Caverns

by O.U. Levon, Ken Kesey (Introduction), Robert Blucher

A respected writer and cult hero of the '60s, Ken Kesey taught a writing class by having the students jointly produce a full-length novel and publish it. A fascinating story resulted, and has already garnered national publicity, including an article in People magazine and exposure on National Public Radio.

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Scott Benowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very unique book. "O.U. Levon" is not a person, "O.U. Levon" is a pen name which refers to a group of students in a graduate level writing class which had been taught by the late Ken Kesey at the University Of Oregon in Eugene in the 1980's. (The "O" and the "U" refer to "Oregon" and "University," and "levon" is "novel" spelled backwards).

Each of the students who had been in Ken Kesey's writing class wrote one of the chapters in this book
If we did not know that this book had originated from a graduate level writing course, we'd wonder why the wording and phrasing styles differ so greatly between each of the chapters in this book, and we'd probably find the inconsistencies in the wording styles between the chapters to be irksome. However, given that the late Ken Kesey does explain the process by which this book was written in the foreword, Caverns is a very interesting experiment in collaborative fiction.

[Hyaliine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

each chapter was written by a different person, but unlike other readers, it didn't feel disjointed to me (although I did take a long break in the middle of reading this, which might be influencing my opinion). at most, I noticed stuff like: "oh, this chapter has a lot more physical description of the landscape and characters' body language than the last chapter," but that's it.

maybe the racism and sexism was meant to be period-accurate to the 1930s?? the most hostile characters are challenged in-narrative by others, but some of the remarks still felt gratuitous to me.

*mild spoilers below*





I appreciated the anthropophobic anthropologist/archaeologist representation, ha!

[Timothy Yim-Stueve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to like this so bad! Brilliant concept both in terms of writing process AND premise. But man... It's a meandering mess. Some very fun parts, but most of it feels goofy without being funny. Liked the ending well enough but it definitely felt less than the sum of its parts. Still love Kesey's writing tho, and you get some of his wit here.

[in8 · Rating 2 out of 5]

in 1996: https://5cense.com/20/719.htm

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of this novel’s conception is far more interesting than the novel itself. And that’s about all I have to say about it.

[Steve Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kesey was teaching a Graduate course at the University of Oregon and this book was the final project for his writing students.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

stopped about 10 pages in - this was not good.

concept: have an UO english class write a book
reality: a new writing style every 3 pages = unreadable to anyone outside of the class

[David Cain · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible in terrible ways