ONE FLEW UNDER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (2007)  takes place in New Hope Hospital, England. Dominic's head is full of voices, Lisa is in a daze and Nathan is twitching. Together they rock back and forth, holding themselves tightly because no one else will hold them. They are alone together.  Jason visits his schizophrenic wife, Bernie.  She's been moved to the locked ward. He finds her curled up on the floor in a catatonic state.  Hard as he tries, he is unable to reach her.  He desperately wants to help but at the same time he can't cope. Together, they both feel  so alone.  After  the advent  of  'Care  in the Community'  Jason  feels  totally imprisoned. Faced with a Hobson's choice, he starts to go  under.  He  is now  expected to look after  Bernie  24-7.  Heading  for  burnout,  with  no one  to  turn to, he sees no future. There is no exit from his hell. No one seems to care about the carer!

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 they tried to survive

 
Book Review 

by Shannon Evans, 

Senior Editor of My Writing Mentor. www.mywritingmentor.com. Bainbridge Island, WA

"AMARA’S FRIGHTENINGLY REALISTIC DEPICTION LEAVES ONE WONDERING IF THE WORLD HAS TRULY GONE MAD " 

One Flew Under the Cuckoo’s nest is a dark commentary on the dismal state of mental health care in modern society. The book follows Bernie as she battles through a schizophrenic fugue trying to make sense of her own mental state.  She struggles through her treatment trying to make sense of her life, her passions, and her circumstances. Over medicated, undertreated, she is caged like a beautiful bird beating her wings against the constraints of the facility in which she has been placed.

Bernie’s fight to free herself from her illness takes her on a journey through a system filled with caregivers, misguided family members, and health care professionals who are each sympathetic to her problems. What is missing is any empathy for her loss of rational thinking.

The ward is filled with those who are ill and require the help of those who are trained to help them. The working conditions and the feeling of hopelessness of those who are in a position to treat the mentally ill become themselves ill in the process. Do they treat the ill because they themselves are ill or is the madness like a virus and “catching” and they become mad themselves?  The fruitless work, the ineffective therapies, and the failure of the public health care system to effectively care for the mentally ill are all dynamically presented in One Flew Under the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The cacophony of the sterile hospital environment leads the reader to ponder what is causing more damage to the patients? The never ending cycle of medication, psychotherapy, and shock therapy leave the reader to feel the despair and desolation of the patients.  Do the treatment and the environment of the ward cocoon the patients or lead them further down into the depths of their individual madness?

Amara’s frighteningly realistic depiction of the book’s characters leaves one wondering if the world has truly gone mad.  Her work thoughtfully addresses the very real stigma associated with mental illness in modern society. The mentally ill sit locked away behind a door, unseen and in deafening silence waiting for release from their illness. Their release is often into the only community left open to them in their fragile mental state…the society of the disenfranchised, the Society of the Perpetually  Homeless and Hopeless. 

This book raises multiple issues about the care of our mentally ill members of society as well as the troubling trend in the collapse of the mental health care infrastructure.  Seeing the plight of the ill through their own eyes leaves the reader with the conviction that more must be done.  It also leaves one with a feeling of despair that we really do not have a clear notion of what that ‘more’ is that must be done.