A review by jbstaniforth
Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

3.0

I'm always wary of collections of "unpublished" work that appear after an author's death, usually because they contain mostly "unpublishable" stuff. This collection does have some weak stories, and the baseline of the whole thing is only about average strength for Vonnegut, but it really does underline his talent as a writer. Some stories (several, in fact) are totally formulaic almost all the way to the end, but his endings somehow manage to be reliably new and not disappointing. I'd rather the stories themselves weren't so predictable-- and some aren't, especially the title story, which is quite good. All in all, it's obviously not Vonnegut's best work, but even his weaker writing is better than most, and this is an easy beach or cottage read worth bringing along.