Itemize Books As Sometimes a Great Notion
Original Title: | Sometimes a Great Notion |
ISBN: | 0140045295 (ISBN13: 9780140045291) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Henry Stamper, Hank Stamper, Jonathan Bailey Draeger, Boney Stokes, Viv Stamper, Leeland Stamper |
Setting: | United States of America Oregon,1961(United States) |
Ken Kesey
Paperback | Pages: 640 pages Rating: 4.17 | 20316 Users | 1209 Reviews
Specify Containing Books Sometimes a Great Notion
Title | : | Sometimes a Great Notion |
Author | : | Ken Kesey |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 640 pages |
Published | : | July 28th 1977 by Penguin Books (first published January 1st 1964) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Literature. Novels |
Rendition To Books Sometimes a Great Notion
The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.
Rating Containing Books Sometimes a Great Notion
Ratings: 4.17 From 20316 Users | 1209 ReviewsPiece Containing Books Sometimes a Great Notion
Hands down the most underappreciated American novel ever! I think it should be up there with "Moby Dick" "Grapes of Wrath" etc. In fact, I think it is better. it's hard to imagine Ken Kesey, hippy acid head that he was would be able to so write so poignantly and beautifully but he absolutely pulled it off, his other famous novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" doesn't even hold a candle to "Sometimes a Great Notion" It's rather long and it is written in a "Faulkneresque" style where POV'sKesey's masterful novel about a logging family in the Pacific Northwest and the impact of a strike in collision with their never-say-die attitude towards the world, has been somewhat overshadowed by the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that is unfortunate, for it is one of the best novels written about the west and the western mindset. Belongs on the shelf with Stegner's Big Rock Candy Mountain, Denis Johnson's Dead Again, and Steinbeck's East of Eden. A movie was made from it
The friend who recommended this book to me that it was a little difficult warned me. I was completely at sea for the first 30 or so pages. Keseys style is lyrical and non-linear. Eventually the characters and settings fell into place and that was when the book became completely engrossing. Kesey switches between inner monologues, dialogue and description frequently. He also switches between characters, often within the same paragraph. Its a unique style that gives the reader and all encompassing
This book is mind blowingly amazing. The first 100 pages are a real slog, but once you're in the story is like a river current that won't let you go. A quintessential Northwest read, I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a moving, memorable and challenging read.
I have to be honest, I really wanted to like this book. The best intentions...Part of the problem may have been Kesey himself. It's a strong storyline, the irascible Stamper family that will abide by the rules of no other man. They're a richly drawn cast, full of flaws, secrets, and mistrust, but their unbreakable self determinism defines them. It's a strong start, but he confounds it by overwriting the minutia, underwriting the big events, and chasing a questionable narrative machination to the
Sometimes a Great Notion is very polyphonic, the story is narrated by manyThe novel is a wicked and extravagant black comedy cleverly disguised as a family and social drama. Look Reality is greater than the sum of its parts, also a damn sight holier. And the lives of such stuff as dreams are made of may be rounded with a sleep but they are not tied neatly with a red bow. An estranged son, bent on taking revenge upon his older brother, reunites his hardheaded familyAnd at times, almost certainly,
Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion (Bantam Windstone, 1964)I really, really wanted to like this book. An underread novel by an acknowledged American master of letters with a core of fans who consider it one of the best novels of the last century. What could be better? Well, to put it in as few words as possible, Kesey's writing style.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest works, and works so well, because it's tight. It's terse. It says what needs to be said. Kesey knows what he wants to say and says
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