Kurt vonegut is one of my favorite writes. The thing that was truly amazing was how accurately the book satires the events of 2008 and 2009 even the it was written many years earlier. He dead on about Ponzi schemes and the corruption in government that lands so many Harvard graduates in jail. After Madoff , Sanford and the crazed short selling on Wall St., I needed a good laugh.
A reasonable Vonnegut offering. Much better than Breakfast of Champions, and somewhat better than Slaughterhouse Five (all in my opinion... your mileage may well vary). There isn't a lot of plot here, but there is enough to follow it, and there is a story line. Worth reading, but probably not something I'll read again.
This is without doubt the funniest of the Vonnegut books I have read so far. The protagonist is so self-deprecating and fatalistic. No matter how many bad things happen to him he just keeps plodding along. The wit and unique style of Vonnegut shine throughout this book.
Perhaps by happy coincidence (and hopefully not like the coincidence which befalls the main character in this book!) I was reading this at the same time I started reading James Comey's "A Higher Loyalty," and the two complemented each other in some surprising ways. Here, Kurt Vonnegut takes on government corruption and corporate excess, as only he can, in the personage of a Harvard Man who endures the vicissitudes of fortune with surprising aplomb. I was rather surprised, honestly, to see the serious tone the book took in its initial chapters. It only really assumes its prototypical Vonnegut character in the last few chapters, which descend into delightful farce too absurd to be taken seriously.
I'll keep this one short and sweet, since I don't like to rehash the whole plot line, which, in the case of Vonnegut novels, is a challenge on a good day. This books recounts the misadventures of one Walter F. Starbuck, the son of immigrants and a Harvard graduate who was imprisoned for a dubious role in the Watergate fiasco, and whose sole aspiration post-release seems to be to become a bartender, with his Doctor of Mixology degree earned in prison. In his typical fractured style, Vonnegut critiques both big government and big business. Much of the action takes place in the two days after Starbuck's release from a minimum security "Club Fed"-style correctional facility, although much of the content also occurs in flashback sequences. Walter's fortunes change yet again when by sheer chance, he encounters a former associate whose life he ruined by testifying against him, and a former lover-turned-vagrant whose own fortunes (and certainly sanity) are somewhat in doubt. Overall, I enjoyed this novel, but it wasn't one of my favorite Vonnegut works; the beginning is more profound than the ending, which kind of falls apart in its absurdity, when the book otherwise could have actually been meaningful. Still, it's prototypical Vonnegut, and certainly worth reading if you're a fan.
I'll keep this one short and sweet, since I don't like to rehash the whole plot line, which, in the case of Vonnegut novels, is a challenge on a good day. This books recounts the misadventures of one Walter F. Starbuck, the son of immigrants and a Harvard graduate who was imprisoned for a dubious role in the Watergate fiasco, and whose sole aspiration post-release seems to be to become a bartender, with his Doctor of Mixology degree earned in prison. In his typical fractured style, Vonnegut critiques both big government and big business. Much of the action takes place in the two days after Starbuck's release from a minimum security "Club Fed"-style correctional facility, although much of the content also occurs in flashback sequences. Walter's fortunes change yet again when by sheer chance, he encounters a former associate whose life he ruined by testifying against him, and a former lover-turned-vagrant whose own fortunes (and certainly sanity) are somewhat in doubt. Overall, I enjoyed this novel, but it wasn't one of my favorite Vonnegut works; the beginning is more profound than the ending, which kind of falls apart in its absurdity, when the book otherwise could have actually been meaningful. Still, it's prototypical Vonnegut, and certainly worth reading if you're a fan.
