Sometimes a Great Notion

Lee recalls meeting a man named Mr. Siggs when he was institutionalized because of his mental illness. Mr. Siggs prompted Lee to consider life’s spiritual questions, which resurface in the aftermath of the logging accident.

The narrator reveals Indian Jenny’s backstory. She began sex work at age 15 after her father suggested she could make significant money from it. As she got older, she had fewer clients and withdrew from this work.

Local musician Ray smashes his guitar and thrusts his hands into boiling water.

It is Thanksgiving Day. Lee has been staying at a cheap hotel in town. Viv and Hank are at home, while Lee goes to Dr. Layton to talk about Henry. The doctor and Boney Stokes ask Lee whether he going back to school. They express such strong condolences about Henry that Lee grows worried. They tell Lee that Henry has a life insurance policy payable to Lee, and suggest he use it to pay for school. They also offer to pay for Hank’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Lee tells Viv and Hank that he is planning to go back to school. None of them talks about what happened between Viv and Lee. Lee asks about the insurance policy, and Hank says the paperwork is in the attic. Lee and Viv search for it. Lee pockets an album with pictures of Viv and family along with the insurance documents. He tells Viv he wants her to go with him, but she refuses. Hank ferries Lee across the river as Viv watches from the attic window. When Lee says Stokes offered to buy Hank Thanksgiving dinner, Hank grows angry. Suddenly, the Stamper boathouse explodes and collapses into the rising river. On the shore, Hank beats up Lee, as Viv cries from across the river for them to stop. Lee fights back, but eventually gives up. He and Hank consider the matter settled, and Lee goes to the bus station.

Hank announces to Viv that he is going to continue the logging work, breaking his agreement with Draeger. They say nothing about what happened, but Hank tells Viv to bring Lee his coat before he leaves town. Viv finds Lee and tells him that Hank is planning to continue the logging work. She expects him to drown from trying to do all the work himself. Lee immediately decides to go and help his brother, leaving Viv behind. Hank has taken Henry’s arm out of the freezer where he had been keeping it. He hangs it on a pole, manipulating the fingers to that only the middle finger is raised. He and Lee get to work preparing the logs.

In a bar, Viv thinks about her childhood, and remembers what she once told herself she wanted: short hair, four children, canaries, and a piano. She has a vision of herself as a young girl and reflects, “[y]ou must go through a winter to get some notion” (713). Draeger walks into the bar and sits down with Viv. She shows him the album of pictures of the Stamper family that Lee left behind. Viv tells Draeger that the Stamper family is hard to understand. She then boards a bus and departs for an unknown destination. The book closes as Indian Jenny greets a client.