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Sometimes a Great Notion
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 30 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
A literary icon sometimes seen as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the hippies, Ken Kesey scored an unexpected hit with his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His successful follow-up, Sometimes a Great Notion, was also transformed into a major motion picture, directed by and starring Paul Newman.
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E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his home - a forgotten corner of Tennessee - after 20 years of roaming. The wife he walked out on has withered and faded, his three sons are grown and angry. Warren is a womanizing alcoholic, Boyd is driven by jealousy to hunt down his wife's lover, and Brady puts hexes on his enemies from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, treats him with the respect his age commands, and sees past all the hatred to realize the way it can posion a man's soul.
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Story and Narration a perfect match
- By 99hedys on 10-03-15
By: William Gay
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Our Story Begins
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- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
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Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
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Mannheim Rex
- By: Robert Pobi
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Recently widowered and grieving, Gavin flees New York City for the quiet of the country. His new home on Lake Caldasac has surprisingly few visitors, and the author soon learns why: a suspiciously high number of people have gone missing in the small town. The deaths have all been ruled accidents, but Finn Horn, a handicapped boy obsessed with fishing, knows the truth. There’s a monster in the lake. And it wants to feed.
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Interesting and fun
- By Bob on 01-14-13
By: Robert Pobi
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Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
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Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
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The Auctioneer
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- By: Joan Samson
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
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In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, John Moore and his wife, Mim, work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives....
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Unbelievable
- By pineapple67 on 11-08-19
By: Joan Samson
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The Talisman
- By: Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
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On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.
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Still Good
- By Bill S. on 03-24-10
By: Stephen King, and others
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Other Voices, Other Rooms
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Cody Roberts
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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At the age of 12, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully's Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead is a sullen stepmother who delights in killing birds; an uncle with the face - and heart - of a debauched child; and a fearsome little girl named Idabel who may offer him the closest thing he has ever known to love.
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Capote’s coming of age story
- By Daniel Diffin on 11-08-23
By: Truman Capote
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The Hum and the Shiver
- The Tufa Novels, Book 1
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Emily Janice Card, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
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No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations.
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Excellent story that combines music and folklore
- By T. L. Walker on 10-01-15
By: Alex Bledsoe
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
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- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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What listeners say about Sometimes a Great Notion
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- jaye
- 11-18-12
not happy with the conclusion at all.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
several.
one thing is two people were talking first person in the story. it was confusing.
this should have been made very clear.
the ending was as if the author just stopped writing the book and decided not to really conclude it.
What could Ken Kesey have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
made it clear who was talking first person in different parts of the book.
make a satisfactory ending.
What does Tom Stechschulte bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
the fact that i finished it. i would not ever read this myself. i would have given up after half of the book was finished.
it seemed to be finally picking up in the past part of the book when it just came to a complete stop.
Do you think Sometimes a Great Notion needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
no, because the first book needs a conclusion. THEN you do a followup.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-21-17
One of my new all time favorites!
My only experience with this author came over forty years ago when I read the stage adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I liked it but had now idea how talented the writer is. This book is complex and very satisfying. The narrator changes frequently and the reader's skill let's you know whenever the speaker shifts. He and Kesey are a great pairing!
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- Jay
- 10-21-15
My Singularity
Where does Sometimes a Great Notion rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Top 5
Who was your favorite character and why?
Hank Stamper is a classic tragic protagonist much like Achilles. He can't get out of the way of his own personality; a personality fraught with courage and recklessness, love and selfishness, loyalty and despair. In truth it is hard to say you have known someone just like him, but it is easy to say you have known someone he reminds you of.
Which character – as performed by Tom Stechschulte – was your favorite?
I can't separate the performance from the substance; at least not in this regard. Hank is the dynamic engine of the story despite his younger brother's, Leland's, appeal in an anti-hero way. Hank or Leland could be Oscar winners if acted in accordance with the characters as developed by Kesey.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
The great American Novel brought to life.
Any additional comments?
This book is about as far from my comfort zone in reading as I have strayed. I don't even know what brought me to it unless perhaps it was that I wanted to see an example of the "beat generation" of American authors. To say that it was a worthwhile experience is an understatement. Often we are exposed to a work of art that impresses us at the time which, like the introduction to a person at a party,is immediately thereafter forgotten. This book stays with you.
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- Jeff Lacy
- 12-01-18
Great Performance
The point of view changes multiple times within the same scenes. This would be confusing if done poorly, but Kesey achieves greater immediacy of action because he succeeds the technique—a basic violation of the point of view rule that point of view should remain the same within a scene. Also, the reader does a fine job of distinguishing these changes of character perspectives.
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- Michael S.
- 10-01-12
It was a Great Notion
If you could sum up Sometimes a Great Notion in three words, what would they be?
Never Give an Inch
What did you like best about this story?
All of it except for the 70s reminders
Have you listened to any of Tom Stechschulte’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Well Done.
If you could take any character from Sometimes a Great Notion out to dinner, who would it be and why?
Joe Ben
Any additional comments?
You need this book.
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- Chuck
- 02-18-20
I first read this in the 70s. Kelsey's Best!
The movie was a total disaster, having read the book first, it couldn't compare to epic wrought by Kesey.
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- Pamela
- 10-03-22
a bit of me died in this book.
I loved this, I'm a few generations removed from the characters but these are my ancestors. dirty, crass, Christian, but barely, athiests but barely, gritty, determined, woodsmen and pioneer women, all the serious characters were lively, believable, whole, and unique, just like a big extended family you dread to see on Thanksgiving as a kid, and as an adult you yearn for that normalcy with singular thought.
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- Wendy Miller
- 11-01-17
unexpected pleasure
This was a book chosen for our book club. I considered it to be a book I would not read on my own because of the length, dense writing style and subject matter. Because of the length I decided to listen to it as I knew I wouldn't have time to finish if I were reading it. I'm so glad I did. The performance was wonderful, the writing is brilliant, and I found the story to be very engaging once I got into it. I still think about some of the characters weeks later. I do think that having the story read out loud made a huge difference. The preponderance of dialogue in various dialects as well as the shifting points of view would make for a challenging read. The audible version made it a pleasure to listen to. I was sad when it ended.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Nepenthe
- 09-03-12
Where is it going? When will it end?
What did you like best about Sometimes a Great Notion? What did you like least?
I was attracted to this title by the name Ken Kesey, recalling his prior work, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It proved to be a disappointment.
I found it very difficult to keep track of which character was narrating at any given time. The narrative went on and on and on. I was wishing for the end by the second of four parts. The ending itself was quite unsatisfying, definitely not worth the significant investment in time.
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Overall
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Story
- D. Sims
- 12-12-12
"To Jump in the River and Drown"
Would you consider the audio edition of Sometimes a Great Notion to be better than the print version?
The audio edition was great. Was it better than the print version? I can't go that far. The audio edition did have great inflection though. The narrator, Tom Stechschulte, does an excellent job of differentiating between the characters. Sometimes I had trouble following the time sequence and the switch in orientation in the audio edition that I did not have in the book, but it was still an excellent production.
What other book might you compare Sometimes a Great Notion to and why?
It is difficult to compare this book to other books. It is quite unique in many ways. The author writes in first person from the viewpoint of several different characters and then switches to the third person and back again. I have never seen another book do it quite like this. It makes it a little hard to follow at times, but it also made it a very interesting style. I liked it, but I don't think many authors could pull it off.Ken Kesey's other book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, was not at all like this. The current book is much more realistic in that it is dealing with a family, the logging Stamper Family of Oregon, and their problems--problems that exist in most families. The biggest problem being, like most families, a failure to communicate.
Which scene was your favorite?
There are many, many scenes that I really enjoyed, but there are two scenes that really stick out. One is when Joe Ben Stamper has a log fall on him and he is pinned in the river with the water rising. Hank Stamper gives his cousin breaths of air while he is underwater, but the two can't help but laughing which has deleterious effects.
The other scene that I particularly liked is the very end where Viv, Hank's wife and Lee's love interest is in the bus leaving town while Hank and his brother Lee, having reconciled to save the family business, are running the logs down the river. Meanwhile the frustrated union organizers are lined up on the riverbank where they see logs going downriver and are shocked to see the unique symbol of defiance and disdain for them displayed on the roof of the tugboat.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
This was a book that is nearly impossible to listen to in one sitting, but you want to anyway. I found myself getting up in the middle of the night to listen just a while longer. It is a shame that Ken Kesey was not more prolific.
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