Reviews - Timequake | The StoryGraph

571 reviews for:

Timequake

Kurt Vonnegut

3.68 AVERAGE

julien_alexander's review against another edition

1.0

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

dessa's review against another edition

3.0

Reread October 2017: Well, I gave this five starts the first time around and that's just not right. It's Vonnegut's last novel and it shows - and he admits that it's more of a biography mixed with a novel draft. It's so strangely hateful and yet sentimental towards Kilgore Trout. It's peppered with anecdotes that don't really make sense, and it seems like maybe Vonnegut was afraid he'd never have the time or energy to stick them in anything else. It's endearing but also frustrating, because we get more of the autobiography than we do the novel. And I remembered really liking the novel.

ozzy_999's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kassiani's review against another edition

3.75

Liked the beginning better! Got a little bit too fractured afterwards.
Audiobook

poorlywordedbookreviews's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

…𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚚𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚎…𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚋𝚎𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚜𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚗𝚘 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍…. ”𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥'𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴."

If you read the blurb you’d think this was a novel about the universe suffering a crisis and shrinking back a decade (2001 to 1991), making everyone on earth endure 10 years of deja vu, and total loss of free will. But it isn’t. It is effectively Kurt talking about the concept of such a ‘timequake’ novel with his short story alter-ego Kilgore Trout, who he’s animated and given a backstory to.

It’s rambling, it’s disjointed, it doesn’t always make sense, and it’s a bit self indulgent. But it’s also quick witted, insightful and amusing in its cynicism. It weaves some autobiographical bits into the ponderings and story threads. Bits of it are written so that you are unsure if it’s an aged relative whose sensibilities are stuck in a different age, or if he’s making a knowing point but forgetting the accompanying conspiratorial wink.

Mainly it’s about free will, living on autopilot/reflexively vs conscience decision making, how we (societies) are doomed to repeat ourself due to apathy, and finding joy despite the pointlessness.

For Vonnegut completists I think. I did just skim the last third, as whilst the first third really held my attention, by the half way point it felt a bit repetitive and I was loosing interest. If anyones read the whole thing fully, let me know if I really should persevere. He does eventually stop using the phrase ‘ejaculated into the birth canal’ every 20 or so pages, so I could probably push through… I might dip back in before it needs to go back to the library.

𝚂𝚌𝚞𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚋𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚍𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚜.

mayajade1701's review against another edition

I will read and love pretty much any book by Vonnegut. Timequake is no exception. I love his style of writing, humor and worldview. And I love that it's freakin WIERD at times. Timequake is all that. It is a strange combination that doesn't feel like a typical narrative even though it is loosely framed in one. It's more a collection of short tidbits and with a mix of an autobiography.