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Title: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0-14-004529-5 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (92 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Big but beautiful; tough but tender
Comment: Well yes it could use a litle judicious editing, but only a little. Those who object to 'rambling' kind of miss the point. It's not often you get as disoriented in a novel but I found this added to my pleasure, accustomed as I am to a more linear (and antiseptic) idea of plot and structure. You sometimes feel he's gone a bit too far, but there's always some ingenious resolution, generally in the sort of incandescent prose that no-one appears to be capable of nowadays.
His descriptions of a small part of Oregon enchanted me such that I've spent hours on the net (here in Australia) looking for maps that show the Wakonda and surrounds. Of course it doesn't exist - though there's a Wakonda in Wisconsin. Coos Bay, Eugene, Mapleton and Florence seem to be the boundaries of the area and Kesey's son is in Pleasant Hill, so when I finally have the cash to do so, I'll have an idea where to start exploring.
It's a great book but not just because of it's unique poetry and the struggles it descibes between ancient and modern, city and country, collective and individual - it's the incidental pleasures that make it great for me. The lesser characters are more real than many a protagonist - Floyd Evenwrite being perhaps the most memorable. They are all utterly individual but also universal types - everyone knows someone like that.. it might even be me. But there's never bitterness or ridicule; Kesey's heart seems as big as the country he describes.
You'll need a week to do this book justice, but it's worth every minute.
Rating: 5
Summary: True America
Comment: I am 18 years old and have read this book twice. I think every 18 year old who reads should give it a run. It'll straighten out all those giddy girls in love with Jane Austen, it will prove to Shakespeare fanatics that beautiful writing doesn't have to be flowery and dead in order to be great; to disillusioned youth in love with depression and false alienation, it will show them there is no point to depression; it will show Beat wanna-be's and hippies that the best hero is one who goes out and works for something everyday instead of running from nothing constantly. This novel supports what America is truly about: rugged individualism and hard work. Yea, reading and education is great and all, but take it from me, there's nothing like working all day in thankless physical labor and going home. It is exactly what this culture needs. A drunken, wild, free-flowing, original, flowing, indepedent work that shows exactly what is wrong with our technologocially and label (i.e. Abercrombie, GAP) dependent, bad music loving, money-grubbing, lazy culture. It is a story about real people solving real problems. It should be required knowledge for all of us.
Rating: 5
Summary: Sometimes a Great Novel
Comment: "Sometimes A Great Notion" will always be in the shadow of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." Personally, I view Notion as the better of the two novels. While Cuckoo's Nest deals with the mind of a person in a situation that most of us are not in, "Sometimes a Great Notion" is about life. It is about something we can understand. The rivalry we find between two brothers - one athletic and one intellectual - is something that many of us can relate to. We can relate to what occurs in this book. Another thing that should be noted is Kesey's mastering of character. The characters (and there are many) are developed throughout the story and we start to feel very attached to some and we despise others. His description of these characters, and of the scene in general, is wonderful and it allows us to see things the way Kesey would want it to be scene.
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Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0451163966 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0553380648 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Demon Box by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0140085300 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1987 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Sailor Song by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0140139974 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: On the Road by Jack Kerouac ISBN: 0140042598 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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