Reviews for Standing room only

The average rating for Standing room only based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-03 00:00:00 Rachel Sandoval Ken Kesey is my hero. Spit in the Ocean #7 was put together by some of Kesey's closest friends and colleagues after his death in 2001. This book is a wonderful tribute to an incredible man and author. Filled with poems, stories, memories, and some Kesey originals, Spit in the Ocean is a great and enlightening read. "I've thought of everything, know what I mean?" -Ken Kesey, circa 1966

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-27 00:00:00 Darren Heil This is a wonderful capstone to the career of one of the seminal writers of the 20th Century (full disclosure: my Masters thesis was on Kesey and his Band of Merry Pranksters). As a literary mag, a continuation of Kesey's own Spit in the Ocean series, it's not really earth-shattering, and some of the pieces (particularly the several by Ken Babbs and a few of the poems) make for better "literary" literature than others. However, what really comes through in those others is just how beloved this man really was. He touched people on a person-to-person basis in a way seldom seen by celebrity writers. Compare, for example, the way an aged Kesey, worn down from interferon treatment and dying of cancer, cirrhosis, and hepatitis B, eschewed a planned nap break between an afternoon classroom visit and an evening speaking engagement to speak with students one-on-one with the cloistered, smug, and self-satisfied artiste life-mystery that is J.D. Salinger. I'm not knocking Salinger for doing his thing, but it speaks to the character of Kesey, the love he had and the love he gave. He always said that he was "too young to be a beatnik, to old to be a hippie," but he definitely had more in common with the love-everybody-ness of the latter than the cool-as-a-cucumber personae of the former. His personality and warmth shine through in this volume, and in terms of getting to know one of the most important American writers in history on a personal basis, this is an invaluable resource.