Sometimes a Great Notion (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

9780143039860: Sometimes a Great Notion (Penguin Classics)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Following 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." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. 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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Ken Kesey was born in 1935 and grew up in Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon and later studied at Stanford with Wallace Stegner, Malcolm Cowley, Richard Scowcroft, and Frank O' Connor. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, his first novel, was published in 1962. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, followed in 1964. His other books include Kesey's Garage Sale, Demon Box, Caverns (with O. U. Levon), The Further Inquiry, Sailor Song, and Last Go Round (with Ken Babbs). His two children's books are Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear and The Sea Lion. Ken Kesey died on November 10, 2001.

Charles Bowden's is the author of Inferno and A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior.
Review:
"As in Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey brings to life people you will never forget . . . Getting into this book is getting into a fascinating, crazy world of a fascinating, crazy family which has a throbbing reality and a desperate dedication to living . . . and then there is that great gift for comedy, for purely sensational writing. When Kesey describes the Canada honkers flying over the woods you can almost see them; when he describes the smells of the grass and the tastes of the strawberries you feel and you smell and you taste."
--Ralph J. Gleason, San Francisco Chronicle  

"Sometimes a Great Notion, a big book in every way, captures the tenor of the post-Korea America as nothing I can remember reading . . . 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."
--The New York Times Book Review 

"A tremendous achievement . . . Set against the damp and brutal background of an Oregon logging community, the book by turns gasps, pants, whoops, and shrieks . . . you cannot help but admire Kesey's vigor, his profligate command of the language. And you have to stand back in awe of the man's ability to create character."
--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPenguin Classics
  • Publication date2006
  • ISBN 10 0143039865
  • ISBN 13 9780143039860
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages736
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780140045291: Sometimes a Great Notion

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780140045291
Publisher: Penguin Books, 1977
Softcover

  • 9780670656653: Sometimes a Great Notion

    Viking..., 1964
    Hardcover

  • 9780553121827: Sometimes a Great Notion

    Bantam..., 1972
    Softcover

  • 9780553130645: Sometimes A Great Notion

    Bantam, 1979
    Softcover

  • 9780553238310: Sometimes a Great Notion

    Bantam..., 1965
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Kesey, Ken; Bowden, Charles (INT)
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 4198013-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.57
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Soft cover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
BookBazaar
(DESERTHOTSPRINGS, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABE-1711544411129

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.22
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Softcover Quantity: 19
Seller:
Lakeside Books
(Benton Harbor, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-Y-9780143039860

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.25
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780143039860

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.33
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Books 9/1/2006 (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 4
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Sometimes a Great Notion 1.09. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780143039860

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.01
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken (Author); Bowden, Charles (Introduction by)
Published by Penguin Random House (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0143039865

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Paperback Quantity: 11
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0143039865

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.12
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Unplugged
(Amherst, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0143039865xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.17
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Softcover Quantity: 11
Seller:
Lucky's Textbooks
(Dallas, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Feb2215580020529

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.19
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kesey, Ken; Bowden, Charles [Introduction]
Published by Penguin Classics (2006)
ISBN 10: 0143039865 ISBN 13: 9780143039860
New Paperback Quantity: 3
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # BKZN9780143039860

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.61
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book