Play Book Tag discussion

Nurse Ratched reigns supreme over her ward in the psychiatric hospital until Randle MacMurphy arrives to upset her orderly existence. MacMurphy has had himself committed in order to escape a work farm and he sets about rousing up the inmates and fanning rebellious flames until there is outright war between himself and Nurse Ratched's authority.

The psychological warfare running between the two is very clever and interesting but the arrogant and unthinking cruelty overlies everything else so even the occasions when MacMurphy wins aren't really funny. I think it's a horrible book and I only gave it three stars because it's obviously a classic.

Although I didn't read the book, I did watch the original movie. I was uncomfortable with the cruelty you describe. You were very kind to give it 3 stars if you thought it was horrible. Do you ever give 1 or 2 star ratings? (I do, although it is rare.)

Holly R W wrote: "Although I didn't read the book, I did watch the original movie. I was uncomfortable with the cruelty you describe. You were very kind to give it 3 stars if you thought it was horrible. Do you ever..."

I think the majority of my ratings are 3 so I guess that means it was fine but not particularly special. I give a 2 if I didn't like it much but did finish and a 1 if I didn't finish it or really hated it. I think in this case I went for a 3 because the premise was interesting and the cruelty was necessary, partly because that sort of thing was true for the time but also because the battle between MacMurphy and Ratched wouldn't have been the same without it.

Thanks for your reply.

It's such a dark story. I thought the movie was very powerful, and the performances were incredible. Even some of the small parts had actors that became well known later.

It's hard when you hate a book that is considered a classic.
Normally I would just stop reading a book if I think it's only worth 1 or 2 stars. I don't rate books I don't finish, so I rarely give such low scores. Right now I'm reading a book that I really dislike. It has received critical acclaim, so I wanted to give it a chance. It just got worse, so I'm moving on to something else. If I get curious about how it ends, I might return to it later.

NancyJ wrote: "It's such a dark story. I thought the movie was very powerful, and the performances were incredible. Even some of the small parts had actors that became well known later.

It's hard when you hate ..."

I feel the same about giving classics or very popular books a chance. Sometimes I'll skim read a bit further on before giving up in case it grabs me but I don't like not finishing a book. I think of the sunk costs theory applied to the time I wasted trying to get into it!