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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Funny jokes, but they got old fast. Creative story, a few great quotable nuggets, but overall, it just wasn't impressive to me. Was a little juvenile. And while it was satirical from the author, I did not like reading the racist characters' speeches.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: Violence
This book is wild. It’s hit and miss, as most all comedy is; certainly satire. But everything about it is novel and somehow works.
I don’t know what else to say. I too think western culture le sucks.
I don’t know what else to say. I too think western culture le sucks.
“.....he was softening his brain with alcohol. This was a substance produced by a tiny creature called yeast. Yeast organisms ate sugar and excreted alcohol. They killed themselves by destroying their own environment with yeast shit.”
Lol. Explained a complex biochemical mechanism so easily!
Lol. Explained a complex biochemical mechanism so easily!
I guess this book was groundbreaking when it was published in 1973. But now feels like it is trying too hard to shock. It’s an unusual novel, the author’s own drawings appear and the author himself appears as a character. Very meta, and radical for its time. But the plot itself isn’t a strong enough a foundation to carry this showy facade. For no apparent reason someone has a breakdown, that’s the plot. The End. That said the novel feels modern, not too dated. Except it is littered with the N word. Vonnegut is using this word to hold a mirror up to American culture which is racist, superficial and uncaring. At the time Vonnegut gave the book a C - that’s probably about right.
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Typical Vonnegut.
Makes me think about my mortality and the point of it all.
Makes me think about my mortality and the point of it all.
I'm having a hard time deciding whether I liked this book less than the rest of Vonnegut's, or such time has passed since my Vonnegut phase that I wouldn't like others either anymore. Regardless, it didn't click: the ratio of insight to connecting narrative seemed off, such that the book felt like a disjointed series of one-liners.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i never actually write reviews, but as i read this book i wrote some stuff down in the back that i decided to
type up here.
the essential Vonnegut.
easy to read, like a children’s book. a children’s book for critically thinking yet creative adults to analyze the inherent contradictions of the human race. almost every possible question about inequality or existence is touched in this novel, from the lies of America to the game of american football.
this novel is especially powerful for a reader that has never analyzed the damage that america has done upon the world and the lies we were told in school
Kurt Vonnegut is like me! he’s a trained chemist and a socialist!
MENTAL HEALTH, and he had an important relationship with his own mental state that was explored in this book too. it’s like this novel was a turning point in how he saw the world, and his own pessimism, and there were points in the book where he sat next to his own characters and they actually pulled him out of insanity. Vonnegut once said “people don’t talk about mental illness for many reasons— one is that it makes their children less marriage-able.” I like how in this novel, Vonnegut emphasizes how chemical reactions and random interactions with the world around us impact our actions and our mental health. Maybe someone could interpret it as pessimistic, as being out of control, but i see it as more hopeful because it avoids blame and shame. I also appreciate this book a lot because it shows a lot of his own character, his own thought process, and his own heart— for this book was his 50th birthday present.
In conclusion, Kurt Vonnegut might be one of America’s most creative men. He’s certainly not for everyone, and by all means he’s not my absolute favorite author, but no avid reader can dislike his supposed absurdity or deny that his silliness is one of the most accurate representations of america to the point where we wonder if it’s even silly at all… or if it’s even sillier that we’ve been living this way for so long. As a God of black satire, Kurt Vonnegut deserves to be a beloved author.
type up here.
the essential Vonnegut.
easy to read, like a children’s book. a children’s book for critically thinking yet creative adults to analyze the inherent contradictions of the human race. almost every possible question about inequality or existence is touched in this novel, from the lies of America to the game of american football.
this novel is especially powerful for a reader that has never analyzed the damage that america has done upon the world and the lies we were told in school
Kurt Vonnegut is like me! he’s a trained chemist and a socialist!
MENTAL HEALTH, and he had an important relationship with his own mental state that was explored in this book too. it’s like this novel was a turning point in how he saw the world, and his own pessimism, and there were points in the book where he sat next to his own characters and they actually pulled him out of insanity. Vonnegut once said “people don’t talk about mental illness for many reasons— one is that it makes their children less marriage-able.” I like how in this novel, Vonnegut emphasizes how chemical reactions and random interactions with the world around us impact our actions and our mental health. Maybe someone could interpret it as pessimistic, as being out of control, but i see it as more hopeful because it avoids blame and shame. I also appreciate this book a lot because it shows a lot of his own character, his own thought process, and his own heart— for this book was his 50th birthday present.
In conclusion, Kurt Vonnegut might be one of America’s most creative men. He’s certainly not for everyone, and by all means he’s not my absolute favorite author, but no avid reader can dislike his supposed absurdity or deny that his silliness is one of the most accurate representations of america to the point where we wonder if it’s even silly at all… or if it’s even sillier that we’ve been living this way for so long. As a God of black satire, Kurt Vonnegut deserves to be a beloved author.
It’s like the most Kurt Vonnegut book by Kirt Vonnegut so if you like him and his stylistic jabs at society, you’ll dig it and if you don’t, it’ll be totally incomprehensible. It’s not one you read for the engaging plot or characters but for the joy of the prose and the cheeky yet incisive way Vonnegut conveys his thoughts through storytelling