I had read every Stephen King book at least twice, and I had read the aforementioned One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and a host of others, but nothing terribly complex. You see, I read a lot, but up to that point, I had never read anything challenging. “You know the narrator keeps changing, right?”įuck! Seriously? That would have helped me to know this when I first picked it up. “I just don’t know what is happening, not to mention who is telling the damned story.” I mentioned this most recent failed attempt to a co-worker, who excitedly said, “Oh, Sometimes a Great Notion, that’s my favorite book, ever! How could you give up? It is so brilliant.” I really had no idea what was happening in the book. This time, I made it to about 100 pages and then threw it across the room in frustration. I had no idea what was going on, and was confused by the narration.

I gave it a go in February of 2000, and chucked it after only 30 or so pages. Two of my oldest friends had always mentioned Sometimes a Great Notion, and they both named it as their favorite novel, so I had always meant to read it, but I did not get to it until early 2000.

I was well aware of Ken Kesey due to his affiliation with the Grateful Dead, and I had read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at least twice by this point. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.I received Sometimes a Great Notion on Christmas of 1999. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.

Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nestįollowing the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century.

Kesey sometimes a great notion