Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Series: N/A
Publisher: Dial Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 287
Source: Purchased

Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three ecentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's Death Wish comes true when his last, fatal gift to mankind brings about the end, that for all of us, is nigh ...

 

Compared to Galapagos this book was a little better. However I was left wholly unimpressed by this novel as well. The idea seemed so cool when I picked it up, but then again I was also on a Vonnegut kick at the time.

 

I couldn't stay focused while reading this, the characters did absolutely nothing for me. I did not find myself caring about what happened to any of them. I would have enjoyed more about the atomic bomb and the people who were working on it, however what I got instead was snippets about the "father" of the atomic bomb and a whole bunch about a made up religion and the children of the man who created the bomb.

 

When everything starts to happen and the pace picked up I couldn't help just wishing the book would be over so I could put it down and move on. I've heard this book described as Vonnegut's greatest work but I can't say that I agree I would take Slaughterhouse-Five over this one any day.

 



 

Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut

 Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Series: N/A
Publisher: Dial Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 324
Source: Purchased

Galápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America’s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.

 



 This book was a huge bust for me. I was really hoping to love it considering I loved both Slaughterhouse-Five as well as Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. This book just seemed to be lacking everything I enjoyed in the previously mentioned books.

One of my major issues was the repetition of how terrible a large brain was for humans in the past, I get that this was the basis for the whole story but it seemed like it was repeated on every other page. I got to the point where I could barely even finish the book and I had to force myself to do just that.

I could not enjoy this book and I think the fact was that it was so unlike the previous two books I had read by him that I was thrown off guard. I could not get into the style of this one and it's a shame because the description sounded really cool. If only it had been executed in a way that was a little more exciting and didn't have me putting the book down constantly just so I could stay awake.

If you're new to Vonnegut I would highly recommend starting with another book, but if you do insist on reading this one be prepared that it's extremely slow and you probably won't remember much of what happened after you finally finish it.