One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

When I woke up yesterday morning, my e-reader app told me that I had 66% of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey to get read by this evening's book club. I read during most of my normal TV time last night. I read longer at bedtime than I normally do. And I read all morning. It took me nearly 4 weeks to read the first third of the book and less than 24 hours to read the remainder.

That's not because I was totally absorbed in the book. I didn't hate it, or I would have dropped it once I saw I was having trouble getting thru it. But I certainly didn't love it. It's a classic and I was curious. That's my sole reason for sticking with it. If I didn't have people to discuss the book with, I would have had no incentive to finish it, though. So I'm glad I'll get to discuss it with my book club.

I'm writing this before heading out to Books & Beer Club so perhaps my opinion of the book might change or my thoughts might be more favorable. I'm sure I'll walk away with a better appreciation about why this book is such an important one. On one level, I know this already. But on the more self-centered level, do I really care? I kind of wish I was able to get the Sparknotes out of the library, but they're waitlisted at the moment. I didn't want to look at them when they were available prior to my reading the book.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was set in either the late 50s or the early 60s. I needed to frequently remind myself of such. The asylum where it was set is like a miniature version of society. The issues being dealt with are timeless.

I was fascinated by the Native American issues brought up in the novel. I think those wouldn't even be discussion points in a normal book club situation. But since we recently read Killers of the Flower Moon, I plan to bring up some connections if no one else does.

I'd love to hear from you if you either loved or hated this novel.

I had much higher expectations when I picked up Spencer Wise's first novel, The Emperor of Shoes. I stuck with it - even with a long wait to get the ebook back from the library after it expired. I wanted to know how things worked out. I wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending.

Wise's writing was engaging and edgy. But sometimes it just wasn't as informative as I needed it to be.

The Emperor of Shoes is sent in 2015 China. Alex, the protagonist, is 26 years old and heir apparent to his father's shoe factory in China. At first Alex is merely an observer of the factory and his father's business tactics. But after he becomes an owner - and after he starts a relationship with a factory worker (who is actually a college educated worker who has other goals in mind while working at the factory) - his eyes are opened to unethical and unsafe business practices. Not just in their shoe factory but in other factories run by expatriates. This is a novel about social justice and social change. How best to go about initiating social change.

Alex is a Boston-born Jew. His father is an ugly stereotype of a Jewish business owner. Really ugly. I'd like to think he's the exception rather than the rule. Frequently Alex tries to create an equivalency between the treatment of the Jews in Eastern Europe during the late 1800s into the early 1900s with the treatment of Chinese factory workers in recent days. He wonders if his family survived all the torture they experienced to mete out torture to others.

We see Alex change and grow over the course of the novel. But he's never terribly likable. And his father is never at all likable. We only get to know Ivy, the Chinese worker that Alex becomes involved in, in terms of the plight of the Chinese people. She was there at Tiananmen Square, and now she's using that to convince Alex of the importance of unionizing the factories. But she is so one-dimensional.

I wish I knew more specifics about the very real struggles that exist in China. I wonder if that would have enriched the reading experience for me.

While I didn't really enjoy the book, I'm sure it will weigh heavy on my mind as I decide whether or not to buy a new iPhone in the next few months.