One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Publisher: New American Library
Published: 1975
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780451088673
First sentence: part 1
They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.
They're mopping when I come out the dorm, all three of them sulky and hating everything, the time of day, the place they're at here, the people they got to work around. When they hate like this, better if they don't see me. I creep along me wall quiet as dust in my canvas shoes, but they got special sensitive equipment detects my fear and they all look up, all three at once, eyes glittering out of the black faces like the hard glitter of radio tubes out of the back of an old radio.
"Here's the Chief. The soo-pah Chief, fellas. Ol' Chief Broom. Here you go, Chief Broom...."
Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean today, and I go. One swats the backs of my legs with a broom handle to hurry me past.
"Haw, you look at 'im shag it? Big enough to eat apples off my head an' he mine me like a baby."
Description: Tired of weeding peas at a penal farm, the tough, freewheeling McMurphy feigns insanity for a chance at the softer life of a mental institution. But he gets more than he's bargained for, much more. He is committed to the care of Big Nurse—a full-breasted, stiff-gaited tyrant who rules over her charges with chilling authority.
Her ward is a citadel of discipline. Strong arm orderlies stand ready to quell even the feeblest insurrection. Her patients long ago gave up the struggle to assert themselves. Cowed, docile, they have surrendered completely to her unbridled authority.
Now, into their ranks charges McMurphy. The gambling Irishman sees at once what Big Nurse's game is. Appalled by the timidity of his fellow patients, he begins his one-man campaign to render her powerless. First in fun, and then in dire earnestness, he sets out to create havoc on her well-run ward ... to make the gray halls ring with laughter, and anger, and life.
Notes: Originally published, New York: Viking Press, 1962.