A friend once failed a college exam on Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not having read the book, he ie tried to bluff his way through by watching the movie. What he couldn't have known is that the book and movie tell R. P. McMurphy's story in vastly different ways: one through the eyes of one of McMurphy's fellow patients at a psychiatric hospital, the other through McMurphy's own eyes. The fearful, heartbreaking observations of Kesey's narrator, which really constitute the heart and soul of the book, are absent in the movie. This is not to say the film fails. On the contrary, unlike many Hollywood adaptations, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a terrific movie. Apart from affirming the folly of my friend's weak impulse, this anecdote illustrates the basic differences in the expe-riences books and movies offer.