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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Still so weird and I LOVE IT. Maybe Kurt Vonnegut will get me over my A.I. fear.
Well, probably not.
Confido: 4 stars. A.I. is going to take over the world one day, I'm telling you.
Fubar: 4 stars. Today I learned that "snafu" is WWII slang. The more you know.
Shout About it From the Housetops: 3.5 stars. I don't know why, but I picture this taking place in Vermont (I've never been to Vermont).
Ed Luby's Key Club: 4 stars. Scary as hell, but very good.
A Song for Selma: 4.5 stars. Look at these white people, thinking Selma is a person.
Hall of Mirrors: 3 stars. I spend far more time in life thinking about hypnotists than I anticipated, tbh.
Hello, Red: 2 stars. I didn't like this one much.
Little Drops of Water: I wish I could rate this one. I remember reading it and I remember Larry Whitemen, but nothing else.
The Petrified Ants: 2 stars. Literally about ants. V boring.
The Honor of a Newsboy: 5 stars. This was excellent.
Look at the Birdie: 4 stars. V short for being the titular story.
King and Queen of the Universe: 4.5 stars. I took great pleasure in this.
The Good Explainer: 4 stars, but I needed more of this one. Even just half a page.
Well, probably not.
Confido: 4 stars. A.I. is going to take over the world one day, I'm telling you.
Fubar: 4 stars. Today I learned that "snafu" is WWII slang. The more you know.
Shout About it From the Housetops: 3.5 stars. I don't know why, but I picture this taking place in Vermont (I've never been to Vermont).
Ed Luby's Key Club: 4 stars. Scary as hell, but very good.
A Song for Selma: 4.5 stars. Look at these white people, thinking Selma is a person.
Hall of Mirrors: 3 stars. I spend far more time in life thinking about hypnotists than I anticipated, tbh.
Hello, Red: 2 stars. I didn't like this one much.
Little Drops of Water: I wish I could rate this one. I remember reading it and I remember Larry Whitemen, but nothing else.
The Petrified Ants: 2 stars. Literally about ants. V boring.
The Honor of a Newsboy: 5 stars. This was excellent.
Look at the Birdie: 4 stars. V short for being the titular story.
King and Queen of the Universe: 4.5 stars. I took great pleasure in this.
The Good Explainer: 4 stars, but I needed more of this one. Even just half a page.
Vonnegut's writing in this collection has a strong sense of rhythm and dealt with darker thematic material than Bagombo Snuff Box, making stories such as Ed Luby's Key Club, Hall of Mirrors and the title story, Look At the Birdie positively exhilarating. More often than laughter, I found myself gasping in shock and wonderment at the twists and conclusions. Most stories do end with what seems to be an optimistic outcome, but there is a sense of openness to the characters and their lives: that although this episode is over, something sinister may still lie ahead of them.
Ed Luby's Key Club is phenomenal. Otherwise, the unpolished nature of the book makes some of the stories fall flat.