Ken Kesey Volgorde van de boeken (chronologisch)

Českým čtenářům se již dostala do rukou kniha "Skříňka s démonem", která začíná Keseyho propuštěním z vězení, kde autor v roce 1967 strávil šest měsíců kvůli obvinění z držení marihuany. Během pobytu v kriminále vznikly „Zápisky z lochu“ s podtitulem „Nechte ty k****y běžet“, v nichž se mísí záznamy bizarních snů s ještě bizarnějšími rozhovory mezi vězni, s dopisy ženě, anekdotami a básněmi, a vznikají tak výmluvné portréty spoluvězňů i dozorců. Obraz života vězeňské komunity, "šílenějšího než v pakárně", dotvářejí pestrobarevné koláže. Základem knihy byly poznámkové bloky, které Kesey ve vězení popsal a pokreslil. Při jeho propuštění byly některé ze zápisníků zabaveny a ztratily se, mnohé se ale podařilo zachránit. Po návratu domů Kesey přetvořil náčrtky a zápisky v koláže a uspořádal z nich soubor, který se podařilo vydat až téměř po třiceti letech, kdy dal autor knize její současnou podobu. Deník je nejen uměleckým dílem literárním, ale i výtvarným, a navíc slouží jako sonda do myšlení těch Američanů, kteří se v padesátých a šedesátých letech nechtěli smířit s americkou vnitřní ani zahraniční politikou.

Kesey is the author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Featuring such characters as Buffalo Bill Cody and wrestler Frank "The Crusher" Gotch, this book is both a historical novel and a dime Western. It is set in the tiny town of Pendleton, home of the rodeo showdown.

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 Descendants of Early Aboriginal People- 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. Kesey has given us a unique and powerful novel about America, and this epic tale of the north is a vibrant moral fable for our time.

251 S.

In this collection of short stories, Ken Kesey challenges public and private demons with a wrestler's brave and deceptive embrace, making it clear that the energy of madness must live on.

Hank Stamper has lived beside and fought with the Wakonda River in the State of Oregon all his life. The riverside house built by his father, old Henry, has become a fortress - both against the river, which after long years of erosion n ow swirls round three sides of it, and against the jealousies and rivalries of men. When Hank's college-educated half-brother Leland returns to his childhood home, in response to a cryptic summons, he is not sure whether Hank needs his help for the family logging business or simply wants to give him a further taste of the humiliation he knew there as a boy. In learning the answer to these questions he becomes involved in the Stamper clan's bitter battle with the union, the town and the forces of nature.

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, this is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempts to do battle with the awesome power of the Combine Kesey's galvanizing novel probes the meaning of madness, often turning the conventional notion of sanity on its head, and offers and unforgettable portrait of a man teaching the value of self-reliance and laughter who is destroyed by the forces of hatred and fear.