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vandarpapi's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.75
jesenovsky's review against another edition
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ndizz87's review against another edition
3.0
Not entirely sure how to start this review. I love Kurt Vonnegut. That’s as good of a place to start as any. Anyone who reads these can clearly understand that. However, as I read through Vonnegut’s work, I can’t help but feel things are starting to come apart, much like Billy and Time. I can still see the author in his work. I can see the brilliance I fell in love with when I was younger. However, his work is beginning to show its cracks. It started with a hard drop off with Slapstick. He went everywhere in that novel, but to the point. In this novel, it’s almost the exact reverse. He definitely has a point, but goes nowhere. He’s waffling and you can tell. While it suffers from nearly all the same issues as Slapstick, it’s the literal reverse. However, because there is an actual point that Vonnegut can get behind, it’s a superior novel to the previous one. However, it never soars to the level of his earlier works.
The novel follows Walter F. Starbuck, a mild-mannered beaurocrat in the Nixon administration who winds up going to fail following Watergate. He’s one of the lesser (or not really known) accomplices only because they stashed all their slush money in his office because it was the least likely place anyone would go. That pretty much sums up Starbuck’s time in the Nixon White House. He was the liaison to Youth Affairs, which was a throwaway position and only really came into contact with the President during the Kent State murders, but was laughed out by Nixon himself. He’s finally being released from prison and the reader follows him through his nostalgic musings. We track his promising career in the government while being a lukewarm communist, to throwing his best friend under the bus during the Red Scare, to being in the Nixon Administration, but a reject. In the present, we find Starbuck released from prison, traveling to New York, running into literally everyone he’s ever known is an Alice in Wonderland-esque journey: bumping into the man he threw under the bus, stumbling upon a lost love who’s a bag lady who owns 20% of the US GDP, and becoming Vice President of her company, RAMJAC. All this happens is a wildly twisted day, but the day is broken up by his musings which are sporadic, messy, and hard to track.
The structure itself is conventional, being broken up by chapters. However, the hardest part of the structure itself are the memories that he goes through before a little present action takes place, then we’re right back into those nostalgic memories again. Memories are fairly heavy in the beginning and middle sections, but then it’s all present action and future action in toward the end. It can be a little jarring sometimes, moving between the past, present, and future. While I could figure my way through it, it wasn’t the easiest transitioning between the various times.
The only true character in this novel is Walter F. Starbuck who is the stand-in for the “American everyman”. I won’t lie, he doesn’t have much of a personality and you can certainly see through Starbuck’s memories, present action, and future action that his ideals, virtues, and actions have been extremely fluid over time. He starts out as a communist, but then dedicates his life to the US government. He has ideals about wanting to give every person a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, but then when his love passes away, he hides the fact so to keep working for a US corporation making huge bucks as a Vice President. I think Vonnegut’s trying to show us how we, as Americans, can sometimes be full of contradictions and how we oscillate between two extremes and still not know where we stand at the end of the day. It feels as though Starbuck’s entire life is one dramedy of errors, utilizing that signature gallows humor. It feels as though the world is always happening to Starbuck, almost like an accident. It doesn’t feel as though he has any agency, which is a big theme that Vonnegut susses out here in this novel.
One of the larger themes that was intriguing was the idea of being a “Harvard Man”. By this, Vonnegut is basically saying that all these men who have Harvard education, a world-class education, supposedly the best and brightest, once had a high record, but lately they have done so poorly in leadership: Nixon, Watergate, Vietnam, etc. It’s as if Vonnegut is lamenting the fact that recently higher education moved from the humanistic to the capitalistic. They’ve created the world in a new image, one that takes humanity out of its humans, renders most voiceless, and gives all the power to the almighty dollar. This moves us to the hilarious nature of RAMJAC. It’s always cropping up in the film to be an example of what the Harvard men are doing lately. It’s a gigantic corporation that’s either always tangentially tied to a company, or recently acquiring it. It gobbles up nearly 20% of all the US GDP and is ultimately run by a smelly old bag lady who has always been a communist. She’s the example of someone who didn’t give up on the idea of humanism. Oddly enough, when asked why Starbuck would turn to communism after this country gave his immigrant family a good life and had given him so many opportunities, his reply is the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is a very bold statement. Going back to RAMJAC, however, Vonnegut shows his pessimistic side. Mrs. Jack Graham had the idea that after her death, she would give her company back to the people of the United States to share in the wealth, however, even after she does die, her dream never truly comes to fruition. The government bureaucrats get a hold of it and it gets cannibalized by other capitalistic corporations.
All in all, this was a superior novel to Slapstick but doesn’t come close to his earlier works. I get what Vonnegut is saying, and I certainly don’t disagree, but it’s not the caliber that I was hoping for. It’s a very pessimistic film with a main character that seems almost bereft of a personality. Life just happens to him in a dramedy of errors. He doesn’t really stand for anything. He has ideals that he’s constantly doing the opposite of. Even after Mrs. Jack Graham dies, he doesn’t give over her will giving the corporation to the people immediately and, when found out, has to return to jail yet again. There was a huge amount of nostalgic musings on his previous life and then, when we get to New York, it happens in a bizarre fairy-tale like way all in a single day. It’s a little jarring to go from the truer-than-true way the novel starts to this urban fantasy of errors that happens after he gets to New York. I liked the message. I didn’t necessarily care for the messenger. However, this one does end up getting a 3 out of 5 stars, so there is progress. Let’s hope Deadeye Dick continues the upward trajectory.
The novel follows Walter F. Starbuck, a mild-mannered beaurocrat in the Nixon administration who winds up going to fail following Watergate. He’s one of the lesser (or not really known) accomplices only because they stashed all their slush money in his office because it was the least likely place anyone would go. That pretty much sums up Starbuck’s time in the Nixon White House. He was the liaison to Youth Affairs, which was a throwaway position and only really came into contact with the President during the Kent State murders, but was laughed out by Nixon himself. He’s finally being released from prison and the reader follows him through his nostalgic musings. We track his promising career in the government while being a lukewarm communist, to throwing his best friend under the bus during the Red Scare, to being in the Nixon Administration, but a reject. In the present, we find Starbuck released from prison, traveling to New York, running into literally everyone he’s ever known is an Alice in Wonderland-esque journey: bumping into the man he threw under the bus, stumbling upon a lost love who’s a bag lady who owns 20% of the US GDP, and becoming Vice President of her company, RAMJAC. All this happens is a wildly twisted day, but the day is broken up by his musings which are sporadic, messy, and hard to track.
The structure itself is conventional, being broken up by chapters. However, the hardest part of the structure itself are the memories that he goes through before a little present action takes place, then we’re right back into those nostalgic memories again. Memories are fairly heavy in the beginning and middle sections, but then it’s all present action and future action in toward the end. It can be a little jarring sometimes, moving between the past, present, and future. While I could figure my way through it, it wasn’t the easiest transitioning between the various times.
The only true character in this novel is Walter F. Starbuck who is the stand-in for the “American everyman”. I won’t lie, he doesn’t have much of a personality and you can certainly see through Starbuck’s memories, present action, and future action that his ideals, virtues, and actions have been extremely fluid over time. He starts out as a communist, but then dedicates his life to the US government. He has ideals about wanting to give every person a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, but then when his love passes away, he hides the fact so to keep working for a US corporation making huge bucks as a Vice President. I think Vonnegut’s trying to show us how we, as Americans, can sometimes be full of contradictions and how we oscillate between two extremes and still not know where we stand at the end of the day. It feels as though Starbuck’s entire life is one dramedy of errors, utilizing that signature gallows humor. It feels as though the world is always happening to Starbuck, almost like an accident. It doesn’t feel as though he has any agency, which is a big theme that Vonnegut susses out here in this novel.
One of the larger themes that was intriguing was the idea of being a “Harvard Man”. By this, Vonnegut is basically saying that all these men who have Harvard education, a world-class education, supposedly the best and brightest, once had a high record, but lately they have done so poorly in leadership: Nixon, Watergate, Vietnam, etc. It’s as if Vonnegut is lamenting the fact that recently higher education moved from the humanistic to the capitalistic. They’ve created the world in a new image, one that takes humanity out of its humans, renders most voiceless, and gives all the power to the almighty dollar. This moves us to the hilarious nature of RAMJAC. It’s always cropping up in the film to be an example of what the Harvard men are doing lately. It’s a gigantic corporation that’s either always tangentially tied to a company, or recently acquiring it. It gobbles up nearly 20% of all the US GDP and is ultimately run by a smelly old bag lady who has always been a communist. She’s the example of someone who didn’t give up on the idea of humanism. Oddly enough, when asked why Starbuck would turn to communism after this country gave his immigrant family a good life and had given him so many opportunities, his reply is the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is a very bold statement. Going back to RAMJAC, however, Vonnegut shows his pessimistic side. Mrs. Jack Graham had the idea that after her death, she would give her company back to the people of the United States to share in the wealth, however, even after she does die, her dream never truly comes to fruition. The government bureaucrats get a hold of it and it gets cannibalized by other capitalistic corporations.
All in all, this was a superior novel to Slapstick but doesn’t come close to his earlier works. I get what Vonnegut is saying, and I certainly don’t disagree, but it’s not the caliber that I was hoping for. It’s a very pessimistic film with a main character that seems almost bereft of a personality. Life just happens to him in a dramedy of errors. He doesn’t really stand for anything. He has ideals that he’s constantly doing the opposite of. Even after Mrs. Jack Graham dies, he doesn’t give over her will giving the corporation to the people immediately and, when found out, has to return to jail yet again. There was a huge amount of nostalgic musings on his previous life and then, when we get to New York, it happens in a bizarre fairy-tale like way all in a single day. It’s a little jarring to go from the truer-than-true way the novel starts to this urban fantasy of errors that happens after he gets to New York. I liked the message. I didn’t necessarily care for the messenger. However, this one does end up getting a 3 out of 5 stars, so there is progress. Let’s hope Deadeye Dick continues the upward trajectory.
cardbuck1720's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
shaydog's review against another edition
5.0
I had a really great time with this read. I was completely intrigued with Walter Starbuck’s existence and his rise and fall and rise and fall throughout the book. Arguably the most political book I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it for all of its black humor and irony. Excited to read another Vonnegut!
pierce_ellinwood's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. Deeply funny, but didn’t love the story. Cinematic in a way that Vonnegut’s writing isn’t always, but I didn’t care for the protagonist and had trouble getting into the narrative. Might need to revisit this one.
raereads19's review against another edition
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: War and Death
mstrox's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75