One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Having seen the movie, I was biased against picking up this book ere I found myself browsing through the ever hypnotic shelves of fiction in a frequently haunted bookshop. I however wanted to prove to myself that Nicholson could not be surpassed. Hence the book; though the consequences could have hardly appealed to the imagination.

The plot could not have been more lucrative; neither the emotion that the writer expressed. The late sixties being the breeding grounds of the story, the rebellious attitude of the story is apparent. However, the imagination of the writer stands out beyond all else. Kesey has written an account of the terrible oppression and the suffocation that was faced by the free/creative souls during the cold war on both sides of the curtain. The basic spirit of the book is visible a mile afar.

The book narrates on behalf of an American Indian in a mental asylum. Chief Bromden tells us how it was like to survive as eccentrics and positively insane in the sixties. Mixed with the freedom seeking and psychedelic induced life of the sixties, it all stands, but stark naked, that the fundamental theory of the book is rebellion again 'the system'. The system is defined as the classical communist propaganda that aimed at making the human species a 'resource' rather than a life form (credits to Deva for the word). The rebellion, led by a certain Mr. Randle Patrick McMurphy, was aimed at realising indivisuality inside an asylum. To see one self as a person rather than a slave of the community. The system depicted by a megalomaniac nurse is shown as an executor of conformity as well as the executer of those that did not conform. The endless tactics used by the 'society' are discussed and so are the emotions they instill in the human brain.

The story inspired me beyond measures. The thought held me culprit for not rebelling. To speak of it in the modest way, Ken Kesey is indeed an instiller. He inspires beyond expression while exposing to you the bitter truth of life. He is one of those few talented that know how to write. However in the conclusion of the root curiosity, Nicholson kept his position as McMurphy. His grinning face never failed to pop up during McMurphy's trickery. Though I would like to immensely credit Ken Kesey as a story teller.