Jodi recommends this book occasionally and I finally decided to pick it up. My only other Vonnegut reading experience has been Slaughterhouse Five, which I read in college and absolutely adored. I don't know why I haven't read anything else by him since then except that maybe I didn't imagine that anything else could be as good.
Cat's Cradle delivered as Jodi promised it would. It's a story of a journey and it's riddled with ironic humor. I was a bit confused because the back of the book referred to a "midget protagonist"....I'm still not sure I would call Newt the "protagonist" of the novel. I also think it's a book that needs to be read more than once in order to understand the many levels of the narration. In some ways it reminds me of Pete Hautman's Godless, with the philosophy and created religion. Both books force readers to look at their beliefs as they view a manufactured belief system that is silly--yet all too familiar.
I'm open to further Vonnegut selections if anyone has any recommendations!
2 comments:
It seems like an easy thing to recommend, but Slaughterhouse Five is one of those books I have to re-read every couple of years. Sorta like The Gunslinger.
Ahhh yes! I'm guessing I would get more out of it now than I did back when I was more concerned with beer and impressing my professor...I love both Slaughterhouse and Gunslinger!
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