Kesey has an incredible gift to put his reader inside the minds of all the characters, both protagonists and antagonists and other, so much so that I found myself sympathizing and empathizing with even the alleged bad guys. Starting out, the plain stark bare-bones writing style reminded me of Cormac McCarthy, another of my all-time favorites. I have not yet read Cuckoo's Nest (loved the film) but I have to say that SAGN lived up to and exceeded my expectations and I would have to place it amongst the greatest of the modern classics I've ever read. I had read in several literary forums that SAGN was lesser known but actually a better book than his more famous One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
A man who lived his deep faith but was worldly in every respect.Īs happened when I read this book 45 years ago in print, I did not want this audiobook to end. He was the guy we'd all like to have as a friend. Who was the most memorable character of Sometimes a Great Notion and why? All of them have been well done but the narrator had more voices in this novel and did all of them extremely well. Have you listened to any of Tom Stechschulte?s other performances before? How does this one compare? He was capable of great love, for his father, Viv, and Joe Ben but had some trouble expressing this love. Kesey brought out his inner thoughts and downplayed the obvious, i.e. If you could sum up Sometimes a Great Notion in three words, what would they be? This is recorded literature raised to an art form in its own right. The masterful direction and performance make even the most complex chapters immediately accessible. Stechschulte’s deft switching of voices-at times done mid-sentence-unlocks Kesey’s vast, kaleidoscopic vision. The book doesn’t simply boast dozens of characters it takes us inside these personae, making us privy to their inner thoughts. The novel's narration passes fluidly from third person to first person. Were Sometimes a Great Notion not a masterpiece in its own right, Tom Stechschulte’s performance would still make this book essential listening. This accounts for why the book feels simultaneously so fresh and trapped in amber. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to imagine such a full-throated working-class ballad appearing amid the ranks of today’s literary fiction. I hasten to add that the male lumberjacks at the heart of the novel are not any the less complex and believable for all their rough-hewn virility. There are passages that make Hemingway’s machismo look faint-hearted. While I’m taking pains not to spoil the pleasures of navigating any the novel’s many narrative tributaries, it’s worth noting that, though there are a few well-developed female characters, this story is steeped in testosterone.
To encounter Kesey writing at the top of his game is to realize that many authors, including John Irving and especially Robert Stone, are merely dutiful imitators. If that weren’t enough to sustain the reader’s interest, the central narrative is interlaced with dozens of compelling and entertaining side plots. Kesey employs all the most effective innovations of modernist fiction to tell the tale of a dynastic struggle worthy of Shakespeare or the ancient Greeks.
Here we have everything we could want in a novel.
I can’t remember what virtual rabbit hole led me to this book, but coming upon it now feels like going on an afternoon hike, only to stumble upon the Taj Mahal in a clearing. In any case, at the distance of more than half a century, Sometimes a Great Notion stands as a heroic accomplishment. While Kesey’s notoriety ensured that the novel would not slide entirely into obscurity, readers seeking the literary equivalent of a bong hit would come away frustrated and daunted by this big, dense book. The fact that author Ken Kesey went on to become the patron saint of psychedelia probably didn’t help the book’s reputation. Set amid the forests of the Pacific Northwest, tinged with country western music and populated with James Dean wannabes, Sometimes a Great Notion might have been perceived in its day as casting a backwards glance when many readers were only looking forward with apprehension or expectation. My two-bit theory posits that, given its arrival immediately following Kennedy’s assassination, it didn’t seem to address current conditions. It’s a mystery why this book never enjoyed the acclaim of, say, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Rabbit, Run, The Executioner’s Song or Bonfire of the Vanities. Sometimes a Great Novel Pops up out of Nowhere
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