Cat's Cradle: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.50 You Save: $6.50 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.40 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Cat's Cradle: A Novel
Book Review: Constantly Hilarious, and Infinitely Provocative
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow.P.S. In "Cat's Cradle," Kurt Vonnegut tells us everything we ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about foma, ice-nine, and Bokononism. In the telling, he leaves us mesmerized with his sadly warm, warmly sad vision of mankind, and of mankind's pathetic proclivity for trying so hard to believe in known lies, and in unknown truths.
The story is told by Jonah, who is researching the life and times of a great physicist, Dr. Hoenikker. Hoenikker is one of the more prominent fathers of the atomic bomb, yet he has an image of being a childlike, saintly figure who lived his life enraptured by the cerebral, celestial music of the spheres. He may or may not have been a saint, (this is never fully resolved,) but he definitely was directly responsible, in this book, for at least two devices which are foolproof, sure-fire, results-guaranteed means of totally annihilating all life on this planet. Doesn't sound much like a saint, you say?!?!? Well, all I can say is, you need to read this book.
As the story unfolds, we meet Hoenikker's scared, lonely, grown children, whose fates are locked together by the terrible secret of ice-nine. Jonah travels with them to the little-known, Caribbean island republic of San Lorenzo for his research. Once there, he discovers the bizarrely sensible religion of Bokononism, and his life is changed forever.
"Cat's Cradle" is crammed with a curiously concatenated cornucopia of consistently compelling creative conundrums. A word of warning: you may want to wear some kind of metal helmet while reading this book. Otherwise, you will risk scratching a hole in your skull from scratching your head all the time, trying to understand all the brilliant ideas in this book. There are just tons of insights into how we interpret reality, how we interpret fiction, and how we sometimes do the second of those activities, when we should be doing the first... One character is a professional book indexer. She goes through manuscripts of books for a living, and creates indexes for them. Sounds like kind of an odd profession, eh? Well then, how do YOU break down dreams, or reality, to make them easier to cope with? What's YOUR strategy for this basic human need? Or, for another example -- another character is one of Dr. Hoenikker's grown sons. He was called "Secret Agent X-9" as a child, because he happened to have a few fairly furtive mannerisms. As an adult, he basically lives a James Bond life, making or breaking kings, and consorting with beautiful women on a lush, island paradise. Did his dreamlike adult reality grow out of the real nightmare he lived out as a mocked child? Where did one start, and the other stop? This is the kind of question that Kurt Vonnegut raises in this book. Every sentence has meaning. Just amazing. An infinite number of thumbs up.
Book Review: How does Vonnegut do it
Summary: 5 Stars
I had heard so much about Vonnegut since my freshman year in High school. I know now that I will become a hard core fan of all his books. I'm an avid reader of all science fiction novels and this one is definitely one of my favorites. This book is by far a thrill ride of an apocolyptic adventure. There are also alot of great charcter introduced in the book and alot of funny scenes. This was my first experience with Vonnegut and I enjoyed every moment of it. When I first saw the cover of the book I thought that it would be interesting and it was. It was not so hard and it was not very easy either. I love the way he satires religon and science. Blending his patented wry humor with acute social insight presented in an absurd fantasy world, Vonnegut has written an exceptional novel of love lies and the self destruction of mankind. The story centers around the narrator, Jonah, who is called by name only once in the entire book. We are told in the begining of the book that he is writing a book on the events of the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.His research leads him to a correspondence with Newt Hoenikker, the midget son of doctor Felix Hoenikker, father of the atomic bomb. After meeting with Newt, destiny leads our protagonist to the impoverished island republic of San Lorenzo, where among other adventures he finds religon, falls in love and becomes a president. All of this by itself would make for a very entertaining book, but it is not in the story line that Vonnegut's genius lies. Cat's Cradle is rife with painfully accurate insights into the institutions that our society holds so dear, such as, religion, politics, and science. Vonnegut invents for the inhabitants of San Lorenzo a brand new religion based completely and admittedly on "foma", or lies. This wouldn"t be so shocking, except for the fact that this "bokonism" seems to make perfect sense. Other Vonnegut ironies pervade the book and are too elaborate to go into. Cat's Cradle is one of the most absurd,and frightening novels. This book truly causes one to stop and think about the things that one holds as unquestionably true. All of these incredible people, places, things and ideas in Cat's cradle are intricately woven into a perfect tapestry that sums up and spells out many of mankind's self-created problems in 191 pages. I haven't read any of Kurt Vonnegut's other books but I know that I most certainly will. After checking this book out from the library I went and bought my own copy. I strongly recommed this book to anyone over the age of four-teen. There is no reason not to buy this masterpiece of modern literature. SO IF YOU READ IT WAS AND DIDM'T LIKE IT THAN READ IT AGAIN. IF YOU READ IT ONCE AND ENJOYED BUY IT AND READ IT AGAIN.Book Review: How does Vonnegut do it
Summary: 5 Stars
I had heard so much about Vonnegut since my freshman year in High school. I know now that I will become a hard core fan of all his books. I'm an avid reader of all science fiction novels and this one is definitely one of my favorites. This book is by far a thrill ride of an apocolyptic adventure. There are also alot of great charcter introduced in the book and alot of funny scenes. This was my first experience with Vonnegut and I enjoyed every moment of it. When I first saw the cover of the book I thought that it would be interesting and it was. It was not so hard and it was not very easy either. I love the way he satires religon and science. Blending his patented wry humor with acute social insight presented in an absurd fantasy world, Vonnegut has written an exceptional novel of love lies and the self destruction of mankind. The story centers around the narrator, Jonah, who is called by name only once in the entire book. We are told in the begining of the book that he is writing a book on the events of the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.His research leads him to a correspondence with Newt Hoenikker, the midget son of doctor Felix Hoenikker, father of the atomic bomb. After meeting with Newt, destiny leads our protagonist to the impoverished island republic of San Lorenzo, where among other adventures he finds religon, falls in love and becomes a president. All of this by itself would make for a very entertaining book, but it is not in the story line that Vonnegut's genius lies. Cat's Cradle is rife with painfully accurate insights into the institutions that our society holds so dear, such as, religion, politics, and science. Vonnegut invents for the inhabitants of San Lorenzo a brand new religion based completely and admittedly on "foma", or lies. This wouldn"t be so shocking, except for the fact that this "bokonism" seems to make perfect sense. Other Vonnegut ironies pervade the book and are too elaborate to go into. Cat's Cradle is one of the most absurd,and frightening novels. This book truly causes one to stop and think about the things that one holds as unquestionably true. All of these incredible people, places, things and ideas in Cat's cradle are intricately woven into a perfect tapestry that sums up and spells out many of mankind's self-created problems in 191 pages. I haven't read any of Kurt Vonnegut's other books but I know that I most certainly will. After checking this book out from the library I went and bought my own copy. I strongly recommed this book to anyone over the age of four-teen. There is no reason not to buy this masterpiece of modern literature. SO IF YOU READ IT WAS AND DIDM'T LIKE IT THAN READ IT AGAIN. IF YOU READ IT ONCE AND ENJOYED BUY IT AND READ IT AGAIN.Book Review: A history of human stupidity
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cat's Cradle" is a heavy-handed satire about the military-industrial complex using brilliant scientific minds to create weapons of mass destruction, but because it's written by the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut, you get a cleverly conceived tale of science fiction delivered with the comical madness of a Marx Brothers movie. This novel is pure fun even at its apocalyptic extreme. The narrator ("Jonah," as in trapped in the belly of a whale) is a journalist who plans to write a book about August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Particularly he is interested in the life of the late Dr. Felix Hoenikker, one of the principal scientists who worked on the bomb. After corresponding with Hoenikker's midget son Newt, he interviews fellow scientists at Hoenikker's place of employment, a think tank called the General Forge and Foundry Company. Jonah learns that one of the last things Hoenikker was working on was something called "ice-nine," a substance which freezes water at temperatures much higher than 32°F.
Then Jonah gets an assignment to interview a philanthropist named Julian Castle who runs a charity hospital on a Caribbean island called San Lorenzo. On the plane to San Lorenzo, Jonah happens to meet Newt and his horse-faced sister Angela who are on their way to the same destination to attend the wedding of their brother Frank, who happens to be a high-ranking official on the island, to a beautiful native girl named Mona, the adopted daughter of "Papa" Monzano, the island's dictator.
Arriving at San Lorenzo, Jonah finds out that all the islanders practice an outlawed religion called Bokononism, started by a calypso singer named Bokonon. Bokononism is in a constant state of development as its founder thinks of new things to write about, but its main attribute seems to be a sort of shoulder-shrugging fatalism supported by well-meaning but useless aphorisms, a playful lexicon, and a bizarre foot ritual. Frank offers Jonah the Presidency of San Lorenzo upon Monzano's imminent death, simply because no one else wants the job. Unfortunately, a few stray samples of ice-nine and an ill-fated air show spell disaster for not only Jonah's lucrative new position, but the world.
Note the modern implications of what the defense industry today calls "technology transfer" -- sure, ice-nine kills every living thing that touches it, but it has practical uses like solidifying muddy roads for military operations. As Vonnegut feels that writers are society's canaries in a coal mine, this novel is like a big red flashing warning signal to the powers that be, not that they'd heed it, and besides, it's too late already. What else is there to do but laugh?
Book Review: A Magical Mystery Tour!
Summary: 5 Stars
I once heard Kurt Vonnegut speak at a commencement ceremony at a Bennington College in Vermont in 1970, when his daughter was graduating with a bachelor's degree. He spoke quite eloquently about what graduates should do with their lives, and I remember parts of that wonderful speech as if it were yesterday. Indeed, Kurt Vonnegut is a writer of prodigious talents, a visionary seer disguised as an ordinary man, a contemporary wise man who speaks to us in amusing yet frightening allegories about the nature of contemporary man and the absurd technological culture he lives in today. This book, "Cat's Cradle", is among his finest novels, like most of his others, a work combining a wry sensibility with an amusing ability to confect sweet sounding yet bitter-tasting tales of mayhem and woe. The plot of Cats Cradle is pure science fiction, and revolves around work to create a way to help American tanks more mobile in rain soaked and muddy circumstances, when such an ability to transverse the impossible terrain would give our guys in their tanks an overwhelming advantage over their evil foes. Our protagonist is a scientist working on isotope of water (called Ice -9) that has the ability to crystallize water into a unique form of ice that does not need freezing temperatures to crystallize. With such a capability, the Army could solidify the water in the mud, making it firm and allowing our tanks to roll over it with impunity. The problem is that once introduced into the ground, the compound has untoward effects no one had considered. And the basis for the cautionary tale is spun.
All of this is just the premise that allows Vonnegut to explore the far reaches of human behavior and the insane ways in which our culture is operating. It is a brilliant work, one that delves into the deep recesses of what we are, why we are that way, and where we seem to be going. It is at once a satire, a running commentary on the nature of our institutions, and the way in which we lie, cheat, and pretend to be people we are not, and as in his wild and wacky novel "Mother Night", shows why you should be afraid of who it is you are pretending to be, for it may come back to haunt you. This book literally explodes with a plethora of stinging insights into contemporary society, and constitutes a brilliant, albeit ironic, diagnosis of what a contradiction it is to be a human being trying to live a sane life in an insane world. This really is magical mystery tour, and one that will take your breath away. Enjoy!