The American author who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was Ken Kesey. Published by Viking Press in 1962, the novel follows rebellious patient Randle McMurphy as he challenges the rigid authority of Nurse Ratched in an Oregon psychiatric hospital.
Kesey began writing the book after working as a night attendant at a veterans’ hospital near Menlo Park, California. Conversations with patients and his observations of institutional routines influenced the novel’s depiction of psychiatric care, conformity, power, and resistance. His experiences with psychoactive drugs during the era of Project MKUltra also contributed to the book’s unusual psychological perspective.
The narrator is Chief Bromden, a patient who pretends to be deaf and mute. That detail often surprises readers because the famous 1975 film adaptation focuses more directly on McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson. The film won five Academy Awards, but the novel’s narrative viewpoint and some plot details differ substantially from the movie.