Reviews

Ricordando l'Apocalisse by Kurt Vonnegut

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jkathleen5's review against another edition

4.0

Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors and I love when I read any of his work that I haven’t read before. This was a great collection of essays and short stories centered around the topics of war and peace and humanity with Vonnegut’s signature wit and humor. Some stories were stronger than others, but the one I can’t stop thinking about is “Wailing Shall Be in All Streets.” It’s a much more real and personal story of the bombing of Dresden (compared to the fictionalized version in Slaughterhouse Five) and really lays bare Vonnegut’s view of war and its destruction.

“We accepted their congratulations with good grace and proper modesty, but I felt then as I feel now, that I would have given my life to save Dresden for the World’s generations to come. That is how everyone should feel about every city on Earth.”

koreilly's review against another edition

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3.0

Posthumously published work is always a little bit icky, reaking somewhat of cashing in on an author's celbrity by publishing things they chose not to in their time here. This book ebbs and flows between the two. Some of the writing is illuminating on the character of Kurt Vonnegut and his own war-time experience. Anyone who has read his most famous novel knows a high level overview of it but it is still interesting to read a non-fiction view of his experience in Dresden during the war.

Some of the content though is fiction or what have you that Kurt obviously didn't want published due to a low-quality or amateurish nature. None of it is really terrible but a collection of stories about POWs during the war seem more like generic mid century dime fiction then the quirky heart-filled stuff you expect from Vonnegut.

So overall I would really only recommend this to Vonnegut completionists.

ewybren's review against another edition

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4.0

Armageddon in Retrospect is a series of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, revolving around war and its effects on both civilians and soldiers. While I prefer Vonnegut's novels to his short stories, I do think that his works that allow for reflection on his time in the Armed Forces are some of his best.

ericbuscemi's review against another edition

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4.0

About halfway through this short collection, I was fairly unimpressed. Not that it was bad, unpublishable tripe that made it only because of Vonnegut's name, but because it just seemed unnecessary, and I felt it had all been said by him already. But I kept reading and am glad I did, because the second half of the book is much stronger. My favorites were 'The Unicorn Trap', 'Just You and Me, Sammy' and the title story, 'Armaggedon in Retrospect.' I also found 'Brighten Up' to be well written, but it left me with an unsettled feeling.

haleyature's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

5.0

kb_208's review against another edition

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3.0

I had been reading Kurt Vonnegut books since about 3 years before he passed. At the time of this book's release it was quite a treat to be able to read new material that I had not already read. This book is a nice collection of POW stories and one speech. They don't give the dates from when they were written, but they almost sound lie they could be beginnings to his search for "Slaughterhouse-Five". They may be totally false, all the stories center on characters who are POWs after the war dealing with life and trying to get back home. Overall they are good stories, but nothing too spectacular.