Sometimes a Great Notion

In the working-class logging towns along the Wakonda, the strike has become a major topic of discussion. Draeger and Evenwrite travel to build support for the strike and convey information: The union is asking for a six-hour day with eight-hour pay to maintain productivity. Draeger learns that the Stampers have struck a deal with the Wakonda Pacific logging company to increase the family operation’s productivity while the union workers are on strike. Meanwhile, we see slices of the lives of other characters, including the bartender Teddy and sometime prostitute Indian Jenny.

Lee is a graduate student in literature at Yale. He shares a house with Peters, who is working on his doctoral dissertation in literature. Lee himself has somewhat given up on school. He uses drugs, is in therapy, and has attempted suicide because of the stress of the death of his mother Myra, who committed suicide by leaping from a tall building. The narrative shifts to Lee’s first-person voice as he receives the postcard from Hank. Though Peters tries to talk Lee out of it, Lee decides to go west to the Stamper home. He explains to Peters that he will get revenge on Hank, “to settle my score with this shadow from my past” (77). Lee boards a bus and takes some drugs to make the journey go by faster. He has a vision of his mother walking into a bar and seeing him when he gets a phone call about flunking his exams.

Shortly before Lee arrives, Evenwrite confronts Hank about breaking the logging strike. Approaching the Stamper house, Lee sees Hank and a woman, presumably Hank’s wife Viv, on the other bank. Lee gets in a boat to cross the river to the house and Hank swims out to him, meeting him halfway. Lee is surprised to see how well kept the sprawling Stamper house seems.