I've been re-reading Kurt Vonnegut's novels and essays, and am once again awed by his style. He wrote some excellent books, and some not-so-excellent ones, but what stands out is the fact that nobody else, AFAIK, could have written them at all. People have described his style as "black humor" but that doesn't really cover it. He cared deeply about the human condition and the societies we've contrived to make the best of the life we have, but was always disappointed in the destruction they've caused. He likened his role as an artist to that of the canary in the coal mine ... to show society the danger they're in before they can sense it for themselves. He never had a villain in any of his books, unless you want to count the oversized brains that have caused so much trouble for humanity (a major theme of his book Galapagos). But he took care to populate his books with people who were loving and caring, because he felt that our only chance at happiness or even survival lay in fostering those traits. He had a unique blend of humor, outrage, and compassion, often keeping all these balls in the air at once in the same paragraph or even the same sentence. I've read a few parodies and pastiches of his work, but nothing came even close to pulling off the effect that he had on me. With the possible exception of Christopher Lamb and Mark Twain, I can't think of another writer that could have you crying and laughing the way he could. Can you? If you can name a few, I'd love to track them down.
To anyone unfamiliar with it, read Slaughterhouse 5 before trying to engage the 1972 film adaptation. I don't hate the film, but it's rife with gaussian soft focus moments and the delivery of dialogue is profoundly affected in a way that's quintessential to that era of movies. It's the awkward moment when the child of the late 60's goes all early 70's knees and elbows. Read the book.
I've only read Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions. A friend and I were in a bookshop and neither of us had read him, so we agreed I'd buy one and he buy the other - and when we'd finished them we'd swap books. I bought Slaughterhouse 5, he the other, and when we next met up I was raving about Vonnigut - but my friend was puzzled. He thought Vonnigut was, from that novel, really overrated. When he finished Slaughterhouse 5 he could see why I liked it, and I could see why he didn't much care for Breakfast of Champions. I genuinely don't even remember the plot of Breakfast, but I still remember large chunks of Slaughterhouse really well. Is there anything else as good as Slaughterhouse 5 in him? Or did I get the best?
That one is a distant third for me behind Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle. That's the one with all the doodles, remember? Beavers, wide-open-beavers, assholes... etc. This one is more PG-13: The plot, IIRC, has Kilgore Trout doing something... and a saleman guy doing something else. Come to think of it, I don't remember the plot either. Just the doodles. And the part where Vonnegut inserts himself into the story... and goes off on a tangent about penis sizes.
I'm going to be honest, I only remember the fact it had doodles. I'll check out Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle though, thanks!
Whoa, @Lemex, when did you come back? I read Breakfast of Champions a long time ago, and I honestly don't remember any of it. I actually think we read it as part of the WF book club we had going a number of years ago. I've heard great things about Slaughterhouse-Five. It usually appears on a lot of lists of greatest novels. I didn't realize there was a film adaptation. I don't typically watch the film adaptation before reading the book because I feel many things are lost in translation, and I'm glad to see @Wreybies confirms my theory in this particular case.
Vonnegut had his first wave of popularity in the early seventies . The three books to read than was The Sirens of Titan , Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five. I read them at the time , and the books fitted in with my hippy state of mind. Some years later I read Welcome to the Monkey House and it reminded me of the earlier books , I could only just remember reading them , not what they were about . So I re-read them . I was a strange experience . The books seemed a bit of an unconnected ramble of ides . You felt as there might be a hidden meaning , you just can't see what it was , or maybe not . Anyway I was a bit disappointed , the lofty height I held the books slipped down . I recently re-read Slaughterhouse Five , and the book has gone up agine , brilliant book . I must look for the other two .
Hi mate. Yeah, not long ago. Remembered this place and decided 'why not'. Not posting a lot, mostly because I barely have the time with work and writing commitments, but I'll be here when I can.
Actually, my three favorite books are Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. All were written, I think, before Slaughterhouse-5. I agree that Breakfast of Champions was not one of his better books. Even Mr. Vonnegut didn't think much of it. But he regained his form with Bluebeard and Galapagos, which come close to matching the first three I mentioned. As for film adaptations, Slaughterhouse-5 was a good movie for its time, but I agree with Wreybies that you should read the book first. The movie adaptation of Breakfast of Champions was eminently forgettable, despite a good cast, but I did think that Mother Night was a pretty good movie ... again with an all-star cast, but also with a director who got the story right. But as with any film adaptation, the film is not the book. It may deliver the words, but not the music.
I probably shouldn't say anything about this but it's my Cosmic joke on a great writer. If you ask post people what their favorite Vonnegut novel is they will say Sirens of Titan. The joke is that Vonnegut didn't write Sirens of Titan. It was written by Jose farmer under the pseudonym Kilgore trout. I think mother night is his best.
Sirens of Titan was written by Vonnegut , Published in 1959 almost ten years before Slaughterhouse . The book your referring to is Venus on the Half-Shell .
