the reader in a quiet corner

“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girl friend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain.”

I don't know, but I can't like a book without a good ending. People say it's not the ending that counts, but what happens in between. Well, I think you have to end a story well, don't you? Or else I would just forget what happened before the end, and quite possibly, the book. But excuse me for going to the end part first. It's the most striking part of the novel, you see (I mean, Part 4 of the story).

Not to say that the beginning and middle parts were not remarkable as well. Nurse Ratched akaBig Nurse is probably JK's inspiration for Dolores Umbridge. She was one of those villains that you can all too readily hate, and probably reminds you of a tyrannical figure of authority you know in real life. The ones who think they're doing what's best for you, without really understanding you. Nurse Ratched is one of the best villains. Period.

Randle McMurphy, the unconventional hero, is of course, brilliant.

But my favorite one is Chief Bromden. You are first introduced to their "asylum" by a colorful narrator, a schizophrenic, whose keen observations and way of putting things into perspective for the reader is quite engaging. It was a free-flowing narrative, as if Chief Bromden and I were sitting across from each other, drinking beer beside a bonfire, he talking, and I listening. Boy, did I listen. He's one good story-teller. And I don't mind that he was insane, because I'm probably insane too.

[Edit]
I increased my rating to from 4 to 5 stars, because I feel it really does deserve the praise it got.