A review by chan_fry
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

5.0

Reading this almost immediately after Slaughterhouse-Five, I find the question unavoidable: why is that one on so many “best novels of all time” lists, while this one isn’t? Player Piano is a better book in almost every way. It’s difficult to tell whether it’s simply a matter of taste.

I identified a bit with the protagonist, who’s been given a good life by hardworking parents but comes to question the societal structure the previous generation has placed him in. And what, really, are human beings supposed to do once machines can do everything we used to? This is one of the central themes of the book and is often present in the background of our current politics, 60-something years later. And is going backward ever the right answer? Is it even possible?

Naturally for a book from the 1950s, there are a few uncomfortable moments when it comes to views on men/women or non-white people, but at least it looks like Vonnegut was ahead of the curve in that regard.

(I have published a longer review on my website.)