One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Kesey renders his own characters exactly as he wrote them, giving perfect nuance to each one. Listeners who haven't seen the film will have little trouble getting into the story as the abridgment does not impact the main plot. An NPR interview with Kesey, included as the second half of the last disc, fleshes out the man behind the semiautobiographical story, with insight into his employment in a mental health facility as well as his experimentation with drugs. Through both the reading and the interview, Kesey is revealed as a deep thinking man with an affinity for many of his book's characters. S.M.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

The counterculture embraced this allegory of individualism versus the establishment, which, as a film, gave Jack Nicholson one of his more memorable roles. Cowed by sadistic Nurse Ratched, the inmates of a mental hospital are galvanized by a new patient, the free-spirited McMurphy, who enters a pitched battle of wills with the nurse. Narrator Tom Parker does a workmanlike, if somewhat detached, job; his tone nicely mirrors the iconoclasm in his text but doesn't quite nail the personality of the first-person narrator. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Ken Kesey gained invaluable insight into the dynamics of mental institutions by having once worked as a ward attendant; the result of this experience is the contemporary classic. . . Cuckoo's Nest. This novel poignantly depicts the lives of patients and staff alike while brilliantly interweaving comedy with dark social commentary. Mark Hammer's reading is outstanding in all respects. His characterizations are distinctive and consistently engaging. Space does not allow the proper accolades for Hammer's performance; suffice it to say, this rendering builds a strong case for acknowledging Hammer as one of the finest interpreters of our day. S.L.D. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine