy of Chief Bromden's narrative, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was really well written and incited me to really think beyond the surface.

Average customer rating:

Just gotta vote
Simply Timeless
'Notion' compares incredibly to other authors
Worth The Almost Endless Hours Reading It!
An American Classic

Sometimes a Great Notion
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140045295

Book Description

The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls “one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century.” This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.

Customer Reviews:

Just gotta vote.......2007-05-13

112 reviews here, all positive so far as I've read.
So there's not much more praise to be added.
But I feel compelled to cast one more vote,
just for History.
This is The Great American Novel.
Put it on the shelf next to "Life on the Mississippi,"
and re-read it just as often.

Simply Timeless.......2007-02-11

Kesey's book is at once a meditation on the individual and his place in the community, a look into labor issues, a depiction of life in a small town, and a portrait of the notion of family. The scope of "Sometimes a Great Notion" is truly ambitious, but as the reader follows Kesey's unfocused but always necessary travels, they may find themselves as much of the landscape as the grand forests the characters inhabit. If one gives this book a chance, they will be in for a memorable experience. Highest recommedation.

'Notion' compares incredibly to other authors.......2007-01-23

Reading through the reviews on here, I was a little scared that someone rated this as the 2nd-best book all-time behind...A Prayer for Owen Meany, as Hank Stamper would say. However, it appears to me that Kesey and Whitman were on the same drugs when they wrote, as Notion exemplifies the intense relationship with nature, freedom, and self-reliance (though also reliance on others) etc that Whitman used to describe America, or at least what America should be, in "Song of Myself." There is no question that this book is up in the running for Great American Novel along with probably Gatsby, Rye, Huckleberry, and Cuckoo. (I would also throw in either Sun Also Rises or Old Man, but neither of those are really about American themes...and actually Rye isn't as good as these others, so it's gone with apologies to all those who passionately disagree.) Anyway, for me Cuckoo's complete perfection is probably better, due to a couple complaints I have:

-The females besides Viv are pretty lame and weak. I am certainly not against misogyny(!), and it's not like Shakespeare wrote likeable females often, but basically they were just kind of lame and boring. I especially found the final paragraph of the book, dealing with two women, trite and obvious in its attempt to explicitly manifest a couple themes. After the rest of the book and the rest of the conclusion, we deserved a lot better.
-Also, I found Lee's final thoughts, while necessary, poorly executed.
-Finally, while I enjoyed basically every characters' perspective (this book is very definitely an American 100 Years of Solitude, but with more experimental writing and less experimental plot), I thought that the random thoughts perspective that began most chapters (maybe the shingler perspective except it continued after his death) to be also kind of poorly executed.

All that said, I am giving the book 5 stars and say that no one has captured America as profoundly and tragically (in the sense of what it should be) as Whitman. Kesey wins all the prizes that I am giving out. Even without the merits of its content, I don't think I have ever encountered prose so technically ambitious and perfect. The ending, apart from my quibbles, is one of the most fun things to watch come together I have ever read, despite the fact you know what is coming (again, unlike 100 Years, which although deserving of its Prize, starts to drag badly at the destined end). It's not what, it's how.

Worth The Almost Endless Hours Reading It!.......2006-08-23

I have read this book only twice in my lifetime,but it is still one of my favorites!Set in the Willamette valley of Oregon,it tells the story of a family of non-union loggers defying a strike.The characters are nothing short of fascinating,and Kesey's writing is absolutely ignorant of any traditional form,in a good way.You get totally lost in this book once it hooks you,and if you don't come away from it loving life even more than already,you need to read it again.Curl up with your favorite herbal tea and enjoy reading Ken Kesey's masterpiece and realize he worked his butt off writing it.Amen!

An American Classic.......2006-07-16

This work is vastly different from "One Flew Over" but only in positive ways. It is complex and intricate, powerful and emotive. Kesey's simultaneous usage of multiple voices is awkward initially but smoothes over time. The best way to approach "Sometimes" is to read it once and then immediately begin anew and read it again. On the second time through all the voice interruptions will make sense and your comphrehension of the novel will be therefore more complete. I highly recommend this work to any serious fan of American literature and though it is a somewhat difficult read it is ultimately very fulfilling.

Average customer rating:

kesey from the sixties to the eighties
Kesey's semi-autobiography
amazing in places
Kesey, gone but not forgotten
Not very well known but very good

Demon Box
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670809128

Customer Reviews:

kesey from the sixties to the eighties.......2004-02-06

ken kesey is one of my favorite authors. sometimes a great notion is one the best novels i have ever read. after reading the electric kool aid acid test, demon box is a logical followup.

this series of short stories has highs and lows. the very best is now we know how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall. written about the death of john lennon, kesey, through interactions with people immediately before, at the time of,and immediately after the murder, shows the transition of culture from the sixties to the eighties. the death of lennon is the end of the dream of the sixties. it alone is worth the purchase of the book.

another great story is the tranny man over the border. its most interesting part deals with kesey's father.

a story about his farm animals, abdul and ebenezer, is hilarious.

this book gives the kesey fans a better understanding of the man, his family, and his friends.

Kesey's semi-autobiography.......2003-07-27

Using Kerouac's technique of writing autobiographical fiction (the events may be true, but the names have been changed), Kesey presents DEMON BOX, a series of short shorties and vinettes depicting his life on his farm in Oregon.

Relating a variety of experiences, ranging from scary hangers on to adventures with farm animals, and fallout from the drug haze of the '60's, Kesey vividly captures specific times and places. His humor, characterization and descriptions of geographical space (my native Oregon)all remain intact and on a level with his finest work.

Some vinettes are obviously more memorable than others and often the writing seems unfocused and in need of editing.

This is really a small matter considering that this is the closest to a autobiography the world will ever get. DEMON BOX certainly makes for a strong and worthwhile read.

amazing in places.......2002-02-25

ken kesey is my favourite author, his books just beg to be read and this was no exception. it's a collection of short stories and so of course it's not all going to be great, though the parts you least expect to like are for the best part the highlight of the book. the story about killer, the stories written from the viewpoint of his grandmother and the return to the mental ward which was the inspiration for one flew over the cuckoos nest are all great stories and there are so many others. read and enjoy. prepare to be baffled, confused and dumbstruck but above all prepare to be taken to other places, better times and marvel in the genius that was ken kesey. may he rest in peace.

Kesey, gone but not forgotten.......2001-12-05

The passing of Kesey last month led me to the Demon Box. I immediately fell under his spell...again. His classic third person writings are on glorious display here. Most short story collections usually are interspersed with good and bad and that is the case here. However, the good ones are great and Kesey has turned me on once again with his psycho-traumas. Kesey proves he is the best at stream of conscience writing. From the bulls on his farm to John Lennon on the night he died to his reluctance to revisit the ward, Kesey very neatly puts it all in perspective. A truly enjoyable read. He will be missed.

Not very well known but very good.......2001-04-12

Demon Box is great for those who have read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, One Flew Over the Coo Coo's Nest, and Sometimes A Great Notion and still want to hear more about Kesey. In the book, Kesey, as Devlin Debree, decribes his life after the Prankster days and gives insight into the failure of the 60's counter-culture.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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Book Description

McMurphy is a lusty, profane, life-loving fighter who rallies the other mental-hospital patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. It soon becomes a grim struggle for the minds and hearts of the men.

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One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
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Ken Kesey's time in jail
An Immediate Work of Art, An Important Piece of History
a little piece of furthur..
Very interesting narrative from a great writer
A Journey To Another Time and Another Place

Kesey's Jail Journal
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670876933

Book Description

Four years after the legendary 1964 bus trip immortalized in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Ken Kesey began serving time in San Mateo County Jail for pot possession. Transferred to an experimental low-security "honor camp" in the redwood forest, he spent six months clearing brush and immersing himself in the life of the jail community, attempting to "bring light and color" to it. "This is crazier here than the nuthouse ever was," Kesey noted, and proceeded to record the scene in numerous notebooks, illustrated with intense and brilliantly colored artwork. Upon returning to Oregon, Kesey turned the raw notebook material into an illustrated collage that stretched across dozens of 18" x 23" boards. Upon realizing that publication of the elaborate, handwritten book was more than his publisher was willing to attempt, he put it aside. Almost thirty years later he returned to the project and brought it to completion during the final years of his life. Fans of Ken Kesey's singular American voice will rejoice to hear it again in this unique and long-overdue volume. Those unfamiliar with Kesey's artwork are in for a revelation.

Customer Reviews:

Ken Kesey's time in jail.......2006-08-09

This tall tale from the late sixties concerns Ken Kesey's six month stint in jail, his 'straight time'.

In some respects this journal is a art deco paisley snapshot of an uncomfortable moment in Kesey's life. Like Leary, Ken had a good time tuning in, turning on, and dropping out, but the sub-text of this cheerily defiant counter-culture rave, like the poem at the beginning of Demon Box, is that he paid for it dearly.

That aside, Ken's writing in the jail journal as in Demon Box, was pretty damn good. Reading his clean, wry, and self-reflective prose, I wish he had continued to turn out this kind of writing (Perhaps he did?). One can only imagine the blog he would have put out.

In short, popular culture depicts the later Kesey as a kind of burnt out counter-culture warrior but these two bits of writing suggest otherwise.

An Immediate Work of Art, An Important Piece of History.......2005-07-07

The main question examined in this boisterous, original work of art is when you should "hold your mud." Ken Kesey - Hippie Number One - spent the summer of love incarcerated for a drug conviction. He was America's most promising young novelist when he announced that he was taking an indefinite break from writing novels. His first creative work after this was an unfinished marathon film of a bus ride to Furthur. What he produced next was an amalgam: a personal collage that grabs the reader's eyes and heart on every page.

If Kesey's Jail Journal had been published in its entirety when it was finished, (instead of decades later with some pages lost to prison guards) it probably would have been a sensation. At least it would have gotten a wide audience to see how a blend of images and words could be more immediately affecting and powerful than straight prose. Most pages of printed text are accompanied by that text incorporated into a collage drawing he made in jail. These pages appear like displays of Japanese Calligraphy at the Met. The words are given extra meaning by how they are presented visually.

His illustrations are disarming and masterful. The accompanying text tells easily understood stories in simple, poetic prose. These are seemingly small snippets of life, but Kesey uses them to demonstrate the power structures, personal motivations, and racial tensions underlying every interaction. Kesey wants to create, be free and play - but he must hold his mud enough to keep from losing all of his privileges; along with the book that he is making - which begins to have an importance of its own.

Every page of this book is an ode to the artistic spirit. In prison and at a work camp, Kesey has to contend with the whims of guards and their rules in order to keep his book alive as he creates it. On some pages, he has more varied materials to draw with than on others. The dance between Kesey's creative impulse and the repression of the state institution plays out within and above the book. The effect is a touching display of creativity rising above the obstacles it encounters.

Anyone who wants to have a discussion or book group on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" should read this genre-busting book. From the institutional setting; from the imprisoned individuals who have transgressed society's mores; from the blunt way rules are imposed on the deficient; from the wily, red-haired, Oregonian protagonist; from the detailed look at the daily mechanisms of an on-going power structure; all the way down to the farcical (and mandatory) group meetings: there are numerous parallels to Kesey's first novel.

But this was Kesey's real life, not McMurphy's fictional morality play. Kesey has a wife and kids on the outside. He does not reach a point (like McMurphy does in "Cuckoo") where he sees a moral imperative to throw himself into a bitter and mortal struggle on behalf of his fellow inmates. In his Jail Journal, the real Kesey is careful to hold his mud: keeping a lid on his emotions, allowing guards to paint over his decorated shed, at times hiding and smuggling his book.

While he looks out for himself, he looks out at others and provides touching portraits of interesting characters he meets.

Kesey is a master at understanding power and how it is used and abused. His Jail Journal (which the publisher, holding his mud, calls "Kesey's Jail Journal" instead of its real title, "Cut the M************ Loose") is a universal description of the struggle of the individual against the institution. (played out externally against the power structure's guardians and within the individual who pits his courage and principles against his pragmatic self-preservation)

It is also an important document of its time. Kesey sees and unflinchingly displays the divisiveness of race - the veneer of calm on the surface with root conflicts simmering below. Kesey also demonstrates the distrust of the establishment towards drugs, and how conservatives viciously defended the status quo on day-to-day behavior in the sixties. His fate and his evolving ideals serve an important counter-point to the standard tales of reckless freedom and blindness to consequence that are often set in the summer of 1967.

Highly recommended.

a little piece of furthur.........2005-02-23

i love the artwork in this book - and keyz's letter to a friend named jerry at 710 ashbury street certainly doesn't hurt at luring your attention.. i bet even if you couldn't read you could find something stimulating about this book - check it out

Very interesting narrative from a great writer.......2004-06-24

I recently saw the original Jail Journal on display in Eugene, Oregon at an art museum. It was filled with excellent illustrations (very 60s, of course) and some wonderful diary entries by Kesey (who really has a way with words). I had a great time reading the pages, which were arranged on the walls in order, and am going to be pruchasing this book so I can have a version at home to look at in the future.

A Journey To Another Time and Another Place.......2003-12-01

Get ready for quite a trip...this really isn't a book, it's a time machine. Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the journey, courtesy of the one and only Ken Kesey.

Many of the icons of the counterculture movement spent 1967's famous Summer of Love in places like Swinging London, Monterrey or Haight-Ashbury. Kesey was far removed from the heart of the action during those months--he was serving out a jail sentence for his conviction on a marijuana possession charge. Thanks to his lack of a previous record, Kesey was able to do most of his time in a sheriff's honor camp, an experiment in rehabilitation nestled in the California redwoods.

Kesey managed to keep a journal of his days in confinment, pouring forth his raw emotions, vivid dreams, sometimes gentle, sometimes agressive encounters with authority figures and fellow prisoners. He supplemented his writings with a series of vivid paintings and drawings that helped capture the chaotic nature of the experience.

After his release, Kesey had hoped to publish the journal, but found that the available printing technology couldn't do his illustrations justice. By the mid 1990s, he had revived the project, and was in the final stages of preparing it for publication at the time of his death in 2001. So, if you are a lover of Kesey's works, get this volume, read it, celebrate it, and hold it close. This is a stream-of-consciousness, often profane, nakedly honest record of a pivotal summer in one of the great creative lives of the 20th century.--William C. Hall

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Sometimes A Great Notion
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: The Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OO1CRW

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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A frustrating, castrating, terrorizing nurse

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Modern Classics)
Ken Kesey
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
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A frustrating, castrating, terrorizing nurse.......2006-07-08

This book deserves to be a classic and may remain one for quite a long time. The first reason is that it is an adventure book in a strange country, beyond all frontiers and borders, in a psychic world, that of an asylum. It is full of suspense and typically the fight between two people, an inmate, a man, on one hand, a nurse, a woman, on the other hand. Both white with the rest of the personnel being black and the rest of the inmates being europeans, except for one who is an Indian. Clear cut adventure and action with blood, violence, wit and enough sex to be appealing. The second reason is that it is an extremely detailed trip down into the psychiatric health system, into the institutionalizing of all displeasing people, all disrupting people, all disquieting people, in one word people that cannot live in society without causing some kind of a stir. All types are studied here and all cases are refused as being the results of some repressed personal sexual drive. It may be the case, but most of the time it is just plain repressed individuals, rejected individualities, refused personalities. They are locked up away from society for this society to go on thinking all its members are beautiful, clever and brilliantly aware of what the future will be and what they have to do to make it come faster. But that is not all. The novel is an allegory too, an allegory of what changing a society may be, of what historical change may mean. The allegory follows a pattern. Change can only come from the rebellion of the victims of the dominant social order, the Combine as Chrief Bromden calls it. This is the typical revolutionary pattern. But Kesey adds the fact that this rebellion of the main victims can only come if some particular person arrives among them and wakes up in them the energies they need to become rebellious, to recapture their freedom from the Combine. The pattern of the Savior, the guru, etc. But this pattern is defeated in a way because the Combine's strategy will be to isolate this leader, victimize him in order to reduce his influence, or even destroy him if necessary, in this case with a good old lobotomy that leaves him a vegetable for everyone to admire in fear and awe. And yet things will fail for the Combine, because in any modern democratic society people are individuals and they use their individual rights to vote with their feet against the Combine. In a word the Combine fails because everyone runs away from it and leves it alone in the battlefield which is no longer a battlefield but a plain empty wasteland. That's how the Combine is forced to accept change and to change. This optimistic ending is contained in the symbolic last scene or episode, that of the self-liberation and escape of the Indian Chief. He finds out and we find out with him that nothing was wrong with him, except that his presence was disruptive for the plans of the Combine that required his village to be bought up and its inhabitants to be scattered and taken care of with good old fire-water. And that is the last level of allegory : the repressed past of a country, people, culture, individual will always finds its way to freedom and regeneration, and then the whole world will have to make do with it. The Combine, the establishment of any society, can always sacrifice some people, leaders or not, on the altar of their established power, sooner or later this established power will crumble under the pushing from those it has repressed and exploited since it took over from another establishment before it. Cyclical instating of one establishment against another and of its falling down in front of a third one. Is there any meaning in these historical cycles ? No one knows and no one can know, though quite too many people pretend to know and have a ball of crystal in the back of their eyes.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne

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