Ken Kesey (1935–2001)
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Om forfatteren
Ken Kesey, September 17, 1935 - November 10, 2001 Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was born in Colorado on September 17, 1935. He graduated from the University of Oregon, and published two full-length novels that helped to give him a cult following. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962) owes much to vis mere Kesey's own experience as a ward attendant at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. This exciting first novel was told from the point of view of a half-Indian man who thinks of himself as the Big Chief pictured on the writing tablets of everybody's school days looking out at the other inmates in a Disneylike world. Its portrayal of the doomed but heroic rebel McMurphy stood for a particular kind of American individualism. The book was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Milos Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman). Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) is a long, complex novel that troubled many of his earlier readers. Kesey's most recent novel was Demon Box (1987); although it was somewhat well received, it was still compared unfavorably to his earlier works. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery on his liver to remove a tumor. He died of complications from the surgery on November 10, 2001. He was 66. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Værker af Ken Kesey
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: Text and Criticism (The Viking Critical Library) (1962) 308 eksemplarer
The Acid Test (Pink Vinyl) 1 eksemplar
One flew over the cuckoo's nest copy l 1 eksemplar
Bazen Derin Bir His 1 eksemplar
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Thumb Tripping / The End of the Road / The World According to Garp 1 eksemplar
Jaskinie 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and American Culture (1999) — Bidragyder — 167 eksemplarer
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Bidragyder — 147 eksemplarer
The Dylan Companion: A Collection of Essential Writing About Bob Dylan (1990) — Bidragyder, nogle udgaver — 96 eksemplarer
Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing or Two (2002) — Bidragyder — 45 eksemplarer
On the job: Fiction about work by contemporary American writers (1977) — Bidragyder — 10 eksemplarer
West Coast Fiction: Modern Writing from California, Oregon, and Washington (1979) — Bidragyder — 7 eksemplarer
Northwest Review: Fall, 1957 — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
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Almen Viden
- Juridisk navn
- Kesey, Kenneth Elton
- Fødselsdato
- 1935-09-17
- Dødsdag
- 2001-11-10
- Begravelsessted
- Kesey family farm, Eugene, Oregon, USA
- Køn
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Fødested
- La Junta, Colorado, USA
- Dødssted
- Pleasant Hill, Oregon, USA
- Bopæl
- Springfield, Oregon, USA
Pleasant Hill, Oregon, USA - Uddannelse
- University of Oregon
Stanford University - Erhverv
- writer
- Organisationer
- U.S. Veterans Administration
- Priser og hædersbevisninger
- Robert Kirsch Award (1991)
Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award (1988) - Kort biografi
- Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income.
Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California, and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady), and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career.
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Statistikker
- Værker
- 29
- Also by
- 15
- Medlemmer
- 29,303
- Popularitet
- #683
- Vurdering
- 4.1
- Anmeldelser
- 357
- ISBN
- 286
- Sprog
- 24
- Udvalgt
- 84
At over 700 dense pages, this book is quite a tome, and if its style throws you off early on, stick with it. Kesey experiments with a technique of switching between perspectives rapidly, sometimes within a sentence, which can be a little disorienting, particularly as the story is being filled in. Ironically, in contrast to this style and the fluidity with which he wields it, he’s at his best with the level of realism in his dialogue, which invariably seems natural and unforced, and the level of detail in his description of the surroundings.
There are two central conflicts in the story, the primary of which is a logging family’s stubborn refusal to join others in a strike, and their attempt to go it alone amidst the rancor of their community. Interestingly, Kesey doesn’t choose sides in describing this struggle, satirizing both union leaders as well as the rugged individuals who disregard the strike, which may have been a part of why initial reactions to the book were mixed. The other conflict is within the family, with the younger son returning from college harboring a secret grudge against his brother, and plotting to have an affair with his wife.
There are topical references scattered in here, such as an allusion to the threat of nuclear war, the love the hip had for jazz music, or popular figures like Alan Watts, but this story mostly feels timeless, and intentionally so. There is something primal in the emotions in play, and it builds to moments of fantastic tension towards the end.
At the same, the book probably could have done with some editing, as it gets rather elongated (bizarrely, including 60 pages between 602 and 662 where a main character goes missing entirely). Worse yet, the female characters are terribly under-developed across the board, which was a serious detractor. As a warning, there are also bits of mild racism, such as the use of N-word between white workers, comments like “what other Caucasian ever moved with that slack-limbed indolence?” and the minor character of “Indian Jenny,” a prostitute who is more of a stereotype than anything else. Aside from the ridiculously terse updates for her throughout the novel, Kesey writes of her expression that it never changes, and is “somewhere between blunt ferocity and brute pathos.” (ugh)
All in all, however, it’s certainly a good book, and one that feels like it should be better known.… (mere)