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Get your "A" in gear!

They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes™ has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles.SparkNotes'™ motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:

· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
· They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.
· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.

And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!



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Into the sanitized tedium of the mental ward walks Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, life-loving new inmate who vows to rebel against the tyrannical Big Nurse. While all the patients are resigned to a safe, secure existence of routine, McMurphy sets out to shake things up. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

"one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the..."
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a novel written by Ken Kesey regarding a mental instituion. The story is told from the point of view of one of the patients named Chief. Chief is a Chronic, meaning he is in the ward for life. Chief, along with the other patients, live out their days at the hospital under the close watch of Nurse Rached. Everyday was routine; nothing changed. Things were so montonous that the patients had even forgot how to laugh and be happy.

Things all changed one day though when McMurphy came to the ward. People say he wasn't really crazy; he just thought that a mental instution would be a good place to relax for a few months. A bed to sleep, free food to eat. Right from the start, he began to challenge the nurse and the rules of the institution. McMurphy fought back againist their way of life and their restrictions. Pretty soon, a power struggle erupts between McMurphy and the Big Nurse.

At first it started just as a game, but as McMurphy slowly realized the more horrific side of the hospital, things began to get rough. The other patients don't know what to do.They like the way McMurphy makes them feel about themselves, but they are scared too. They are scared of the power that the Big Nurse possesses.More importantly, they are scared of what will happen if McMurphy wins.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
I enjoyed this book very much. It gave a wonderful yet somewhat depressing look into the lives of mental patients during the sixties. It also showed how rebellion only got you deeper into the hand's of the government. Through the main character's eyes, you got to know and maybe even understand each and every one of these patients on a different level of intensity. Some made it passed the system and others did not. I would recommend this book to anyone.

one flew east, one flew west...
Set in a mental hospital, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a fiction novel by Ken Kesey, describes how R.P. McMurphy, a very spirited patient, takes over not only his ward, but the Head Nurse and other patients as well. He takes extreme measures to make the other patients basically come out of their shells and stand up to Nurse Ratched. The story is told by a schizophrenic patient called Chief Bromden, who all of the other patients and authoritative figures believe to be both deaf and dumb. The battles between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are what bring the story its most interesting points.
I found this book to be quite hard to read. The words got kind of confusing at times, and the descriptions of different things seemed drawn out. Most people find this book fun to read, and I think I would have too if I wouldn't had had to read it for school. That always seems to make a difference. I would recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to anyone who enjoys books involving mental hospitals, interesting plots, medical studies, or the main character always fighting for what he believes in.

One Crazy Book
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful book that reveals the cold hard truth about life in a mental institution. Seeing the ward through the eyes of the main character, Chief Bromden, gives new prospective to what you think you know. The thing that makes it most interesting is the fact that it is so real you feel as though you are there on the ward, forced to be part of their daily rituals. Ken Kesey paints a picture that makes you want to believe that what Chief Bromden is experiencing is what is actually happening. But at the same time the language Kesey uses makes it hard to decide whether or not things are really happening to Chief. You find yourself thinking, 'This is all a hallucination...isn't it?'
You begin to form an almost personal relationship with each of the characters throughout the book. The relationship between the two main characters is powerful and intriguing. The problems each character is experiencing are problems we have all had, just not to the same extent. This familiarity is what makes the book so easy to relate to, it takes what we all experience and expands to an almost unbelievable level.

Wow.
Seeing this book on the shelf for many years, I had a preconceived idea of what it may be like.I thought it was going to be detailed, dry reading about those living in a mental institution.I couldn't be more wrong.This story was told as a first person narrative and gave the reader the opportunity to drop any stereotypes he or she may have concerning mental illness.The characterization was fantastic.The ending, for me, was quite a surprise.The characters and story will stay with me for quite some time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A great collection of tales from "the greater generation"
A great collection of tales from "the greater generation"

Peter O. Whitmer is a writer and clinical psychologist and Bruce Van Wyngarden a magazine editor, both "children of the sixties."First published in 1987, "Aquarius Revisited" offers readers a penetrating look at some of the iconic figures of what the authors describe as the "Acid Generation," reflecting the degree to which drug use fueled at least some of the creativity the era spawned.

In AR, we meet seven of the personalities who gave shape and color to the counterculture of the 1960's: unconventional, intriguing, and, for the most part, profoundly wise souls that built the philosophic, spiritual, literary and aesthetic foundations one of the most significant movements that the twentieth century has produced.

AR is well-written history with penetrating interviews of William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Key Kesey, Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins and Hunter S. Thompson.Illustrative background information is offered with chapters on the Esalen Institute, UC Berkeley and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh'sRajneeshpuram commune.

These seven fathers (they are, for some reason, all male) are all avatars who in a large sense created a movement that changed America, hopefully for good. As a group they are the aesthetic of evolution, the wellsprings of revolution, and, in the author's words, "they peer into the future, saying `there is always more.' They are the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night."

This is a delicious book, a treat for the soul, that realistically portrays some of the reasons for "the way we were."

The Perfect Gift for the Acid Casualty on yer Shopping List
This is an excellent, well-written book. It provides a probing first-person look at some of the great acid heroes of the sixties; Leary, Kesey, Ginsberg, Thompson, etc.My only criticism is that even though the author has a somewhat critical eye towards the foibles of these Great Men, and gets in a few zingers at their expense, theres nonetheless a slightly fawning tone, partiularly towards Timothy Leary, surely one of the most dispicable figures to rise from the dregs of the 60s.If you're curious about reading more about these guys you might wanna check out my manuscript-in-progress simply titled "ACID" which I'm writing on-line on my website, www.geocities.com/acebackwords2002

The Age
Happened upon this nifty book in the counterculture section of my local bookstore and bought two copies.

The author takes us on a spirited, insightful sojourn through the backalleys of America's true icons and offers up zillions of interesting sidetracks along the way.

He doesn't mince too many words when disclosing the nitty gritty opinions that each of the protagonists has of one another - this makes for a more interesting read than many works which simply glorify all their subjects.

Additionally, somehow the author has an uncanny finger on the pulse of what we really want to hear about on the way, such as the piece on James Dean - his significance and his death. The section on Hunter S. Thompson is a riot!!!

This is a nice addition to your psychedelic editions.

The icons of the Sixties become real people again.
Next to Jay Stevens' classic "Storming Heaven" and Don Snyder's wonderful photographic essay "Aquarian Odyssey," make room on your bookshelf for Peter O. Whitmer's seven-dimensional biography "Aquarius Revisited." Combining well-written history and targeted recent interviews, we meet seven of the elemental forces who shaped the counter-culture of the Sixties as the outrageous, facinating, and above all intelligent souls that laid the groundwork for the last great movement our century will see. William S. Burroughs; Allen Ginsberg; Key Kesey; Timothy Leary; Norman Mailer; Tom Robbins; Hunter S. Thompson: some are gone, some are still with us, but all come together here to make a biography not only of seven people, but of a way of life, thought and hope. ... Read more

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Product Description
Chapters: Ken Kesey, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Richard Brautigan, Paul Bowles, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Neal Cassady, Kenneth Rexroth, Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, Denise Levertov, Frank O'hara, Ed Dorn, Robert Duncan, Anne Waldman, Michael Mcclure, Carolyn Cassady, Michael John Fles, Tuli Kupferberg, Kenneth Koch, Herbert Huncke, Charles Olson, Dick Mcbride, William S. Burroughs, Jr., Jack Spicer, Bob Kaufman, Daniel Terdiman, Lew Welch, Ed Sanders, Kirby Doyle, Diane Di Prima, John Wieners, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, Joyce Johnson, Philip Whalen, Jeff Nuttall, Joanne Kyger, Sinclair Beiles, Jack Micheline, John Clellon Holmes, Elise Cowen, Neeli Cherkovski, Jane Bowles, Carl Solomon, Peter Orlovsky, Václav Hrabě, Ted Joans, Harriet Sohmers Zwerling, Janine Pommy Vega, Slim Brundage, Joffre Stewart, Walt Curtis, Puffer Volpe. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 359. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914) August 2, 1997; pronounced , also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, poet, essayist, painter and spoken word performer. Burroughs was a major figure of the Beat Generation and a postmodernist author who affected popular culture as well as literature. He is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the twentieth century." Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. Burroughs also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films. Burroughs was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, where he began wri...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=33594 ... Read more