Ahoy there mateys! Here I take a second look at a previously enjoyed novel and give me crew me second reflections, as it were, upon visitin’ it again.

I listened to this in audiobook form and absolutely loved it. I worked on a theatrical production back in the day so a lot of the plot was still in me noggin. What is lost in the stage version (and movie) is how absolutely beautiful the writing is. Getting the story through the perspective of Chief Bromden really makes the story that much better. The voice of Bromden makes the events of the novel all the more harrowing. He comes across as a voice of reason but then has these wonderful interludes about technology that show how crazy he is. The novel is complex and layered and compelling. I believe I listened to narrator Tom Parker. He was fantastic. I highly recommend.

Side note: I liked discussing this book again with the First Mate so much that I demanded he write his thoughts. So here are some Tidings from the Crew from him:

From the First Mate: “Cuckoo’s Nest is one of those novels where my memories of it had been almost completely overwritten by having watched the film adaptation. Given how incredibly well made that film is, it’s not all that surprising that Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched completely replaced the book version in my mind. Or that Nicholson’s McMurphy elbowed out the one that existed in Kesey’s prose. And, perhaps most damning, how the existence of the Combine faded from my memory entirely. So, the book I set about rereading turned out to be a somewhat different book than I was expecting.

Actually, I didn’t reread the book; I listened to the audio version read by John C. Reilly and it is incredible. Reilly makes for an awesome McMurphy. And I great Chief. And, really, all of the other characters. Seriously, if you’re going to listen to an audiobook version of Cuckoo’s Nest, please make it the John C. Reilly one. You won’t be disappointed.

I had remembered the book being well written, but I wasn’t really prepared for the level of sadness it contained. I know that it seems strange to not be prepared for a book about a psychiatric hospital and the patients therein to be sad, but, well, like I said, the movie was in my head. The book is populated with characters who are unable, for various reasons, to exist out in the world at large. Some of them, like the tragic Billy Bibbit or the germaphobe George Sorenson, likely will never get out due to their issues being nearly insurmountable. Others, like Dale Harding, are there entirely by choice because they feel intense shame at being in a world that wants them to be entirely something else. The shame, the lack of agency, and the fear of authority pervades all of the interactions amongst the patients. Kesey’s gift is to make you understand just how hard these people are trying and, sadly, failing.

My memory of Chief Bromden was completely wrong. Perhaps it was the parody of him in a Simpsons episode, but I truly had a memory that the Chief was just hanging out there, biding his time, and was the most normal of the patients. I was wrong. I was really, really wrong. The Chief believes he lives in a world controlled by the Combine. A world in which one can see the circuitry inside of a pill if one is fast enough when breaking it open.

Upon this reading, I was highly surprised to discover that I had sympathy for Nurse Ratched and scorn for McMurphy. I know that wasn’t the case with the film (who ever has sympathy for a character played by Louise Fletcher?), and I suspect teenaged me wouldn’t have been sympathetic to the authority figure either. But now I can see that she might have just been doing her job. Ratched and her staff probably won’t be able to help many of their patients. The methods employed may be making the situation worse (especially when viewed through a modern perspective). But McMurphy isn’t trying to help, either. McMurphy is just passing the time, and he cannot stand the authority or that others around him submit to it. I don’t think either character deserved what happened to them, but I felt way sorrier for Nurse Ratched.

Like I said, Cuckoo’s Nest is an extremely well written and incredibly sad book. I’m glad to have gotten a clearer memory of it back.”

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