Rating: 
Summary: Compassionate Disfunction
Review: The characters in this book come alive in thier faults and dysfunciton. Set perfectly in the dreary climate of the pacific nw, the tension between this logging family creeps in like the Oregon fog.
Rating:
Summary: Ken Kesey's Underappreciated Second Novel
Review: Like "Cuckoo's Nest", this novel is as big and as expansive as the Pacific Northwest it is set in, where Kesey spins the colorful tale of a ogging family pit by circumstance against big business and the negativity of small town America. Describhed with his usual kaliedoscopic powers of wonderfully flowing detail and color, this is a complex and multi-layered tale, with more than enough ingredients for sustained exploration and interest; passion, betrayal, the intricate inner workings of an interesting family of individuals who love and need each other but at the same time want and need to stretch and grow, to be more than just who they are within the confines of that family. In a sense this book is a almost a deliberate self-parody; Kesey shows there are many more ways to be a man than through the mere use of what are usually thought of as masculine characteristics. Thus we have a character like Hank, the ultimate bad-ass Stamper counterposed by Leland, the younger half-brother who is intellectually curious, a bit rowdy and uncertain, and who is exploring wht it means to be a "Stamper". This interesting rivalry and opposition between the brothers is used to explore a whole range of issues about what it means to be areal man and a real grown-up, and Kesey understands that in contemporary America the two hardly mean the same thing. Yet at heart, this is a novel that lovingly but urgently explores the idea of family; what it should be, what it is, and what it should never let itself become. The Stampers beseiged are the family at their best, fighting, working, loving, and struggling together to keep it together and to define their own future and their very own version of the American dream; one they define and create, and expressly not the easy and popular one manufactured and sold politically and economically by big business and by the local townfolk themselves. This, then, is a novel that explores so many levels that it is undoubtedly will be continue to be read and interpreted and reread and reinterpreted again and again over the coming decades. May it well survive the journey, and may it well navigate its course, just as the Stampers do, through a deep understanding, love and appreciation for what it means to be an individual as well as a family member in contemporary American life, learning along the way. Ken Kesey never disappoints, but he is sometimes hard to keep up with as he chuckles his way ahead of us into the stormy rapids of life. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: A true American classic. I first read this book 30 years ago while in college and have re-read it every decade or so. I am shocked at Kesey's descriptive power every time. And this man knows people and knows dogs. Right up there with Huckleberry Finn et al. One of the best novels ever. Hank Stamper is a great American hero.
Rating: 
Summary: sometimes a great notion
Review: i got about halfway through the book. i thought it was pretty good, but i really got sick of some of the ramblings. there was one section in particular that was WAY whacky, and i think it could have been written alot better, or excluded from the book. you can tell though, that kesey is a good user of words and commands them well. But i had to quit it, maybe it just wasnt the right time for me to read the book. theres no doubt in my mind though that that one scene, i think it was around when he started to desrcibe leland, it was really chaotic and i thini kesey is the only one who really knows whats going on with it
Rating:
Summary: True America
Review: 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:
Summary: Dying hound grasps for life
Review: I've lived in the Oregon coast range for the past 21 years and in Oregon since 1966. This is it. When our Golden Retreiver/Border Collie got on the trail of something[deer, elk, bear?] in 35 degree rain and didn't come back for 19 hours, all I could think of was Kesey's ability to get inside the dog's head in Great Notion and how Nicky was feeling while desperately trying to find her way back home through the checkerboard of clear-cuts, old growth and everything in between that makes up the tangle of the Umpqua/Siuslaw divide. If you want to understand Western Oregon and [old growth] Oregonians, this is the best book to read...it may well be the Great American novel...I first read it in '66, and on rereading found it had lost nothing...all bow to the Springfield Creamery and the bus trip from the Farm to the Springfield Xmas parade on a rainy Saturday in '66...
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Summary: Superb Characterization Of Rugged Individualists
Review: In the protagonists actions and words, the author achieved the best characterization of the fabled American Rugged Individualist. The two main plots, the lumberyards' strike and the vengeful returning brother, create the conflicts and catharsis for the protagonists that only their character can survive. Kesey's descriptive text and style make this into a timeless universal book that will maintain its greatness among classic novels.
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Summary: Great story telling.
Review: I liked how Kesey got into so many different heads. You could see how the people who were mostly jerks had gotten to where they were. I liked how he managed to span the experience of going to college, stultifying there and then learning about chokers and chain saws. I especially liked Hank's description of tree topping. Kesey might be a world class hop-head, but he's also a lot more than that.
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Summary: reads like a good Dead Show
Review: many voices having a converstion while wrestling with their own thoughts about the topic at hand (and any other internal puzzles, related or not) while trying to interpret and decipher hidden meanings that are (or are they?) there... The ending when Lee discovers the truth about the sham the second twelve years were made me shout out and make my family wonder some more about me.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant piece of consciousness.
Review: I am in the middle of my third time through this one. Each time I read it, I pick up on foreshadowing that I missed last time. I am in awe at Kesey's ability to get inside the mind of so many different characters and to present a dialogue in which we hear the verbal exchange between two people, while simultaneously reading their minds. He perfectly captures the frustration of wanting to say one thing but having it come out all wrong. Sure, I had some trouble following the POV changes the first time around, but stick with it: it'll be a most rewarding experience. He writes the way we think.
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