Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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Sometimes a Great Notion
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Sometimes a Great Notion
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Finished! Two reasons for the rush: 1) I lost access to the book as of tomorrow, and 2) I couldn't help myself. :-) For better or worse, I pushed everything aside so I could ride out the story. And what a story!So excited to delve into it more with you all when we're all done.
Yay Kathleen! I’m right behind you. I’m at 71% now. I lose my audio on Sunday night so I’m trying to finish before then. I’ve spent hours today. My husband on a trip for 3 days helps! Looking forward to finishing.
Oh my and you’ve already written your review! Doubly amazing! I will wait to read it as I told Sara. I usually take days to write reviews. I’m jealous of those who can get to them right away.
Lori wrote: "Yay Kathleen! I’m right behind you. I’m at 71% now. I lose my audio on Sunday night so I’m trying to finish before then. I’ve spent hours today. My husband on a trip for 3 days helps! Looking for..."
It won't take you long now, Lori. Enjoy!!
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I just read the spoiler, Sara, that was from page 448 of your book. In mine it’s page 470. That was an eye-opening moment for Hank. 628 total pages in my book. I won’t finish tonite. I’m not one that can stay up reading late. My eyes get heavy. I’m getting closer.
Terry and Cynda, how are you guys coming along?
Well if you all are reading, I will be listening tonite. I can usually do about 10 to 12% a read session. That will put me 65 to 67% tonight.
Got a ILL copy to read along with which might mean I can listen read faster or longer, usually one or the other. So a little bit speedier reading. . . . I don't mind spoilers, at all. Please do not hold back on my account. My larger concern is to read comfortably so I can enjoy and absorb something significant to me, stuff that doesn't usually show up in my reviews.So please feel free to talk away.
Cynda wrote: "Got a ILL copy to read along with which might mean I can listen read faster or longer, usually one or the other. So a little bit speedier reading. . . . I don't mind spoilers, at all. Please do not..."Please read at a comfortable pace, Cynda. I don't we have to be in any hurry to discuss, and imagine our thoughts aren't going anywhere on this one. It's more important that you read as works best for you, because I'm looking forward to hearing more of what you think. :-)
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I am at page 395, trailing along at about 55%, after the bar fight. Like Cynda, I don’t mind spoilers, so feel free to discuss. I hope to make lot of progress in the next few days, because I have finished the other books I was reading, although I do have to work tomorrow.I agree that the parallels in this book could make you dizzy. It seems all the past events pre-figure the ones to come.
I have so many questions. What did happen to Molly the dog? And is old Henry upstairs dying? Did Hank actually sleep with Leeland’s mother? Will Indian Jenny play a bigger part to come? Is Leland going to follow his mother’s example and jump out a window? I hope the book answers these questions.
Sara wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Sara wrote: "I am at page 504 and this last section has left me weak and shaking. Drained."I'm there, and not sure what to do with myself. Read on and try to recover? Run away an..."
How am I supposed to sleep after this? Sigh…
I don’t think I’ve read a book for as many consistent hours as I have today. Goodness. It’s been eat read eat read, walk the dog, back to reading. No errands or cleaning today, no way.
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Terry, thanks for saying. I pushed ahead last night to 69%, so I even more so need a break for a day. I have other books that also are calling for my attention, so I will answer their calls. I will start up again tomorrow Saturday at about 10-12% each day.
I am developing comments about education and intelligence being two different things, however complementary & about how many/all military concerns boil down to economic concerns.
Up to page 508, or 71%. For those of you not from the West Coast, Olympia is a brand of local beer, very popular in the 1960s.
I finished!!!!! Now I will marinate on it. I literally turned the last page and went back to beginning to read over those first pages. Makes so much more sense now! Sheesh!
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I am at 90%. Wow. I was definitely not expecting some of that!
You’re so close, Terry!
The last part of this book just flies, doesn't it! I'm looking forward to comparing things we weren't expecting ...
I will finish late tomorrow Sunday. I will be reading to 85% tonight and then finishing up tomorrow. I read that part of Hank looking at himself. I have long held that people who are passionate about something, anything are not the unfeeling people they sometimes appear to be--They just get too focused on one thing, forgetting the cost of single-mindedness.
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Sara and Kathleen- did you guys notice the mention of the east wind there toward the end? I kept thinking about Mr. Jarndyce from Bleak House!😜
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Me too. And have to admit, I never thought about which direction the rain usually falls. These books ... they sure make you aware of stuff, don't they!
The tension this book builds is unbelievable! Five pages to go and this damn book is gonna keep me hangin by by fingernails to the very last page!
Done! What an amazing book! At the moment, I am speechless!
I have read 20% today and will finish last 11% early tomorrow. So much going on I need to slow that ride down some. . . .
Here is an interview Kesey did before he died.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjNIoO...
Who wants to read Sailor Song? I do!
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What a great interview and can you imagine being at Stanford with him, Wallace Stegner, Robert Stone and Wendell Berry. Makes my head spin.
I love his demeanor, he is so soft spoken and affable.
I thought that interview was interesting, too. It struck some chords. As he said, it was fun to be a hippie in the late 1960s. Sometimes dangerous, but also fun. I started hitchhiking to the Haight Ashbury during the Summer of Love and started living there in 1968. It was a time of freedom for me, a start of living my life on my terms. I had a lot of growing up to do, but for awhile there was a real sense of community. You could walk into a record store and everyone there would be singing “All You Need Is Love.”
Although I didn’t know the members of the Grateful Dead, I did know where they lived. I met Hunter Thompson in 1972 when I worked for George McGovern in the California presidential primary. I can confirm that he was a gentleman, as crazy as he might have seemed, and a brilliant writer, respected by the best political print journalists of his day.
I had some things in common with Kesey, such as his drugs of choice. I was only 18 in 1968 and didn’t yet know who I would become, although I thought of myself as an artist (still do). By then, he may have already moved up to Oregon. He was about 15 years older than I was and had already written SaGN, his second book. As he said, he was in that transition between the beatniks and the hippies.
I tried a long time ago to read Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test but couldn’t get into it. Maybe I should try again. And I haven’t read Kerouac’s On the Road, which I would like to read. I have definitely read some of Hunter’s writing, because who wouldn’t after meeting him!
Just finished. Wow that I read 31% in one day! That was was one ride of a novel. While I mostly listened, I also read from the Penguin edition which has a short short introduction that might hold an idea or two I might want to share and discuss with you all. Tomorrow. Tired now.
Terry wrote: "I thought that interview was interesting, too. It struck some chords. As he said, it was fun to be a hippie in the late 1960s. Sometimes dangerous, but also fun. I started hitchhiking to the Haig..."
Hey fellow old hippie. I moved out there to go to UC Berkeley in 1969. It was quite a time. Are you still in the area?
No, Klowey. I spent less than a year in SF, moved to LA, went to UCLA, graduated 1975, started my career there, briefly lived in NYC, back to LA, and then in 1979, moved to Chicago where I have been ever since. I still love San Francisco. I have family all over California, and generally go back about once every 2-3 years. Last trip I took was to my 50th high school reunion in Nevada City, four years ago. I will visit SF again later this year when my professional society meets there.
Thanks so much for sharing that interview and your background, Terry! I grew up near SF, but didn't know Haight Ashbury until the 70's, but sometimes you could still hear "All You Need is Love." :-)What a great interview. Except Charlie Rose frustrates me because he interrupts all the time. I love so much of what Kesey said, and this really stood out: "Everybody is creative if they pay attention to how they set the coffee cup on tfhe table." Interesting that he talked about Jerry Garcia, who died three years later, on the road to killing himself.
I agree with Sara Kesey is such a gentle man. I've been seeing his profile pick while reading this book, and thinking of Paul Newman in the movie role, and I kept thinking there is something so similar between how they look--some expression. I saw it in this interview too.
Anyway, count me in for Sailor Song!
Kathleen and Sara, when shall we read Sailor Song? How about in September?
Who is still reading Notion among our group?
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I think Cynda has finished. We might be a go for open discussion.
Okay, so here is a question for an earlier part of the book. Did Leland look through the hole in the wall, while still a child, and see his mother and Hank making love? I am unclear if that happened and if I could find it, would have to go back and read it again to see if Kesey intended that.
Yes. Completed. Now rested and ready to discuss.
Mod
Absolutely, Terry. Which is why he had that persistent rage against Hank. The revelation from the letters that Hank was the one who sent money for Lee's upkeep threw me. Did Hank feel responsible for her leaving and taking Lee away? I think Lee always felt that Hank was the reason, not only for the leaving but also for her suicide. But, of course, that was putting too much of the blame on Hank and not enough on all the other factors. Hank would have been a teenager.
Yes, I certainly thought that event drove so much that happened later, both Lee's anger and Hank's guilt. What I want to know is, when did Hank become aware of the hole in the wall? When did he know that Lee knew?
Thanks, Sara. That’s what I thought, but wasn’t sure I read that right.I think Hank may have felt guilty, but I also think Hank felt responsible for helping his brother to grow up.
The final fight between the brothers made sense to me. I have seen grown men fight each other and then become friends at the end of the fight.
I think Kesey just forgot about Molly the dog.
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You're right about Molly. Just lost in the shuffle.
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It must have made a difference to Lee when he found the letters, because that was a testament to the fact that it wasn't just sex, that there were deeper feelings going on.
I felt like Viv was used by these men. They regarded her and admired her, but did even Hank love her? Lee didn't. She was his way of hurting Hank, all planned out. I felt sorry for her, because I could see all her dreams go up in smoke as the book progressed. Whatever she might eventually have with Hank, it would never be what she was seeking when she took him on.
I think Viv is a fascinating character. She wasn't having the greatest life before Hank came along, and I really felt they did love each other. But Lee sure didn't love her. About the fight, I wanted to add that my husband is always saying how men often don't respect other men until they fight back. As he puts it, you have to prove you're as big a jerk as he is before he'll take you seriously. But the way this scene was written, and the backstory of these two, gave me a broader understanding of that tendency.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
The Right Stuff (other topics)The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (other topics)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (other topics)
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (other topics)
Kesey's Garage Sale (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Peter Wohlleben (other topics)Oscar Wilde (other topics)
One of the masterful parts of his writing...everything has meaning, the past foreshadows the future and the future echoes the past. This environment requires Hank to be who he is. He can't change it.
“They think they know the book by its cover, but the book knows what it is. Now he knew better; if the book never opens up and comes out, it can be warped to fit the image others see.
. . .No, a book wasn't invulnerable to the appearance of its cover, not by any means.”
Your spoiler: (view spoiler)[I think you are exactly right, Lori. Hank is trying to convey to Lee that he can stand up for himself even if he isn't the biggest guy and still win. Lee confuses Hank, because he seems like a city wimp sometimes, the kid who cannot take the elements or the tough stuff, but then he proves that he has a hardness underneath and that he can take it just as much as the others can. That thing beneath the surface that makes him a Stamper speaks to Hank. I think Lee often misreads Hanks feelings and motives. (hide spoiler)]