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A review by andrewnguyen
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
5.0
Welcome to the Monkey House is certainly my favorite short story collection ever, and one of my favorite books of all time. I'm not a book re-reader, but this review comes on the heels of my 4th time reading this collection. I'll start this review by saying that I love the range and humor of Kurt Vonnegut and that almost all of the stories in this collection are good (a lot of them are great). However, I would like to just focus on the my three favorite short stories from this collection.
The Kid Nobody Could Handle
"When youngsters had no talent, Helmholtz made them play on guts alone"
George M. Helmholtz is a music teacher. Helmholtz freaking loves music. He loves the worst band in the school because hears in them music that will someday be. Hemholtz's happiness stems from music and the face that it's the one small corner of the world he can control and make nice. Jim Donnini is a troubled youth who doesn't care about anything. This story tells about the brief clash between these two.
Vonnegut often writes about the importance of music and art in human life, and this short story is literally about those things making life worth living. This story isn't just about music, it's about an eternal optimist vs an eternal cynic. This story asks the question, "in a crappy world, which attitude should win out?"
EPICAC
"I loved and won--EPICAC loved and lost, but he bore me no grudge."
ENIAC was the "first" electronic computer. EPICAC is ENIAC if it gained sentience and learned to love. Robots learning to love are kind of a trope, but Vonnegut masters that trope. EPICAC talks about love the way a child would, but in a way that is real, genuine and heartbreaking.
Harrison Bergeron
"He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."
This is definitely Kurt Vonnegut's most famous short story, a satire about the extreme implementation of Communism. Harrison Bergeron puts the best of Kurt Vonnegut on display: it's funny, it's philosophical and the prose is simple but poetic.
The Kid Nobody Could Handle
"When youngsters had no talent, Helmholtz made them play on guts alone"
George M. Helmholtz is a music teacher. Helmholtz freaking loves music. He loves the worst band in the school because hears in them music that will someday be. Hemholtz's happiness stems from music and the face that it's the one small corner of the world he can control and make nice. Jim Donnini is a troubled youth who doesn't care about anything. This story tells about the brief clash between these two.
Vonnegut often writes about the importance of music and art in human life, and this short story is literally about those things making life worth living. This story isn't just about music, it's about an eternal optimist vs an eternal cynic. This story asks the question, "in a crappy world, which attitude should win out?"
EPICAC
"I loved and won--EPICAC loved and lost, but he bore me no grudge."
ENIAC was the "first" electronic computer. EPICAC is ENIAC if it gained sentience and learned to love. Robots learning to love are kind of a trope, but Vonnegut masters that trope. EPICAC talks about love the way a child would, but in a way that is real, genuine and heartbreaking.
Harrison Bergeron
"He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."
This is definitely Kurt Vonnegut's most famous short story, a satire about the extreme implementation of Communism. Harrison Bergeron puts the best of Kurt Vonnegut on display: it's funny, it's philosophical and the prose is simple but poetic.