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Sometimes a Great Notion

Sometimes a Great Notion

Author(s): Ken Kesey

Location(s): Oregon

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 20th Century

Location

Content

The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Sailor Song” is a wild-spirited and hugely powerful tale of an Oregon logging clan. A bitter strike is raging in a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers: Henry, the fiercely vital and overpowering patriarch: Hank, the son who has spent his life trying to live up to his father: and Viv, who fell in love with Hank’s exuberant machismo but now finds it wearing thin. And then there is Leland, Henry’s bookish younger son, who returns to his family on a mission of vengeance – and finds himself fulfilling it in ways he never imagined. Out of the Stamper family’s rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

This novel tells of fierce small town solidarity during a hard loggers’ strike and beautifully evokes small town America – Neville Johnson –

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Lead Review

A loggers’ strike, this is hard town America – Geoff Eds –

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