Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant rambling book
Review: Sometimes a Great Notion could very well be the most ambitious book I have ever read. And not only is it ambitious, but the author pulls off the effect wonderfully. Kesey epitomized the sixties, traveling across the country on a multi-colored bus and engaging in much drug abuse. Although the rambling stream-of-consciousness style may be remniscent of the sixties, his ideas ultimately are not. At least from my interpretation of the book. I won't repeat the plot since you can read about that in other reviews, but let me say that the character development in this novel is legendary, right up there with Conrad. I can still hear an angry townsperson screaming, "Stammmmmmper! Damn you Hank Stammmper!!" You see, the townspeople don't like ole Hank, because he just keeps on working while the rest of the men are on a strike, spending their time drowning their sorrows in watered down whisky. And Hank could care less what they think, since they are mostly hypocrites. He lives for himself, and always treats the men who hate him with the utmost respect, which just infuriates them even more. The high school football team has his picture on their dummies. The book is full of secondary characters who we only see fleetingly while they struggle with life and meaning and their own failures. We have Viv, Hank's wife, who is only loved for the comfort she can provide. Love is selfish, life isn't fair. This book is full of insight, incest, infuriation and...what else starts with an i....oh it is just incredible. I recommend it without reservation.
Rating:
Summary: High Octane Writing
Review: The lumbermen of Wakonda, Oregon are on strike, trying to pressure the Oregon lumber companies to pay more favorable prices. The strike becomes bitter when the Stamper family, bucking the strike and refusing to support the union, struggles to honor a contract with the Wakonda-Pacific Lumber Company at the expense of the town. Needing all the labor they can muster, the Stampers summon Leland Stanford Stamper, the bookish black sheep who left home twelve years before, vowing some day to return to ruin his half-brother, Hank Stamper. Leland returns home in the midst of the strike to wreak his ill-defined plot of revenge against his father and Hank, whom he blames for his mother's broken life and eventual suicide. Thus the Stamper family faces attack from the townsfolk and from within. This is the story Ken Kesey tells in his high-octane prose and skillfully weaved sentences. Kesey creates a very complex narrative that moves in and out of the stream-of consciousness among Hank and Leland Stamper and the third-person narrator, but the transitions are seamless, and the reader has very little difficulty following the narrative. Kesey creates some wonderful symbolism within the story. For example, the Stamper house, built at the turn of the century at the river's edge, rests upon a foundation supported by pilings of beams, cable, and steel girders that the Stamper family has added through the years. The foundation is under constant threat of being washed away whenever the river rises, and Hank Stamper, like his father before him, finds himself driven almost nightly to check the foundation, to tie more cable and add more wood. Kesey's sentences are vivid and establish a cadence to match the mood of each chapter. Consider this description of the web of foundation supports under the Stamper house: "White timbers less than a year old cross ancient worm-rutted pilings. Bright silvery nailheads blink alongside oldtime squarehaed spikes rusted blind." The reader finds that the sentences glide past, pulling the reader into the story. Kesey creates several memorable characters, most notably Hank Stamper, who despite his masculinity and hard-nosed ways, is cabable of guilt and doubt and at times, tenderness. An excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes a Great Novel
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, you have to work but this book will reward you for it.
Review: This is the Kesey novel that nobody read after One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest stole all its thunder. Although it was filmed with an great cast (Henry Fonda, Paul Newman) it never gained the reputation that its inferior sibling achieved.
This is, quite simply, one of the great classics of the 20th century. Its pace and moody evocation of the American North West are stunning. The collision between the traditional and the modern, the past and the present make riveting, enthralling reading.
The Stamper family are loggers, rough, hard men and women who care for no ones opinion but their own. They are fighting the union, the neighbours, the town, their whole world. Their motto of "never give an inch" was the title of the film of the book. Into the strike-breaking start of the book comes the dope-smoking, college educated half brother, the prodigal son. His arrival triggers a tidal wave of events that spiral gradually out of control until everything that has been permanent before is now threatened.
If I seem vague in this review it is simply that I don't want to deprive you of the pleasure of discovering this story for yourself. This is one of the forgotten masterpieces. A book to be read, and then passed on to friends who are later bullied to give it back to be read again.
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel
Review: The Great American Novel was written over 30 years ago, and it's name is "Sometimes a Great Notion." One of those books that changes lives. I first read it at age 17, re-read it countless times during my 20s, and recently read it again at age 47. It's frightening, and often disheartening, to go back to favorites as you grow older. Books that seemed dazzling to the teenage perspective seldom retain their charm to the older reader. Happily, I found Sometimes ... just as remarkable, just as thought-provoking, just as entertaining as I did 30 years ago. The descriptions of the Oregon woods, the conflict of brother vs. brother and individualist vs. group are laser bright and beautiful. I envy you if this is the first time you'll read this book. It is Hank's bell.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes a Great Novel
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: High on the the shortlist of "Great American Novels"
Review: In the search for the 20thC "Great American Novel", what a pity that Kesey's masterpiece (yes, even better than "Cuckoo") should have fallen so foul in its time of what was deemed political incorrectness.
Pynchnon's "Gravity's Rainbow" is perhaps the only other late 20thC work of such epic proportions (but it's not about America). Earlier, Dos Passos' trilogy also comes to mind.
I don't think any other novel brings face to face so many vital opposites of the American way of life. The Cain/Abel, Urban/Rural and generational confrontations between the two half-brothers: one with his six-pack and Fats Domino records, the other with his joint and Coltrane, are sublime.
Across from the fierce small town solidarity during a down-to-the-bone loggers' strike, Kesey places the nuclear and extended independent family spirit; both are wholly American, as excessive as they are praiseworthy.
The district union leader and the local bar owner (increased activity for both!) provide wider, camera-type views; while the East-coast half-brother (coopted West after fleeing a failing student career and a hilariously failed suicide attempt) narrates a wonderful first-person tale.
There is not a dud character in the whole novel; and it abounds with characters... I envy those who have not read it, so much spell-bound pleasure to come; although I may just dig my copy out and go for a fifth or sixth read --
PS This applies to any edition of the work, unless there have been modifications since the original...
Rating:
Summary: Kesey should have won the Pulitzer for this
Review: Although Cuckoo's Nest is a great novel, Sometimes a Great Notion is even more brilliant, even more complex, and even more rewarding. The unique style of intertwined first-person narratives is executed perfectly and is proof of Kesey's inventiveness as a writer and his ability to expand the possibilities of what a novel can achieve. The book is not at all didactic, but you can't help but reflect on your own life when reading it. Also, few writers could take what would seem to be a simple, rather traditional storyline and tell the story in such an imaginative, unorthodox way. This novel was definitely ahead of its time and hopefully is beginning to attain the overdue attention that has eluded it. Kesey was one of the greats.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, compelling story
Review: A terrific book. Being from the Northwest, I had the sense that Kesey was in the know. His ability to develop interesting and original characters is profound. Quite a story teller too.
Rating:
Summary: An Unexpectedly Great Novel
Review: I read Ken Kesey's 'Sometimes A Great Notion' at the urging of a friend, a debt I may never quite repay. This is a truly epic novel, the story of'well what exactly? It's the story of Leland Stamper, a Yale-educated, twenty-something intellectual grappling with near-suicidal depression in the wake of his mother's suicide. It's the story of Henry Stamper, Lee's older half-brother, a hard-driving, stubburn, smart and narrow-minded bull of a man, determined and passionate, a fighter to his core and strong'oh so strong. It's the story of Hank Stamper, their father a craggy old cood of a man, cantankerous, disagreeable, hillybilly and bully. It's the story of the Stamper Family's logging operation, which persist one automn despite a strike by the local logging union, various sabotage attempts directed by the leaders of said union, the unanimous opposition and anger of the local townsfolk, from Injun Jenny, the local whore, to the manager of the local movie theater. It is the story of Viv'ah Viv'a latter-day Helen of Troy, the lonely wife of Henry Stamper and object of Lee's intended revenge upon the hated clan of his birth. Oh, and it's the story of love, death, small town life, big business, labor and a few other incidental subjects here and there. This was Kesey's second novel, and while I'd read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in college, nothing prepared me for the magnificence of this book. Hell, I hadn't even heard of it. First, the writing is brilliant. It's a tough read at parts. Kesey has a way of jumping from narrative to inner monologue to spoken dialogue and then back to one or the other in no particular order, much as real life tends to unfold. Very hard to follow at times, but when you get the hang of it, it's brilliant. Even when he meticulously intersperses scenes of a hunt, scenes of a romantic encounter, and the inner thoughts of a lone, lost and wounded hound. I nearly cried at that, which is saying something. Kesey masterfully creates unique, independent characters with these devices'with a larger impact that I'll talk more about in a moment. Second, the plot is just so darned good. Kesey interweaves all these stories'family dysfunction, sibling warfare, small town life'and does so without ever really taking his pedal off the gas. It's not 500 pages of character development; the characters develop in the context of a truly compelling story. But the characters don't develop at the cost of plot, or vice versa. Nothing seems forced, it's incredibly honest, full of surprises. You'll cry at parts. (I did.) Hell, it's so good that, when I got to the end, I didn't even close the cover. I just went back to the first page and reread the first chapter (made more sense the second time around.) Unlike several recent books that have left me greatly disappointed in their resolutions, this ending caught me by surprise and left me quite satisfied. Third, he captures such monumental themes in such compelling ways. I mean, the narrative is full of grand twists and tunrs, always keeping you guessing. And in the end you're convinced that the evolution of these characters, the discovery, is genuine and honest. And then you realize Kesey's embedded timeless themes into the story, while you weren't looking. Fourth, and finally, a very specific observation tied to my personal interests as a writer and avid reader: He manages to create authentic characters with independent points of view. I truly felt that each character's perspective was properly rationalized. It made sense that they felt this way, even when they were at complete conflict with one another. That reasonable people can view the world in different ways is real, and powerful, but often impossible to pull off in print. It's much easier to make one side of the story the 'right side' and resolve things that way. Kesey didn't choose that road, and we're all the better for it. So, to summarize, I may never read a book this good again.
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