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Summary: Will Be Remembered
Review: I am a little speechless, but I just wanted to say that today the great Ken Kesey died. Most recently I read his take on the Sept. 11 events in Rolling Stone. He will be remembered.Thank you.
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Summary: Great multiple narratives in a tale of family independence
Review: This is a great narrative about a family in Oregon came to become harhly independent, and how that pits them against each other and their neighbors in the midst of a labor strike in the lumber industry. The opening scene, of the wife taking the union chief through the family album, to explain all that he didn't understand in trying to get the Stamper clan to succumb to the union's needs quickly unravels into narrations provided by the wife, the two half-brothers, the father, as well as the generations before on the westward-bound trek. Kesey brings in all the varieties of conflict we learned about in high school: man against man, man against nature, and man against self, in a rich variety of ways. The rivalries between the half-brothers sincere and also misunderstood at the same time, plus the ever-present element of tension between the family and the town; the threat of the river is constant; the neuroses of the family members over their memories of the past... This is a hugely satisfying read, and one of the few books I would give to anyone without hesitation.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: I first read this in college some 27 years ago. I am in a book club and, with a vague memory that this was a book worthy of sharing, selected it as my choice for the club last month.
Having just finished my 2nd reading, it is most reassuring to me that I had good taste even as a 20 year old!
This is definetly one of the finest pieces of literature ever written. Kesey's writing is downright scary, it is so good.
For what it's worth, our 8 member book club ranked this book in the top 3, out of well over 100 titles read so far, all ostensibly "good books".
Just read it. Take your time. Savor the cinematic scope of his descriptions of places and people. Enjoy the ebb and flow of the rhythms and pace of events as they unfold from multiple points of view. Laugh out loud at the old time wisdom of Henry Stamper, the patriarch of the family.
Yes, the book is a bit more challenging than most at times, but there are large sections that are as easy to swallow as a shot of I.W. Harper. Reward yourself if you've got the slightest interest in reinvigorating some of those numb and/or long dormant brain cells. It will bring your heart along for the ride.
JUST READ IT!
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Summary: Probably my favorite book of all time.
Review: Sorry for short review with no details, but this was probably the greatest book I ever read. Read it at around age 23-25.
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Summary: My favorite book of all time
Review: I first read this book about 30 years ago, I've read it three or four more times since, and I'm sure I'll continue to read it every few years into the future. It's my nominee for Best Book Ever. The first sentence grabs you, and the characters in the book won't let loose of you. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and Kesey makes you taste and feel the land, the mist and the people. Be forewarned, in the first half of a sentence you'll be inside one character's head, and in the last half of the sentence you'll be inside a different character's head, and the transition is invisible. It drives some readers crazy until they get used to it. Pay careful attention, at the very end of the book, to the description of the woman and the little boy in the photograph. Kesey has planted innumerable subtle treasures in this book, but the woman and boy in the photo are my favorite.
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Summary: Take time
Review: It took me three tries before i got to be comfortable reading this book. I'm glad i was so persistant. Give it as many tries as needed. Around page 100 it will click and you will flow through easily. This should be required reading for high school students it will surly hold there attention better than any Jane Austen book or Shakespeare play. I know these characters from my life you will find them similar to those in your life too. Enjoy!
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Summary: Second Best Book Ever Written...
Review: I first read Sometimes a Great Notion some twenty years ago and couldn't get over the power of the man's words.. his ability to make me not only envision the place he was describing but to actually hear and smell it as well. Though, even then, I could not find it in my heart to condone what was happening between those pages (the destruction of Old Growth forests), his talent is such that I could still feel empathy for the characters and their struggle to remain Masters of their Fate. So good was the book that, until I read A Prayer for Owen Meany, I declared it the Best Book Ever Written. But, even as the second best, it is light years beyond the next runner-up. If you haven't read it yet, shame on you.
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Summary: Right up there with . . .
Review: Sometimes A Great Notion is right up there with Absalom, Absalom! The Sound and the Fury, Moby Dick, Catch-22, and Flannery O'Connor's stories. It is simply one of the great American novels. It belongs in the unappreciated masterpieces category along with Under the Volcano, Cat's Eye, The Fool's Progress, Little Big Man , and A Death in the Family.
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Summary: One of the World's Top Ten Novels
Review: A simple paragraph cannot beging to describe the wonderful, sprawling power of this book. Kesey's gaze sweeps effortlessly from the smallest telling details, such as the look of a leaf in the sunlight, to the grandest human themes, in this case individualism versus collectivism. He writes so powerfully, so perfectly, and so movingly that even a third or fourth reading of this book can move one to tears. If you love great writing; if you love America; if you love marveling at a stunningly original and yet perfectly polished phrase; read this book. If you're like me you'll begin reading it again the moment you finish it.
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Summary: A (not The, but A) Great American Novel
Review: Sometimes A Great Notion, is not only Kesey's finest novel, it is also one of the finest novels written by an American in the 20th Century. Like all great authors, Kesey shows us the world outside the caves of our own existance and thereby illuminates and illustrates a vibrant world now becoming increasingly extinct. Like Steinbeck's Joads, the Stamper family of "Notion" are victims of a rapidly disappearing history. The great forests that they work, grow and live and die in are (or have already) disappearing and yet they hold on, refusing to "give an inch". By shifting point of view and verb tense, Kesey paints his narrative on a broad canvas filled with fully drawn characters and settings. The fictitious town of Wakonda Oregon lives and breathes as an active organism, evolving and molding its citizens in spiritual as well as physical ways far beyond their control. The novel is tragic as well as humourous. A great sequence in which the super Alpha male Hank Stamper debates modern Jazz with the effete half brother Lee is bizarre yet entertaining as it contrasts vividly with the extremely accurate depictions of forestry practices. The book works on many, many levels. It is a travellouge, it is a Lazarus story, it is a history, it is a family portrait, it is Cain and Able, it is a revenge story, it is many many things. And most of all, like all great books, it is well worth re-reading. Add this to your library immediately!
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