Megan K. reviewed on 12/13/2010 + 3 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I just finished Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and I cant say that it will be a book Ill read again. This is my third Vonnegut book (the other two being Slaughterhouse Five and Armageddon in Retrospect) and it was far from my favorite. It lacked a lot of character and conviction that I felt was in the other books. Ive always felt that Vonnegut did not write characters that you cared for, but worlds: I never get attached to the people or the narrator of his stories, but I rejoice and mourn and everything in between for the worlds that he creates, whether or not they are a specific characters world, such as that of the old man in Armageddons Happy Birthday, 1951 or the entire world that the story takes place in, such as Wailing Shall Be in all Streets. He has a way of making a world and a place come alive as if it is a character in a way that no other writer that I have read has been able to do. And yet in Cats Cradle, I just didnt care; not about the world, not about the people, not about much of anything. Although it had several high points, for instance Bokonon, Bokononism, and the entire commentary about religion, as well as the ideas of ice-nine, but all in all it didnt really go anywhere. I think the worst part of it was that I just felt that he didnt care, and so without his conviction behind it, I didnt get any conviction at all. There was no willing suspension of disbelief, there was no emotional investment, there was no desire to get to the end of the story, just a desire to finish the book on my part.

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