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kataninja's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
4.0
Adam and The Manned Missiles were my favourite
nebuus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
spavento's review against another edition
3.5
What I like about Vonnegut’s short stories is that he seems to go out of his way to make them straightforward, approachable, and entertaining. The shorter format minimizes his tendency to go on tangents, and the endings usually brought things to a satisfying close. The sci-fi stories tended to be a little too concerned with their ideas to actually follow through on their characters, but the stories about regular people from Vonnegut’s time were uniformly charming and moving.
jeremy_bearimy's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Always tricky to review a collection of short stories, but this includes some super intriguing premises. I enjoy Vonnegut’s playful humor, and even the stories that were misses for me still had interesting bits.
laurasauras's review against another edition
4.0
There was a wonderful variety of stories. I loved their bizarre, deadpan humour and thoughtful characterisation.
ggioia1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
LOVE WTTMH
jula_09's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
dilchh's review against another edition
4.0
I have been somewhat interested in reading Kurt Vonnegut from five years ago, but I never quite get my hands around it. I was not brave enough to actually pick any book at random or blatantly believe what the internet told me about which Vonnegut’s work I should read. I just don’t want to be picking the wrong book and end up hating the author altogether. Then last year, I asked some of my friends from this book club that I was in, which book I should buy now that I was planning to splurge my last remaining scholarship money on books. One of those very sweet souls recommend Welcome to the Monkey House; I thought reading Vonnegut’s much shorter works might have given me a better insight, and so begins my journey into the works of Kurt Vonnegut.
That aside, I think that this collection of Vonnegut’s short stories, for lack of better words, are amusing indeed. I have to admit that the first few short stories were pretty odd, to say the least, I almost gave up the book thinking that maybe (just maybe) Vonnegut is not my cup of tea. But I’m glad I had kept on reading, because at the end of the day my overall experience of this book was like a roller coaster ride; there was an up, a down, a flat and a somewhat lopsided feel to it. Take for instance Welcome to the Monkey House which became the title of this book. Although I get that the point of the story was to be satirical and might be a bit sinister as to how the world would become in the future amidst the growing number of population in major countries, I can’t help but feel disgusted at how the story turns out.
I don’t know if by explaining why I was disgusted by the story counts as being spoiling the story for those who haven’t read it (so, if by any chance you haven’t read the story and is planning to read it, do skip this rambling altogether for your own sake), but here’s what I think. At some part of the story there was a part where a sexual intercourse were performed without the full consent of one of the party involved, and this disgust me so much. This to me feels like a kind of rape, and it disgust me that the perpetrator in the story feels like he is doing more good than damage with making the woman have sex with him. To be completely honest, what actually happens in the story is not as simple as I made it out to be, you need to actually read the story to understand what I meant, but that aside I find it a bit sinister that one person is doing something to another person without their full consent thinking that it was for the other person’s benefits. People should be able to decided what’s best for themselves as oppose of having another person decides for them. But, hey, maybe I shouldn’t take the story too seriously.
But, not all is lost. Some of the stories that I quite enjoyed and quite redeem my awful experience with Welcome to the Monkey House and Long Walk to Forever (which to my surprise was actually written by Vonnegut in honouring the marriage that worked, but I find annoying and against my belief as a monogamists) had finally emerged in the forms of The Foster Portfolio, Miss Temptation, and Deer in the Works which had a surprising ending that I didn’t see it coming but somehow resonates the most to me. On that note, I think most twenty and thirty something should at least give a Deer in the Works a try when jobs feels like a dead end road.
From what I understand Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction writer, amongst being known as a satirist also, and you can see that within this book there are several strong contenders in science fiction genre, namely Report on the Barnhouse Effect, The Euphio Question which begs the question about how important happiness is if everything else becomes unimportant, and my personal quirky favourite Unready to Wear which would totally be interesting had someone is interested in adapting it into a movie. But, above all, two particular stories struck me the most that I shed tears when I finished reading it, let’s give a round of applause for The Manned Missiles and EPICAC. The former will break your heart into pieces, while the latter will leave you sobbing in the corner; so if you’re into heart breaking and gut wrenching short stories, you can always give the two stories a try.
Bottom line is, if you’re venturing into Kurt Vonnegut for the first time, like I am, I suggest to give this book a try. And if you’re into short stories, and you enjoy a diverse choice of genre in one single book, you should also give this book a try; head’s up, the whole basic theme of the stories are science fiction, but with different twists in each story.
That aside, I think that this collection of Vonnegut’s short stories, for lack of better words, are amusing indeed. I have to admit that the first few short stories were pretty odd, to say the least, I almost gave up the book thinking that maybe (just maybe) Vonnegut is not my cup of tea. But I’m glad I had kept on reading, because at the end of the day my overall experience of this book was like a roller coaster ride; there was an up, a down, a flat and a somewhat lopsided feel to it. Take for instance Welcome to the Monkey House which became the title of this book. Although I get that the point of the story was to be satirical and might be a bit sinister as to how the world would become in the future amidst the growing number of population in major countries, I can’t help but feel disgusted at how the story turns out.
I don’t know if by explaining why I was disgusted by the story counts as being spoiling the story for those who haven’t read it (so, if by any chance you haven’t read the story and is planning to read it, do skip this rambling altogether for your own sake), but here’s what I think. At some part of the story there was a part where a sexual intercourse were performed without the full consent of one of the party involved, and this disgust me so much. This to me feels like a kind of rape, and it disgust me that the perpetrator in the story feels like he is doing more good than damage with making the woman have sex with him. To be completely honest, what actually happens in the story is not as simple as I made it out to be, you need to actually read the story to understand what I meant, but that aside I find it a bit sinister that one person is doing something to another person without their full consent thinking that it was for the other person’s benefits. People should be able to decided what’s best for themselves as oppose of having another person decides for them. But, hey, maybe I shouldn’t take the story too seriously.
But, not all is lost. Some of the stories that I quite enjoyed and quite redeem my awful experience with Welcome to the Monkey House and Long Walk to Forever (which to my surprise was actually written by Vonnegut in honouring the marriage that worked, but I find annoying and against my belief as a monogamists) had finally emerged in the forms of The Foster Portfolio, Miss Temptation, and Deer in the Works which had a surprising ending that I didn’t see it coming but somehow resonates the most to me. On that note, I think most twenty and thirty something should at least give a Deer in the Works a try when jobs feels like a dead end road.
From what I understand Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction writer, amongst being known as a satirist also, and you can see that within this book there are several strong contenders in science fiction genre, namely Report on the Barnhouse Effect, The Euphio Question which begs the question about how important happiness is if everything else becomes unimportant, and my personal quirky favourite Unready to Wear which would totally be interesting had someone is interested in adapting it into a movie. But, above all, two particular stories struck me the most that I shed tears when I finished reading it, let’s give a round of applause for The Manned Missiles and EPICAC. The former will break your heart into pieces, while the latter will leave you sobbing in the corner; so if you’re into heart breaking and gut wrenching short stories, you can always give the two stories a try.
Bottom line is, if you’re venturing into Kurt Vonnegut for the first time, like I am, I suggest to give this book a try. And if you’re into short stories, and you enjoy a diverse choice of genre in one single book, you should also give this book a try; head’s up, the whole basic theme of the stories are science fiction, but with different twists in each story.
cjrmusic's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0