Like the song. Love the Movie. Did I mention that the book is awesomely phenomenal? Also, Ken Kesey is just the shit in general. IMHO this is the best book to movie adaptation ever. If someone else has a better alternative, I am open to examine.

A Clockwork Orange was better, I think. The Godfather movie is superior to the book. Lord of Rings by far. Let's see, Lolita, by Kubrick.

hmm... "best book to movie adaptation"

as in, overall quality of the source text and/or adapted film?
degree to which they were faithful to the source material?
that's often just as difficult. like crunching Hamlet down to an hour and a half.

Get Shorty was an excellent adaptation. elmore leonard has a snappy paperback style that plays well onscreen. especially when it's that well-cast, shot, and edited (as was again true for Out of Sight and Jackie Brown).

i'd read 'Wiseguy' long before Goodfellas was made, and found it a remarkably good adaptation even for scorcese. it's all in there. right down to how karen hill used to hold her thumb and forefinger apart to indicate how thick a stack of hundreds she wanted to go shopping with.

The Shawshank Redemption