Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Kesey's great madhouse epic best for older teens.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 17+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 2 parent reviews
Based on 11 kid reviews
Kids say that this book is an incredible yet complex read tackling mature themes such as mental illness and rebellion, which may not be suitable for younger audiences. Many reviewers appreciate the deep character development and narrative style, noting that it is both educational and thought-provoking, despite containing inappropriate language and disturbing content.
- mature themes
- character development
- educational value
- complex narrative
- emotional impact
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
As told by Chief Bromden, the giant, half-Indian inmate who's been in the mental hospital for decades, pretending to be deaf and dumb, Nurse Ratched has the ward running with fine-tuned precision till the day Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives. McMurphy, a career con man currently serving a sentence for statutory rape (he claims the charge is bogus, though his sex drive clearly isn't), figured his sentence would be easier if he pretended to be crazy, so he got transferred from the work farm to the mental hospital. Soon he's encouraging the patients to stand up for themselves, which throws Nurse Ratched's carefully managed world into disarray. Cosmic, tragicomic clashes follow.
Is It Any Good?
This mature novel is excellent, although it's certainly possible to find fault with the over-the-top quality of Kesey's writing or his fondness for the larger-than-life. But the themes of the individual being swallowed up by the Combine, of industrialization destroying nature to our peril, and what we should be doing about it, to say nothing of the universal human imperative to develop a spine, all remain timeless.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the fact that Kesey was using the mental hospital as a metaphor for the larger society of his time. Why? Also, do you think treatment for mental illness has progressed since this era?
This book is considered a seminal work of the 1960s. What do you know about Kesey and his influence in that era, and his later work?
Chief Bromden talks about how his people lost their land and had it taken away for a dam. Today some of those tribes are involved in salmon restoration efforts. What do you know about that, and other work to restore rivers to their natural state?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Literary Fiction
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Penguin Classics
- Publication date : December 31, 2002
- Number of pages : 312
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
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