CAVERNS <i> by O. U. Levon (Penguin Books: $8.95; 327 pp.) </i>

A 1930s-style mystery collectively written by 13 students in Ken Kesey’s University of Oregon writing class, “Caverns” is based on a 1964 obituary: “DIED: Loach, Charles Oswald, Doctor of Theosophy and discoverer of so-called ‘Secret Cave of American Ancients,’ which stirred archeological controversy in 1928. After serving six years in San Quentin on a disputed murder charge, Loach was allowed to lead a second expedition in search of the site, the findings of which were judged scientifically inconclusive;--of lung disease at his brother’s ranch in Moab, Utah.” To these rough outlines, the class added characters (notably two mystical sisters and an armadillo) and began the action as Loach emerges from prison. The result can’t by any stretch of the imagination be called great literature, but it’s an entertaining story of great inventiveness. One can’t help prissily hoping, however, that the author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” included in the lessons some discussion of the integrity of the novel--and a caution that publishing a curiosity is not necessarily the same thing as being published.