One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - struggling....

[BrianCoxandTheTempleofDOOM]

Hi,

Started to read this last week, have never seen the film and have no knowledge of the book as such.

I am struggling to stick with it, but as it is a classic and many people have raged about it to me, I need to carry on - don't I?

Is it worth sticking with or is this one of those books that you either love or hate?

Watch the film first, then revisit the book for the finer detail. I don't think the book itself is (IMO) an out and out classic over and beyond the film unlike, say, Pride and Prejudice (poor example but that's what springs to mind).

ah, thank you Snowy.

I purposely didn't want to watch the film first, in case it spoiled the book.

No don't watch the film first. Give it a while longer - how far in are you? Jack Nicholson is good in the film but unfortunately he takes over characters so much that they all become essentially Jack Nicholson - better to read the book without seeing him imho.

i am usually hugely dissapointed with supposedly great works of fiction ( great gasby anyone dullsville)

really liked this

Ah now I already have McMurphy as Jack Nicholson in my head - I tried not to, but I am weak

I will persevere, for a few days at least..

Thanks

X post Custardo, good to know, thanks!

Oh Gatsby is boring - all of the characters are so unpleasant and I hate not having anybody to care about.

I LOVE Gatsby precisely because everyone is pretty awful. But that's what people are like!

Not read Gatsby but did attempt Great Expectations. Stuck with it til Pip moved to London and then lost the will - I wondered if it was just me

Bloomin' hate Dickens too. :)

Read the book first.
I do think though that with some modern classics, reading them as an adult who's seen 'the big wide world' is different to reading them as an adolescent/young adult.
I could never say a bad word about Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Kes, Cukoos Nest .... because I was young when I read them and they had such an impact.
But, I know adults who didnt read them when younger who just couldn't see why they were so great.
I think this is also true of films.
So, I would persevere but ...
It is a classic and deserves to be but I think as with most things sometimes they grab us and sometimes they don't. Just put it aside, pick something else and revisit it later.
I couldn't tried to say that in a much better way but that ship has sailed for today
Enjoy.

Thanks Tufty, funny you should mention Catcher In The Rye as that is another I had my eye on.

Having read To Kill A Mockingbird at an impressionable age and finding it breath taking I think I understand you completely, knowing much more about history and the politics of the time as an adult, I wonder if I would read it with the same awe as an adult.

I feel my boat of clarity has also sailed away for the evening

Read The Electric Cool Aid Acid test first by Ken Kesey and I think it puts One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest into perspective.
Personally, I prefer the book then the film but hey.

Thanks for that marzipan, I will see if I can get it in the library (no new fangled e-reader here

I think I gave up on my first attempt to read it, but got into it quicker the second time I picked it up. Once I'd gotten into it, it wasn't actually hard work and it is a good story.

Don't watch the film first, you'll already have the picture of Jack Nicolson in your head and the book is better than the film.

Agree re boring supposed 'classics' - Great Expectations, Anna Karenina and Gatsy all spring to mind,

I think you'll find Catcher in the Rye an easier read. I can't count the number of times ive read it and I always come away with something new.
It's like a favourite and old charm bracelet.
For me, Salinger, along with Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare (there are others but) didn't waste a single word. Nothing is superfluous. Whereas Hardy or Dickens could've won competitions for their lengthy, sole searching prose. It's not better though just different. I can read Tess of the D'Ubervilles again and again but I'll still skip bits.
Rambling.
Anyway.
Read Catcher in the Rye but
will you buy it? Not borrow it from the library. You need to have it so you can read it again. And bend the corners of the pages.
I'd be happy to send you a copy.
I really would.

catchers is an easy read - but i got nothing from it, thought it was dull and utter rubbish

I've read Catcher in the rye numerous times, always thinking I've missed something because everyone raves about it. Have given up looking now hahaha. Little claim to fame, I stayed with the actress that played Nurse Ratched. I saw the film before I read the book, so I could only picture Jack Nicholson.

Catcher = an easy read but an entirely unsatisfactory one. It does nothing for me.

For easy to read classics which are worth reading try some Steinbeck, especially East Of Eden and Of Mice And Men.

Yes, love Steinbeck especially Grapes of Wrath. I find Joyce Carol Oates has a similar style, easy to read but still serious.

Catcher in the Rye is boring and pointless.

grapes of wrath is indeed genius, i mean true utter genius, a hefty book which at first glance seems quite daunting, but .......oh the genius

'Grapes Of Wrath' excellent but I have never been able to bring myself to re-read it as it's so desperately, horribly, relentlessly depressing. I'm too scared to read it again! :)

I find depressing books comforting. That's what real life is so often like. It's when you read books where everything is yay and woop and hurrah and oh no it's a tiny bit sad, but hurrah everyone is young and beautiful and in love that I get depressed.

:) I like a balance!

I read 'A Fine Balance' fairly recently and it irritated me so much because the misery just kept piling up and piling up to the extent that it didn't move me at all and instead I was just bored by it. Maybe I'm just a horrible person?!

i have to say that i am comforted by the fact that others got nothing from catchers, i keep thinking 'there is a sub text here that i am too stupid to get'

but its good to know its just shit