Book: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

[Erudite]

Title: Cat's Cradle
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Genre: Science Fiction
Suitable for: not recommended
pages: around 200

Kurt Vonnegut is an author whose stuff usually makes you really think. He is the author of the short story Harrison Bergeron which is fantastic for making you think about the beauty of differences between us all. I'd never read Cat's Cradle but wanted to read more of Vonnegut, so I picked it up at the library.

It is told from the perspective of a journalist who is tracking down information for his book. In the process he meets a dysfunctional family and ends up on an island with them and several other interesting characters. The children of this family have a chemical that can turn water to ice in an instant.

It starts off dumb, becomes mildly immoral, gets dumber when they get to the island, and ends stupidly. I can't recommend the book at all. There is supposed to be some subtle satire in there...it's in the title "cat's cradle" which is a reference to the string game where there are x's made with each iteration of the string around the fingers. The character says "see? No cat, no cradle" as a look at the pointlessness of life. That also, in my opinion, makes the book pointless. This is one you can just avoid.

[Erudite]

I decided to give Vonnegut another chance and picked another of his called Timequake. Great title, right? The overview said it was about a timequake where people are jolted back 10 years and are forced to live the same ten years over, making the exact same mistakes they'd made the first time. And then at the end of the 10 years, they don't know what to do with themselves when they have their freewill again. Sounds interesting, right?

I only read about 70 pages of this one before I gave up. From what I read, it appeared to be various musings of the author about various topics which seemed to have nothing to do WHATSOEVER with a Timequake. It was VERY disappointing.

I still like the Harrison Bergeron short story, but Vonnegut novels get no more chances without a specific recommendation.