This second novel by ken kesey, which is often
considered to be his masterpiece, exhibits a concern with local color that is reminiscent of many
of America’s best regionalist writers such as William Faulkner and John Steinbeck. Kesey went
to the Oregon logging country for several weeks
in 1961 and rode with loggers in their trucks and
frequented their bars. The novel was begun in
Stanford and completed in La Honda, California.
The publication party for this novel was one of the
ultimate destinations for the group known as The
Merry Pranksters, a collection of psychedelic experimenters based in La Honda and led by Kesey
and neal cassady. The Pranksters started in California in their colorful bus “Furthur” and traveled
across the United States to New York. This moment, which is captured in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), is seen by some as
the transition between the Beats and the hippies,
their countercultural inheritors.
Sometimes a Great Notion follows the saga of
the Stampers, a family of strike-breaking loggers
on the Wakonda Auga River in southwest Oregon. This is done at the behest of Hank Stamper,
the novel’s protagonist. Kesey manipulates the
novel’s narration through Hank and various characters who are connected to him, showing their
emotional and psychological relationship to him
through flashbacks. The novel opens with Jonathan
Draeger, national representative for the logging
union on strike. Floyd Evenwrite, the local representative, informs Draeger that the Stampers have
broken the strike. This opening sequence is illustrative of Kesey’s technique, as Draeger and Evenwrite become secondary to Vivian, Hank’s wife, as
the focal narrative character; she then gives way to
a third person who retells of the clan’s migration
West. The novel’s plot is told as a recapitulation of
the past and through a series of point-of-view shifts
which are often abrupt. In some cases, there are
several of these shifts in one paragraph.
The plot first centers around Hank’s decision
to do “wildcat” logging to fill an order to a sawmill. When the novel opens, none of the timber
has been delivered, and only some of the contract’s
quota has been cut. Due to the strike in the Wakonda community, there is a shortage of help for
Hank and his family. They must therefore send for
Leland “Lee” Stamper, Hank’s half-brother, who
is currently a graduate student at Yale University.
Lee attempts suicide before receiving his invitation West. This establishes a contrast between Lee
as the bookish easterner who has no sense of selfworth, and Hank as a self-reliant western-frontier
type who is secure in his own individuality. In an
interview with Gordon Lish in 1963, Kesey stated
that there were some autobiographical elements in
each of these two characters. The entire Stamper
clan eventually goes to work on the lumber contract: Hank, Lee, their father Henry, and their
cousin Joe Ben, who helps run the family business. This close family work environment is soon
disturbed by ghosts from the past. When Hank
was a teenager, he had an affair with his stepmother Myra, Lee’s mother. Myra would commit
suicide, and Lee blames Hank for contributing to
her death. This background story soon leads to the
conflict between Lee and Hank over Vivian. She
has become a substitute for Myra, as Lee seduces
her in revenge for Hank’s earlier indiscretion. During the novel’s action, Joe Ben serves as more of a
brother for Hank than Lee, a change of roles that
will have dramatic consequences for Hank’s emotional and psychic health.
The climax of the novel takes place during
one of several logging accidents on the river, some
of which are caused by the union workers. During
the pivotal accident, Joe Ben is trapped underwater. Hank tries to bring him air but is unsuccessful in his surrogate breathing and Joe Ben drowns.
In the same accident, Hank’s father Henry loses
his arm and is left on his hospital deathbed. Hank
is left to take the logging run down the river with
one helper at the novel’s close. The climax of the
love triangle culminates in Lee’s successful seduction of Vivian, who then realizes that she loves
both brothers. Now aware of the full scope of the
conflict between Hank and Lee, Vivian decides to
leave the Wakonda community and begin her life
anew. Vivian is portrayed as alienated from the
community throughout the novel, a state that is
made worse by the loss of her unborn child. The
relationship between Vivian and Hank is complex,
and many critics see her as one of Kesey’s most realistically portrayed women characters.
Kesey’s technique of changing points-of-view in
quick succession makes a first reading of the novel
a bit difficult. However, many of Kesey’s recurrent
themes come through in Sometimes a Great Notion.
Hank Stamper is the archetypal rugged individualist. As a wildcat logger, he is paid based on the
amount of lumber that he delivers to a sawmill; the
union loggers surrounding him are paid an hourly
wage. This fundamental difference is illustrative of
Kesey’s concern with the value of the individual in
the face of a group that demands conformity, much
like McMurphy’s defiance in one flew over tHe
cuckoo’s nest. Draeger, the national union man,
is representative of the larger system at work beyond
the local Wakonda community. This is a hallmark of
many of America’s great regionalists. They are able
to expand the concerns of a small community outward to the larger society as a whole.
Sometimes a Great Notion was made into an
underrated film released in 1971 by Universal Studios starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. The
film was rebroadcast on television under the title
Never Give an Inch.
Bibliography
Leeds, Barry, Ken Kesey, New York: Unger, 1981.
Lish, Gordon. “What the Hell You Looking in Here For,
Daisy Mae?: An Interview with Ken Kesey.” Genesis
West 2 (Fall 1963): 17–29.
Porter, Gilbert M., The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey’s Fiction,
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982.
Donovan Braud