Rating: 
Summary: The most profound will be joyfully enlightened...
Review: A friend gave me this book with his high regards. After reading the first chapter, I found I was wrapped in another of Kesey's webs so tightly that I could literally not put it down until it was finished. Even then, as I turned the last page, I was screaming for more. Kesey takes his characters on brilliant paths of self discovery that are sure to enlighten even the most profound. To sum it up, this is a damn good read. After finishing this epic over a year ago, I passed the book onto a friend, who in turn did the same. To this day, the book is travelling through the underground realm of book loaners..
Rating: 
Summary: a mess.
Review: I gave up after 2 chapters;
just couldn't follow the scenes in the book.
This book was recommended to me as a way to understand
someone I had been having trouble working with.
Maybe I'd understand the videotape better.
Rating:
Summary: Kesey's Masterpiece
Review: In your life, you will read but only a few books that will stay with you always - this is one of them. Kesey's extraordinary charactorizations, diologue, and perception into the human condition is this novel makes Cuckoo's Nest pale in comparison. From the first page to the last you'll be drawn ever deeper by his intricate snare of words and rythm. Buy this book then find a quiet place to enter Ken Kesey's world - give yourself this, a gift for life - read this masterpiece
Rating:
Summary: Could this be the Great American Novel?
Review: Could this be the Great American Novel? I first read it when taking a literature class my senior year at the University of Oregon. Since it was one of three required books for that class and nearly 600 pages long, it just got a quick once over. Now, thirty years later, I read it again this time savoring each page as I was drawn into a truly amazing story. Either you are going to love this novel or hate it. Lets face it; it is not an easy book to read. The story shifts forward and backward in time, leaving the reader wondering where in the world he is. Also the story is told from numerous perspectives, with the first person shifting from one character to another. For instance in the chapter which describes the pickup ride to the state park, (chapters are neither named nor numbered) the story jumps from third person narrative, to first person with Lee telling the story and then from Lee, to Hank, to Henry and to Joe Ben, shifting from character to character so fast (as many and three times in one paragraph) it leaves the reader wondering just who is doing the talking. Kesey has an amazing way with words, he captures the rural logging culture of Oregon. As you read it, you can literally feel the dampness and moss begin to grow between your toes from the incessant Oregon rain. Describing the rain as the returning an old maiden aunt who has come to live with you over the winter, or as the migrating geese that fly overhead the Oregon rain is the backdrop on which the story is told. Kesey also hit the nail right on the head describing the sociology of a small town. Hollywood, more often than not, describes small town American in condescending tones of being holier than thou. How often have we seen in the movies, the ladies moral society running the fallen women out of town? Kesey rightly observes rather than being judgmental small town America is more tolerant of peoples failings and faults. Why? Because everyone knows each other too well. Small town people have a there-I-go-but-by-the-grace-of-God attitude because they know full well that the sin they condemn in others, could be very well condemned in them. One more comment. As you read it, be sure to read the chapter on the perfect day that concludes with the foxhunt carefully. It is descriptive writing at its best. I will not give the story away, but it is magnificent. Any complaints? Yeah a couple. His portrayal of the church a Pentecostal and Metaphysical Science was absurd. No such thing exists. Metaphysical churches tend to be on the cultic side, ie., Christian Science. Pentecostal churches, on the other hand tend to emphasis holiness and as a result you would not see the pastor drinking with the guys in the local bar. It is the one aspect of the logging culture of Oregon he got wrong. One more thing. Why did Kesey place the novel in a fictional town, on a fictional river while going to extraordinary lengths to document Oregon geography? I cannot figure that one out. All in all, this is the Great American Novel. So on a cool fall day, curl up on the couch with a copy of Sometimes a Great Notion, and spend the next few weeks being transported to the rainy Oregon coast and read a truly great novel.
Rating:
Summary: Kesey's Brilliant Epic
Review: Ken Kesey, who burst upon the scene with the extraordinary One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, surpasses himself with his second novel Sometimes a Great Notion. Set in the rugged Oregon of Kesey's own life, the tale of the Stamper's reads as an epic struggle between brothers Hank and Leland, and the small family logging operation verses the big corporation. Kesey, it has been said,uses the brothers as a vehicle to show us the two sides of his own personality; Hank, the hard living two fisted Stamper, and Leland, the east coast educated complicated Stamper.How these disparate personalities forge a bond through their conflicts and perservere, is what sets this classic work apart.
Rating:
Summary: Why aren't there more reviews for this book?!
Review: I'm writing this in the last few minutes before I'll sit down to read this book for the second time. It is the Great American Novel, and here's why: it's about the conflict between eastern, urban, educated elitism and rural, western, god-fearing, laborious life. It's about red vs. blue America. And while it's clear Kesey has some strong feelings about Leland Stanford Samper's namesake, he nevertheless does not choose sides--he just gives us the fascinating inner workings of these people's souls and wonders if there isn't in fact a way out. The scene with Hank and Jo Ben in the river is one of the most gut-wrenching and beautifully written you'll ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: When It Rains In Oregon
Review: This is a great book to curl up with for the rainy months.
Ken Kesey describes the weather in Oregon as only a local can do. The coming of the rain has a huge impact on the characters in the coastal logging town - from the locals grudging the Canada Geese, to the visiting union guy, whose Athlete's Foot starts burning just thinking of Oregon.
The cold, grey, wet backdrop is a great contrast to the colorful characters of Wakonda. The characters are broad and diverse, and in so many ways accepting of one another despite so many differences. Is it for the survival of the family or community that these people must accept one another? It is as if all the roles must be filled for the machine to work. There are family conflicts, and community conflicts, at once humorous and depressing, just like real life.
The narration of the story is likewise brilliant. The reader sees the omniscient 3rd person narrative, then interchangeably first person narratives from many of the characters. This is done by Kesey intermixing normal text with italicized and parenthetical areas within one paragraph, or may simply happen at the beginning of a new paragraph. Though I found this a little difficult to follow at first, I began to really look for multiple perspectives through each scene. And with an excess of 600 pages, there is plenty of time to warm up to style.
In all, Sometimes a Great Notion is a great story of humanity.
Rating:
Summary: the Great American Novel
Review:
Kesey deftly illustrates the problematic split between the American Man of the Wild and the European Man of Thought which in the idealized American Myth are joined together to form the perfect hybrid, with the gifts of the Indian and the gifts of the Anglo, breaking representatives from both sides down, ultimately giving us a less idealized hero, something made up of the final partnership between the overly thoughtful Eastern brother Leland and the overly physical brother Hank, which, if nothing else suggests that the dignity and the worth of the American spirit is as much as anything a product-or at least could be a product-of its ability to move forward in the face of its exposed weaknesses, not necessarily stoically forward, or cleanly, but forward just the same. .
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book Kesey Ever Wrote
Review: In "Sometimes A Great Notion" Kesey truly puts his heart and soul into his story. Perhaps that is because it is very autobiographical. In this book, Kesey was writing about what he truly knows, what he actually experienced.
The story is unique in its intensity, and its focus on the deep seated emotional scars between family members. Pitted against this very personal story is the animosity between the town lumber workers, and Kesey's family, which was a non-Union operation, that did not honor the lumber strike.
Kesey captures the emotions, feelings and character of the entire region. The fight against the constant rain of the Pacific Northwest, and the rugged individual concept, that drove Americans West in the first place.
But at the core of it all, Kesey tells so wonderfully the crux of his story, on his title page, where he quotes from the song "Good Night, Irene," By Huddie Ledbettter and John Lomax:
"Sometimes I live in the country,
Sometimes I live in the town,
Sometimes I get a great notion
To jump in the river ... an' drown."
The entire seasonal depression of the experience and the dark and difficult battle of minds and bodies between the main character and his brother makes the book so personal that it is hard to stop reading his story.
For all who are interested in the internal emotional workings of semi-functional families, this book creates that milieu with tremendous aplomb.
Rating:
Summary: I hated it until it opened my mind...
Review: I put this book down after the first 100 pages and almost didn't go back to it. I found that it didn't hold my attention because I am accustomed to novels that utilize only one perspective and I'm ashamed to say, I found this difficult to follow. I found it frustrating to constantly wonder which character is narrating the story. It wasn't until I gave it one more try and finally realized that this novel is unlike any other I've ever read that I began to really enjoy it. Kesey tells a rich, 360-degree story, from the perspectives of all the characters as well as a third-person narrator simultaneousy. He uses variations in the formatting of the text (italics, parentheses) to distinguish between the characters, however after a while it becomes secondary as the reader grows more familiar with the different voices. In addition, Kesey's thoughtful, deep descriptions and characterizations make this a story not to read, but to experience. It is now one of my favorites and I'm afraid novels I read in the future will seem flat in comparison.
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