Cat's Cradle

Very rarely do I wish that a book would get turned into a movie, but this one is quite the exception. It's always been one of my favorite Vonnegut books and re-reading it has only made me appreciate it even more.

Good ol Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is most definitely a laughing prophet of doom and this spin on the Armageddon cements his well deserved place in the literary world. In the style of Dr. Strangelove, this tale brings many questions to the table and questions the moral responsibility of scientists and the discoveries they make, or rather unleash.

In this tour de force John (call me Jonah), is working on a memoir of the family members of Dr. Felix Hoenniker, father of the atomic bomb. Getting entwined with this family has more consequences then he can ever imagine, as the late great scientist Felix passed on one more deadly scientific weapon to his three children, Ice-9.

A must read for everyone, and an essential Vonnegut novel :)

Slaughterhouse Five

After re-reading this for a third time I picked up on so many new elements that I had somehow overlooked the first two times. I know the character, Kilgore Trout, shows up in most Vonnegut novels but I had totally missed the fact that Howard J. Campbell, the American Nazi war criminal from "Mother Night," makes a few brief appearances in here and so does Eliot Rosewater. I feel like an idiot for missing key pieces like that! I'm getting rusty!

Anyways, this is probably one of the best instances of Kurt Vonnegut's literary genius. It's a staple in every collection and is one of the best "anti-war" books there is. Vonnegut is a master at conveying the absurdity of war and does a brilliant job of getting his point across by introducing the unforgettable Billy Pilgrim. Billy has come unstuck in time and "Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade" is Billy's journey back and forth through different parts of his life. Billy surviving the fire bombing in Dresden during World War II, Billy marrying his wife, Billy being abducted by aliens, and Billy practicing optometry. The prose and the back and forth of all these moments is brilliant and some of Vonnegut's most memorable quotes are found in these pages.

If you haven't read this already, what are you waiting for?

Mother Night

In preparation for a workshop on teaching Kurt Vonnegut next week, I'm rereading some of Kurt's more popular works. I haven't read "Mother Night" in about five years so it was fun revisiting it. Per usual Vonnegut inserts lots of dark comedy and zany writing into his novels. This novel follows an American, Nazi war criminal, Howard J. Campbell as he recounts his life, the war, and his time in Israel cell awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. It's not such a cut and dry case however, is Howard really guilty? He was a very convincing and cut-throat Nazi propagandist but he was also an American undercover spy, does one negate the other? What defines a man? Vonnegut dives deep into the human psyche to show how mulch-faceted we all are. Not everything is black or white. 

Vonnegut's prose is beautiful and witty and as always warms my soul a little. Like all of his other works this is a must read!