One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Paperback)

A counterculture classic that portrays the psychedelic 1960s. Ken Kesey's novel is inspired by his own experiences participating in psychoactive drug research at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital psychiatric center in California. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest stars R.P. McMurphy, a convict who escapes sentencing by feigning insanity. McMurphy is then committed to a mental institution under the tutelage of the sadistic Nurse Ratched, who commands the inmates with her rigorous therapy and electroshock sessions. Little by little, McMurphy realizes that the mental institution can be much worse than prison, in this new world surrounded by insecure, anxious, and constantly drugged patients. People who sought refuge from society in the institution. A crazy book, but very real.