Readers of Antiquity

Picture the world as an insane asylum. This will change the way you look at things. It's not a very far-fetched idea. In times past, the criminally insane were sent to Australia where they multiplied and prospered. So, maybe the Earth is just a big, floating mental ward. The last sentence in the first chapter of this book says, "...it's the truth even if it didn't happen."

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey was published through the Penguin Group. The copyright is 1962. For being a novel, its truth is stranger than fiction.

It is told from the 'hallucinatory' point of view of a half-breed Indian named Chief Bromden. The book's two hundred and seventy-two pages speak volumes. By using words as his medium, Kesey takes us through the labyrinths of the mind, of truth, of reality. He goes beyond acid, beyond insanity, into true mysticism. He saw things that are beyond our normal field of perception. Yep, I like this book.

R.P. McMurphy is the central character. He's a rebel that thumbs his nose at society and its (no pun intended) schizophrenic rules. His experience with a hypocritical world comes to a head in a mental ward. Years of gambling and outsmarting the establishment never prepared him for what he encountered there.

By crafty maneuvering, McMurphy schemed his way off a prison work farm into the supposed 'easy life' of the insane. Having a history of behavioral backlashes in the 'big world', now in the microcosm, his rebellious ways bring instant punishment.

Chief Bromden informs McMurphy of the real reason his fun-loving ways are not appreciated in a modern society. He is told of the 'Combine' that works behind the scenes to keep the world running smoothly. The Combine is conspiracy theory without the fabrications. The great force, spiritual or physical, that makes people act according to proper etiquette. Those who 'dance to a different drummer' are taken away and fixed. The drummer is shot and buried somewhere in Roswell, New Mexico.

Miss Ratched is a part of the above-mentioned 'Combine.' She is also the brick wall on which McMurphy is knotting his head. In charge of all operations and duties, she's a sadistic control freak who relishes having others under her thumb. She makes it her business to know and control your business. Thoroughly trained in 'pushing buttons', she keeps her patients crazy enough not to leave.

McMurphy watches her politely drive men to suicide. Her sights then turn toward him. He is left with two choices. He can follow the gambler's instinct and fold his hand, leaving the table with what he came with, or follow his sense of justice and keep rolling the dice against the odds on behalf of his new friends, until he wins or craps out.

I won't say what happens, but the plot twists and turns to a very surprising ending. This novel springs to life in your hands. Once you read it, you'll never forget it. You may find your boss, mother-in-law, and friends in this masterpiece. In time, you will realize that the 'Combine' is out there. 'It's the truth even if it didn't happen.'