Cat's Cradle: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Cat's Cradle: A Novel
Book Review: The End of the World
Summary: 4 Stars
The book Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is about 180 pages published by Dell, this is the first time I've read anything by Vonnegut. I thought it was such a disturbing book. Everything I've heard about him, though, seems to be true. He's a brilliant satirist. Well, this is a story, a satirical effusion of sarcasm, about that subject - The End of the World. The irony here is that the guy who was really the father of the atomic bomb didn't wipe out the earth on his first try using the fiery, nuclear holocaust. So he tries again with this substance called Ice-9, with spectacularly better results. I thought it was a very incomplete yet complex story portraying the end of the world, yet I still found it enjoyable. War, religion, capitalism, Americanism and the implied hatred that the entire world has for it, politics -- Human Nature are all targets of Vonnegut's caustic satire. It's an interesting story, but it's more interesting as a macabre, yet humorous, linguistic feast. As I read this book I couldn't help thinking of that Robert Frost poem, Fire and Ice. You know... Some say the world will end in fire, some say in Ice. I thought this was appropriate considering the man behind the atomic bomb was like an attempt to end the world in fire, and Ice-9 was like an attempt using Ice, yet all done by the same man. In the end I found that this book was an excellent read, at least once. While it has the potential to be a favorite re-read, I would not give it overwhelming praise such as guaranteeing it. I found some parts humorous and others quite depressing, but it was well written and had a fairly easily followed plot, if not incomplete. So I would recommend you definitely read this book for yourself, and you be the judge, don't just take my word for it.Book Review: Superb, but probably not for the faint of heart
Summary: 5 Stars
The relative lack of solid character development alone might scare off the type of reader who feels compelled to know the protagonist's favorite kind of vegetable spread as much as the underlying premise of the story itself, but in what is easily Vonnegut's most concise verbal bitchslap of organized religion and the perils of modern technology, don't expect a warm fuzzy feeling upon completion.
Now, I wasn't even a twinkle in my old man's eye when this book was written, but the apocalyptic, (most likely) Cold War-inspired storyline upon first glance seems similar in tone to some other pieces from that general time period. In "Cat's Cradle", Vonnegut is quite successful in a short period of time (this is a quick read) to churn many of the constant fears in the modern world and turn them into an intelligent, cogent storyline that is in fact rather direct in its delivery. Many writers and many stories have touched on these topics but often delve (usually unintentionally) into sounding "preachy" and "overzealous". Vonnegut's wit and humor allows an otherwise mad genius to spin a tale as if Kurt himself is your friend, and not a fanatical know-it-all professor.
Again; the concept of scientific progress causing the slow but apparent evaporation of the very humanistic element we pride ourselves on as a species is far from groundbreaking. However, to do so and wrap it around such biting political and social satire (to create and explain "bokonism" seemingly on such a whim is simply...awesome) is another thing entirely.
The story itself is both humorous and rather appropriate for the times. Futhermore, as I hint in the above title, this is one of the darkest books I've ever read, but it should be.
Book Review: Topsy-Turvy world of human thinking err....halucination
Summary: 5 Stars
Using ridiculous concepts and items such as ice-nine, an island run by a peaceful demagogue, the invention of Bokonism but it's banning in the public sphere in order to reinforce it's name and aims into people's minds, and the numerous questionable career practices people engage in from Ruler's whore, to Ukrainiane's midget exploitation of trade secrets through a love affair, to heir of the ice-nine throne, Cat's cradle utilizes these somewhat phantasmagoric items and ties them in to a workable, though absurd environment with absurd and warped thinking about interpersonal relations and how status and symbols play into them.Sounds kinda like our world, eh??? In fact, it's very analogous to our world and just as a cat is easily amused and full of schizonphrenic ponderings over a cradles motive and purpose, we humans jump around at once significant and then insignificant images and movements through vast re-interpretations relative to the socio-historical context of the times. Once thinking that we've found our quenchable thirst for play and/or food by capuring that pattern of yarn strung together to form a cradle, it is morphed into a new dimension of complexity and mysteriousness.
Instead of releasing that which is patently false and which can destroy us (i.e. ice-nine), we humans hold on to these farcical notions. Maybe the key is to create our own farcical analogies and conceptual vision of reality to makes sense of the underlying farcical framework upon which we are evolving. This is what Vonnegut has once again done expertly.
"Life is all but a game", and as with anything it's not about the result but the journey traveled in playing that game and dealing with the competition, our own farcical, subconscious conceptions!
Book Review: RATE ME HELPFUL
Summary: 5 Stars
Cat's Cradle was an intriguing and thought-provoking book, but it was rather dark. Throughout this book, author Kurt Vonnegut shows his morbid view of the world, including a dystopia and a ninth ring of hell. The story is about how the narrator, an author who is writing a book about the atomic bomb, meets the children of one of the scientists who helped build the atomic bomb. Little does the author know that the scientist had created something much more dangerous than the atomic bomb. His fate becomes entwined with the children, a midget, an introspective genius model builder, and a clarinet prodigy, and he witnesses the end of the world as the powerful weapon, ice nine, freezes all the water in the world.
Vonnegut comes up with brilliant ideas as well as sneaking in his own advice on living through the holy man Bokonon, whose self titled religion has poems, songs, and scriptures throughout the book. The author vividly shows his prediction of the future in this book, and through his eyes, there is no hope for mankind. As a warning, this book might disturb more sensitive readers and is most definitely not a children's book. Also, Vonnegut has the bad habit of going off on a tangent that is not always necessary. Vonnegut uses the narrator/author named John as a representative for himself, such as both of them went to Cornell College and were members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.
Kurt Vonnegut was a soldier and prisoner of war in World War 2, and was one of the survivors of the Dresden bombing, which was the theme for his other book, Slaughterhouse-Five. His mother also committed suicide on mother's day when he was 22, which might have helped give his writing the macabre twang it has.
Book Review: An Amazing Story - A Real Page Turner
Summary: 5 Stars
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut gets 5 stars from me.
Once you start reading Cat's Cradle, you will not be able to put it down. The adventure Jonah, the main character, goes through in the story is hilarious and entertaining. Jonah wants to find information for a book he intends to write about the day the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Japan when he comes across a doomsday device called ice-nine. This sends him on a rather unique journey to rather unique places. Jonah discovers a new religion, Bokononism, that is supposed to be outrageous but seems to make perfect sense. As it happened, or as Bokonon would say it, "As it was supposed to happen", Jonah journeyed to an island called San Lorenzo, of which he becomes president. I cannot explain the entire plot of the book, but you wouldn't want me to anyway, would you?
Among the many characters in Cat's Cradle are the Hoenikkers. First there's Felix Hoenikker, the father of the A-bomb. Jonah wants to research him for his book when he met his children. Newton Hoenikker is the midget-son of Felix who Jonah befriends. Frank Hoenikker is mysterious; he has not been seen for awhile. Angela Hoenikker, the only woman in the family, was like a mother to the boys. She did not have much of a life of her own. The three Hoenikkers have the world's supply of the doomsday device, ice-nine. All Jonah wants is to get his hands on it. What role will ice-nine play in the book? That one you will have to find out for yourself. If you read this book, you will enjoy it for sure.
Other books I reccommend are Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut and 1984 by George Orwell. I am a seventh-grader in North Carolina who loves sports.