New Releases by Ken Kesey

De tirannieke Nurse Ratched regeert haar afdeling in de psychiatrische inrichting van Oregon State met beklemmende discipline. De patiënten houden zich gedeisd door geestdodende medicatie en de dreiging van elektroshocktherapie. Haar strikte regime wordt verstoord door de komst van McMurphy, een levenslustige crimineel die doet alsof hij gek geworden is om kans te maken op een makkelijk leventje in een inrichting. Wanneer McMurhpy ziet hoe de patiënten hun dagen hier doorbrengen en hoe hun levens verpieteren, besluit hij in opstand te komen. Hij begint opmerkingen te maken over het figuur van de Big Nurse, en introduceert kaartspellen bij zijn medepatiënten. Hij organiseert een ongeoorloofd uitje en weet zelfs twee prostituees de afdeling binnen te smokkelen. Hij betaalt daar niet alleen zelf de prijs voor, maar ziet ook hoe zijn vrienden meer en meer beginnen te lijden nu ze in aanraking komen met de buitenwereld. In de soms onderhuidse, soms uitgesproken of zelfs fysieke strijd tussen McMurphy en Ratched vervagen de grenzen tussen goed en kwaad, mentaal gezond of gek, leven en dood. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is een van de grootste, meest indrukwekkende romans van de twintigste eeuw. Een ode aan het leven en de vrijheid.

An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey''s One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest is one of the defining works of the 1960s. In this classic novel, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax. “BRILLIANT!”—Time “A SMASHING ACHIEVEMENT...A TRULY ORIGINAL NOVEL!”—Mark Schorer “Mr. Kesey has created a world that is convincing, alive and glowing within its own boundaries...His is a large, robust talent, and he has written a large, robust book.”—Saturday Review

The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family''s rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Kesey''s expanded version of the journals he kept while in San Mateo County Jail and Sheriff''s Honor Camp in 1967.

Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Geared to what today''s students need to know, SparkNotes provides chapter-by-chapter analysis; explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols; and a review quiz and essay topics. Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.

The ''Sound City Acid Test'', originally made in 1965 as The Pranksters'' venture into ''the world of The Beatles'' is released for the first time on CD. Seventy-four minutes of reading, poetry, music and mayhem from the archives of Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs. Acid Test Vol 1 document their attempt to enact an acid test within the recording studio environment. After its release as a 1000-copy limited-edition LP, it was repeatedly boot-legged. This CD also features ''Vietnam Day 1966'' a previously unreleased musical reconstruction (recorded in 1967) of the Pranksters'' famous meeting with the Hell''s Angels which subsequently launched the career of visiting Prankster, Hunter S. Thompson.

It was around a sagebrush campfire in eastern Oregon that Kesey first heard the tale from his father - about the legendary "last go round" that took place at the original Pendleton Round Up in 1911. Hundreds of riders were competing for the first World Championship Broncbusting title, but it was one special trio of buckeroos that provided the drama: a popular black cowboy, George Fletcher; a Nez Perce Indian cowboy, Jackson Sundown; and a fresh-faced kid from Tennessee name of Johnathan E. Lee Spain. Who would walk away with the prize money and the silver-studded saddle? When the dust cleared, everyone knew they''d witnessed something extraordinary. Kesey has journeyed back into Oregon history to reclaim this long-remembered moment, beefed up the bare bones of fact, and whipped them into a full-blown rip-snorting Tale of the True West. Sixteen pages of rare Round Up photographs provide graphic testimony of the time. The tiny town of Pendleton is swollen to bursting that memorable weekend and bristling with colorful characters like Buffalo Bill Cody, wrestler Frank "The Cruel Crusher" Gotch, cowgirl Prairie Rose Henderson, and a formidable medicine man named Parson Montanic. From the teepees along the river to the teeming saloons on Main Street, Round Up fever blazes like a prairie fire. This story of love, sweat, and horseflesh is a unique Western, wild and wooly and full of fleas. Let ''er buck!

This epic tale of the north is a vibrant moral fable for our time. Set in the near future in the fishing village of Kuinak, Alaska, a remnant outpost of the American frontier not yet completely overcome by environmental havoc and mad-dog development, Sailor Song is a wild, rollicking novel, a dark and cosmic romp. The town and its denizens—colorful refugees from the Lower Forty-Eight and DEAPs (Descendants of Early Aboriginal Peoples)—are seduced and besieged by a Hollywood crew, come to film the classic children''s book The Sea Lion. The ensuing turf war escalates into a struggle for the soul of the town as the novel spins and swirls toward a harrowing climax. Writing with a spectacular range of language and style, Kesey has given us a unique and powerful novel about America.

A highly pictorial re-examination of the " legendary" 1964 Merry Pranksters'' trip across America made in a psychedelic bus, and featured in Jack Kerouac''s novel Òn the road''.

Tricker may be a clever creature, but is he smart enough to bamboozle a double-big, double-hungry bear? From the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest and the illustrator of the Newbery Honor Book In the Beginning. Full color throughout.

A miscellanea mostly by Kesey, some by his friends.