Ken Kesey's debut novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" uses an innovative structure and unique characters to tell a memorable story set in a mental institution. This critically acclaimed novel has also garnered success on film and on the stage. Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, New Edition" features a collection of cohesive critical essays that will enhance young scholars' understanding of Kesey's groundbreaking work. Other highlights in this updated volume include an illuminating introduction by Harold Bloom, a detailed chronology, a bibliography, and an index.
Added by: marta_marta | Karma: 38.09 | Fiction literature | 15 February 2009
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Ken Kesey's tragicomic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in a mental hospital during the late 1950s. The book can be read on two levels; if one looks on the surface, there is the story of how a highly individualistic, near-superman named McMurphy becomes a patient and for a time overturns the senseless and dehumanizing routines of the ward. If one looks deeper, however, there is a commentary on U.S. society, which the Beat generation of the late 1950s viewed as so hopelessly conformist as to stifle individuality and creativity.