Alex Gibney: on Ken Kesey

The problem with great writers is that they often tease us with their talent; they’ll write a great book or two then slowly slip away. No doubt, Ken Kesey was a masterful writer. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Neststands up as a classic and Sometimes a Great Notion deserves honorable mention. Yet despite these time-capsule treasures and Tom Wolfe‘s portrait of Kesey in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, too few know the writer and his rowdy, ribald Merry Band of Pranksters that crossed the country in 1964 in search of the World’s Fair, unconventional affairs and other-worldly experiences.