Sometimes a Great Notion
In my nascent effort to read and or re-read a number of books that I’ve always wanted to, (can War and Peace be far off?) and some I think I already should have, I’ve cracked the pages of Ken Kesey’s sprawling epic, Sometimes a Great Notion, and although I’m only about 100 pages into it so far, I’m definitely hooked, and while I can’t say I’m proceeding through the novel with all the tenaciousness of the story’s patriarchal figure, Henry Stamper, (whose motto is “Never Give an Inch!”) I am making steady, if slow progress, just like the Wakonda river as it eats away at its banks beneath the Stamper family home.
The novel’s structure is rather disorienting, especially at first; you get all these voices coming at you, in first person, at different times, in different places. I couldn’t tell at first who was narrating or where he or she was. Eventually, though, I’ve gotten used to it and now feel as if I know what’s going on most of the time, even if it sometimes requires me to read back a few pages to catch up where I am when I start anew.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a work of fiction that takes this much work; even some “serious” novels I’ve read of late, like Lolita, or The Collector, had much more traditional narrative structures. Sometimes a Great Notion, though, takes it out of you; in order to have it reveal its charms, you’ve got to dig in and persevere—but I’m finding it, for the most part, well worth it.
My journey through it so far has been helped, at least on one occasion, by cannabis; it’s not unlikely that the author was in a similar state when he wrote certain parts, so under the influence, I absolutely marveled at Kesey’s prose and with the sheer exuberance of his writing. He seems willing to take any chance, even if he fails.
The novel’s structure is rather disorienting, especially at first; you get all these voices coming at you, in first person, at different times, in different places. I couldn’t tell at first who was narrating or where he or she was. Eventually, though, I’ve gotten used to it and now feel as if I know what’s going on most of the time, even if it sometimes requires me to read back a few pages to catch up where I am when I start anew.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a work of fiction that takes this much work; even some “serious” novels I’ve read of late, like Lolita, or The Collector, had much more traditional narrative structures. Sometimes a Great Notion, though, takes it out of you; in order to have it reveal its charms, you’ve got to dig in and persevere—but I’m finding it, for the most part, well worth it.
My journey through it so far has been helped, at least on one occasion, by cannabis; it’s not unlikely that the author was in a similar state when he wrote certain parts, so under the influence, I absolutely marveled at Kesey’s prose and with the sheer exuberance of his writing. He seems willing to take any chance, even if he fails.
posted by Professor Dave at 9:17 AM
2 Comments:
Oh, Sometimes A Great Notion has always been my favorite Keasey - guess I better re-read it, too <grin>
this was my dad's favorite novel, and he taught literature so I always figured that was saying something.
I finally read it about a couple years ago and I'd have to say it's now my favorite too.
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