BY AND ABOUT KESEY
Novels
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962)
Mental ward patients, led by Randle Patrick McMurphy, battle the repressive control
exerted by Nurse Ratched, with lobotomy as the ultimate weapon wielded by the
corrupt system; widely seen as a metaphor for the youth revolt in the 1960s. Became
subject of 1975 film version that starred Jack Nicholson and won five Academy
Awards.
"Sometimes a Great Notion" (1964)
Two brothers battle one another amid labor strife in a logging town in the Oregon
Coast Range; a big, sprawling tale that many consider to be "the quintessential
Northwest novel," as well as superior to the better-known "Cuckoo's Nest." Became
subject of 1971 film version that starred Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Lee Remick.
"Sailor Song" (1992)
A colorful cast of characters engage in environmental confrontations in a small
Alaska fishing village during a gloomy future time; a widely derided book (especially
for its inconclusive ending) that is not considered to be in the same class as his first
two novels.
Related work
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe (1968)
The prototype New Journalist tracks the acid-laced hijinks of the band of Merry
Pranksters, led by Kesey, as they trip across the country in a psychedelic bus called
Further; this best-selling work turned Kesey into a hero of 1960s' counterculture.
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