One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

My feelings are very complicated. I've always kind of hated the term a problematic fave, but by golly, if this doesn't fit the bill. If I was rating this book solely based on enjoyment I'd give it 5 stars. The characters are so engaging and memorable that they practically erupt from the page. The unreliable narration is fantastically done. The world is claustrophobic and convincing. Overall it's damn fun and tragic at the same time.

But if I take any steps back and think about what this narrative is trying to convince me of, it all crumbles. Some of the issues are right on the surface. For a book trying to convince me of the humanity of marginalized people, it sure manages to caricature and dehumanize the POCs and women. The slurs thrown around in this book made me physically wince on multiple occasions. That meme about male authors writing female character who boob boobily could have been made after reading this.

And the problems aren't only skin deep. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the world of the hospital is out of order. The women (specifically unattractive and unmarried women) and black people hold the power and the white men (and our native american narrator) have been robbed of their manhood and convinced that they're weak. Our protagonist comes in and effectively puts these upstarts in their place, beating the black men in a contest of strength and silencing and sexually assaulting the woman in power.

The young sexy girls who put out and the old black man who doesn't seem intimidating are allowed to stay :))

And when you put it like that, it's a helluva lot harder to enjoy.


P.S. I'd be interested to get the perspective of a Native American on Chief Bromden. His depiction is the most sympathetic of all the POCs in the book, but I do wonder if Kesey is romanticizing them. Similarly with the Japanese nurse briefly mentioned.