He enjoyed a local following that elevated him and his friends to an almost rock-star status. Look… Reality is greater than the sum of its parts, also a damn sight holier.

Damned good.Written in that no-nonsense way that great American writers do so well, that seems effortless yet still full of similes and all the other tricks of the trade. Yes, it's extremely difficult, and it took me a few tries to get going, but the opening description of the river and the Stamper house on the bank had me hooked and I kept coming back. I didn't plan to read Saragamo's "Cain" followed by Steinbeck's "EoE".This is a fine book, well crafted in character and plot development, key points of symbolism and total command of setting and historical circumstance. the prose became easier, the side stories made more sense, and the characters had such a grip on me. I can see why this is believed to be Ken Kesey’s masterpiece. With each read the book has taken on more meaning, more clarity, more subtlety--more importance to living itself. No doubt about it, Sometimes a Great Notion is a difficult novel. Hank, the older bother, Leland, the younger brother and old Henry, their dad. This is one of the forgotten masterpieces. Hank, the older bother, Leland, the younger brother and old Henry, their dad. A book to be read, and then passed on to friends who are later bullied to give it back to be read again.Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago.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. This review is in reaction to re-reading this incredible novel by one of America's cultural icons after initially reading it when it was released. Beyond the PTA and the beer commercials, beyond the huge effluvium of the times, exist people who live by the ancient passions, and Mr. Kesey in the fullness of his material discovers them for us." It gabs yer gut in the right places and lets go with a throaty hallelujah when ridden off. July 28th 1977 He has fans because of his lifestyle, not his literary merit. The opening is difficult to get through, and I needed to start reading it three times over the last few years just to build up enough momentum to get through it. An incredible accomplishment just a couple of years after "Cuckoos Nest". In the first hundred pages, there were a few paragraphs that had, internally, four different perspectives. All of these qualities are exhibited, in even higher degree, in Sometimes a Great Notion. That sort of describes an aspect of the book, but mostly it's kind of like those ads for action movies where they play up the love story angle to try to get the women to come and see it - you know how they cut together the 5 minutes of time actually devoted to the supposed love story and t.It's hard to know where to begin - the back of my edition proclaims, "The earthy, torrid story of a lusty, yelling, Paul Bunyan of a man and his battles with society." To avenge himself, his mother, his lost childhood, Lee Stamper, hipster, … Belongs on the shelf with Stegner's Big Rock Candy Mountain, Denis Johnson's Dead Again, and Steinbeck's East of Eden. 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.

I didn't plan to read Saragamo's "Cain" followed by Steinbeck's "EoE" followed by Kesey's own more subtle twist on biblical Cain & Abel metamorphoses (Ovid's book too) spin. 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.