Insane Asylum

Book reviews can often happen at an irregular pace, and certainly, this blog's curator is no exception when it comes to that.  However, since I have in fact finished a book (after three months), I can grace this blog with yet another book review.  Today's selection is not only a great book, but it was also turned into an equally great book (Some say the movie is better than the book, and in the rare instance, it is true here).  The Ken Kesey novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, who happens to be an inhabitant of the Asylum that is headed up by the Big Nurse, who keeps everything in order.  However, that all changes when Randle Patrick McMurphy enters the asylum from a prison work program.  Soon, it becomes a war of wills between the Big Nurse and McMurphy for control of the ward members.

The mechanical nature in which the asylum is run is told in such a way that the asylum is more of a machine factory than an actual insane asylum.  The slow turn in which the inmates soon go from weak-minded to free-thinking is just that: slow, which furthers the McMurphy/Big Nurse storyline that builds to a fairly big finish.  While the movie version gets all of the recognition (and rightfully so), the book is underrated in its narrative that presents a cold, sterile atmosphere.