Considering I am currently in my 4th week of 11th grade, I can not honestly say I know much about what is going on. Junior seems like the kind of year that has its ups and downs, but in the extremes. ‘Yay, awesome classes!’, ‘Oh crap, the SATs.’ What I do know, is that this year won’t be a smooth ride, no matter what. So anything that can be done to ease it should be done. This includes what books are read in English class. This could possibly include One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
First off, EK-AAT…
Look at this guy, he’s attention-grabbing and colorful, you know you wanna read him, right?
Wrong.
Although this book seemed interesting before I read it, I was turned off of it before the end of the first chapter. It was difficult to grasp, used slang, confusing, and above all else, repetitious.
Over-all, I would not recommend this book for the 11th grade English course.
Next, Cuckoo’s Nest:
OK, enough negativity, moving onto the better book of the two: Cuckoo’s Nest. This book was far superior, in my opinion. It had none of the bad aspects of the other book. First off, it is much clearer than Acid Test, even though Kesey WAS on drugs while write, while Wolfe was not. Next, the idea of a story about mental patients who go through what they do is far more interesting than listening to tales of The Merry Pranksters trip, take a bus trip, disturb something, trip, take a trip, and mess something up…Again, and again….
This book definitely has the potential to be inspiring and educational, rather than just a book to be read, and I would definitely recommend it for the 11th grade English course.
