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11th out of 38 books
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198 voters
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Slapstick
Slapstick presents an apocalyptic vision as seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States), a wickedly irreverent look at the all-too-possible results of today’s follies. But even the end of life-as-we-know-it is transformed by Kurt Vonnegut’s pen into hilarious farce—a final slapstick that may be the Almighty’s joke on us ...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
April 13th 2010
by Dial Press Trade Paperback
(first published 1970)
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I was amazed with Vonnegut's tour through an apocalyptic world; his mixture of Gothic, science-fiction and comedy.
That said, I stepped toward this reading tentatively, with visions of the horrible Jerry Lewis movie from the 1980s in my head. It was a rental: "Hey! This movie's got Jerry Lewis!" - a man whose cinematic ouevre is unparalleled if you give it a chance, you're 10 and the videocassette market is pretty slim pickings (it was, in the 80s).
So I feare...more
That said, I stepped toward this reading tentatively, with visions of the horrible Jerry Lewis movie from the 1980s in my head. It was a rental: "Hey! This movie's got Jerry Lewis!" - a man whose cinematic ouevre is unparalleled if you give it a chance, you're 10 and the videocassette market is pretty slim pickings (it was, in the 80s).
So I feare...more
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And with that, I learned once again that I was an asshole. I read 'Cat's Cradle' when I was in high school and taking a lot of ecstasy, so I hated everything except the Chemical Brothers. Since I hated Cat's Cradle then, I've assumed that I didn't like Mr Vonnegut for the last, what, dozen years? I only picked this one up 'cause I never see old editions of it and Josh said it's his favorite.
That all sucks. I mean, I don't think he's perfect- I'd remembered his kind of smug, eccentri...more
That all sucks. I mean, I don't think he's perfect- I'd remembered his kind of smug, eccentri...more
At this point I've gotten fairly familiar with Kurt Vonnegut's tone and flavor. The sense of universalism and equality consistently sound as often as his humor and irony rings.
This books reads as a perversion of all four themes.
To me.
Usually Vonnegut's works seem to read with some underlying sense that no matter how bizarre everything seems, no matter how depressing or how inspiring a situation seems, there's always a punchline, and that punchline brings you...more
This books reads as a perversion of all four themes.
To me.
Usually Vonnegut's works seem to read with some underlying sense that no matter how bizarre everything seems, no matter how depressing or how inspiring a situation seems, there's always a punchline, and that punchline brings you...more
Note that I am giving this book a low rating as compared to Vonnegut's other books, and is not necessarily reflective of my opinion of it as a fine work of fiction.
Really, when compared to the similarly-themed Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan, this one just doesn't hold up as well. It boasts a classic Vonnegatian comedic end-of-the-world scenario, but Slapstick just doesn't quite live up to the standard set by his previous novels, and achieved again by later ones. I guess I can...more
Really, when compared to the similarly-themed Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan, this one just doesn't hold up as well. It boasts a classic Vonnegatian comedic end-of-the-world scenario, but Slapstick just doesn't quite live up to the standard set by his previous novels, and achieved again by later ones. I guess I can...more
This one was one of Vonnegut's best. He was creating worlds here, folks. Most specifically, a world---ours.
The narrator happens to be the President of the United States---the LAST one, as a matter of fact.
Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain and his sister, Eliza, have got to be two of the most sympathetic characters KV ever created. Their voices just envelope you and draw you in.
Some of Vonnegut's most ingenious devices & characters are in here---Green Death, the Ho...more
The narrator happens to be the President of the United States---the LAST one, as a matter of fact.
Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain and his sister, Eliza, have got to be two of the most sympathetic characters KV ever created. Their voices just envelope you and draw you in.
Some of Vonnegut's most ingenious devices & characters are in here---Green Death, the Ho...more
Not Vonnegut's best book, but it was a bargain at 25 cents! He says it's the closest thing to an autobiography he was ever likely to write, meaning that it's the memiors of the mutant super-genius former president of the USA, writing from the ruins of what used to be NYC.
Slapstick straddles between trademark weirdness, and the kind of ramblings that one is slightly fearful of when they are delivered in person, over family dinners, shifts at old folks home or in between requests for s...more
Slapstick straddles between trademark weirdness, and the kind of ramblings that one is slightly fearful of when they are delivered in person, over family dinners, shifts at old folks home or in between requests for s...more
Slapstick is a dark, depressing at times, treatise on the nature of humanity and a bizarre look at a potential future told through the unique, creative story of neanderthal genius twins, one of whom becomes President at the time of the apocalyse. At the same time it is also humorous, satirical, surreal, and off the wall in a Cat's Cradle kind of way - with middle name families, shrinking Chinese, erection inducing gravity tides and the Church of Jesus Christ the Kidnapped. The ending is a bit st...more
My long break from Vonnegut after this summer's "Read everything he's ever written!" bonanza was nice - I had tired of the same plot themes over and over and even his writing style, which sometimes borders on lazy. I'm sorry to say that the several months not-reading him did not change my irritation with this book.
That's not to say I don't love the man, because I do, and the main idea of Slapstick - common decency is more important than love - is pretty close to my heart. But...more
That's not to say I don't love the man, because I do, and the main idea of Slapstick - common decency is more important than love - is pretty close to my heart. But...more
One of the things that I've always loved about Vonnegut is how simply he expresses complex ideas. Slapstick is no different. Here, he expands on the ideas of artificial families first imagined in his concepts of karass and duprass... the Swain children may be duprass personified, with their collective brilliance and their intimacy far beyond what is appropriate for siblings. Their isolation, however, is what leads Wilbur to create what could be the anti-karass... families built at random, not br...more
far from his finest outing (and one of two books he self-graded with a 'd'), slapstick is, nonetheless, a fun romp through post-apocalyptic america. with themes of loneliness, alienation, and the empty promises of organized religion, the novel considers ideas that vonnegut developed more fully in other works. slapstick is perhaps more whimsical than his previous books, although its levity contributes significantly to its charm and readability. its incorporation of autobiographical influences ...more
Sigh. Not a Vonnegut classic, but spattered with the usual healthy dose of the elements that make his writing so appealing: innovation, weirdness, humor, eloquent reinvestigation of religion and science and government. This novel, unfortunately, is less neatly constructed than the better ones (Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Galapagos, even God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, of which it resembles the last of that list the most). I love his flights of fancy, but some of the ones in Slapstick fly pas...more
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More, is a self indulgent book by Kurt Vonnegut in his later years. He writes the book as if he's speaking to you, as a friend, in conversation. This style is great for the many Vonnegut fans, it conveys immediacy, friendliness and humour. For people who aren't fans of Vonneguts I wonder what they would make of his addressing his readers so intimately. He drops many of the contraints and conventions in story telling, but picks up other ways to carry the story. If aspiri...more
Not many authors can successfully describe a post apocalyptic world from the perspective of an extremely lonely narrator with a humorous tone. But Kurt Vonnegut can. Slapstick, to me, is vintage Vonnegut. Many people (my friends) claim that this is Vonnegut’s worst effort but I am inclined to disagree. Slapstick tells the tale of a boy who lives a completely unbelievable life, growing up a neanderthal-genius who eventually becomes president of the US and lives through the apocalypse, all the whi...more
Great Fun! It was the first thing I read by Vonnegut and I had never seen something that was so hilarious and terribly cynical at the same time. Maybe Ben Elton is slightly comparable, but he is still too much rooted in reality and doesn't go over the top like Vonnegut. Anyway, 'Slapstick' tells the story of Wilbur and Eliza, two horrid but hyperintelligent freaks who live in a secluded house and think up weird scientific theories about the world (e.g. that the Egyptians were able to build the p...more
My first Vonnegut book. For many years I felt like I should read something by KV as I have always heard great things about him and his writing. Ben suggested I start with this book, so I did. Slapstick was pitched as "hilarious", but I found it to be profoundly sad.
It took me back to Christmas morning in Singapore when I had a conversation with an aunt of two of our friends. She was Singaporean of Chinese ancestry but lived in San Diego, and was back visiting for the ...more
It took me back to Christmas morning in Singapore when I had a conversation with an aunt of two of our friends. She was Singaporean of Chinese ancestry but lived in San Diego, and was back visiting for the ...more
[Quoted from this book:]
To whom it may concern:
It is springtime. It is late afternoon.
Smoke from a cooking fire on the terrazzo floor of the lobby of the Empire State Building on the Island of Death floats out over the ailanthus jungle which Thirty-fourth Street has become.
The pavement on the floor of the jungles is all crinkum- crankum—heaved this way and that by frostheaves and roots.
There is a small clearing in the jungle. A bl...more
To whom it may concern:
It is springtime. It is late afternoon.
Smoke from a cooking fire on the terrazzo floor of the lobby of the Empire State Building on the Island of Death floats out over the ailanthus jungle which Thirty-fourth Street has become.
The pavement on the floor of the jungles is all crinkum- crankum—heaved this way and that by frostheaves and roots.
There is a small clearing in the jungle. A bl...more
Vonnegut at his best. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. At once apocalyptic and whimsical, this book juxtaposed the complete collapse of civilization and a decimated human population with a lovable and lighthearted hideous neanderthal of a main character whose demeanor is endearingly naive and accepting of the extreme circumstances by which he is surrounded. This character, which the prologue clearly establishes as Vonnegut's own image of himself, truly embodies the essence of why I love Ku...more
This is the most absurdist of the Vonnegut novels I've read, and if we are to believe the narrator from the outset, it's easy to understand why. The novel becomes a meditation on human connection and the loss thereof, most notably death, after Vonnegut's sister dies. Family is at the center of the book's themes, and by eschewing familial convention with almost all of his characters, Vonnegut seems to be calling melancholy attention to the connections we make. First, the narrator's family essenti...more
OK, so like Timequake I'd probably have to top this book out at three and a half stars if half stars were an option, but since they're not and this is definitely more than a three star book, I'll go four. To me it's kinda the opposite of Hocus Pocus...that one started out a bit scattered but really got great as it progressed...this one started great and sort of lost steam as it progressed. It may be that the novel is SO heavily science-fiction, MUCH more so than Slaughter-House 5 or even The S...more
That was fun. All the existential angst of Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but none of the tedious Buddhist calm or the superior Hippie moralizing. This was fast, fun, surreal, apocalyptic romp.
The "King of New York" (island of death), who happens to be the last President of the United States regales us with his tales of the decline and fall of Western civilization, the technological and spiritual transcendence of the Chinese, and the development of the "Chu...more
The "King of New York" (island of death), who happens to be the last President of the United States regales us with his tales of the decline and fall of Western civilization, the technological and spiritual transcendence of the Chinese, and the development of the "Chu...more
The apocalyptic result of the implementing utopian ideals, Slapstick is the grotesque tale of the last President of the United States of America. After creating the cure for loneliness, Dr. Wilber Daffodil-11 Swain watches Western civilization collapse while he languishes for the company of his dear twin sister, who died in a mental institution. Absurd and surreal, Slapstick addresses the human tragedy of loneliness, plays with social theory, strips down government, and asks very tough question...more
" ...Eliza and I composed a precocious critique of the Constitution of the united States of America, too. We argued that it was as good a scheme for misery as any, since its success in keeping the common people reasonably happy and proud depended on the strength of the people themselves - and yet it described no practical machinery which would tend to make the people, as opposed to their elected representavies, strong.
We said it was possible that the framers of the Constitution ...more
We said it was possible that the framers of the Constitution ...more
Vonnegut is always a bit strange, isn't he? I picked this book up at a hostel swap library and I read it in an afternoon. It has a bit of the sci-fi quality that he apparently says he doesn't write anymore, but nevertheless, it's there. The book was written in the late 70s, but some of the cultural predictions are, if not accurate, hilarious to read today.
For example, the Chinese genetically develop themselves to be even tinier so that they consume less food. They get down to 6cm in...more
For example, the Chinese genetically develop themselves to be even tinier so that they consume less food. They get down to 6cm in...more
A super tall President holds himself up in the Empire State Building as he watches the apocalypse wearing the veil of "The Green Death" unfold before his eyes, whilst he recollects his estranged childhood and the unfortunate upbringing with his twin sister. A bizarre enough setting for a Vonnegut book to say the least. Although not chalk full of funny bits the way his more popular novels read it holds up with great imagery, unsettling situations and some good old fashioned slapstick hu...more
Vonnegut is, as always, Brilliant. However, this particular work felt a bit rushed compared to some of his other novels. There were quite a few very interesting premises in this book, but I feel like they were cut short before they could really get started, and the ending came entirely too abruptly in my very humble opinion. This is a book I would have loved to see a companion to, or even better, an alternate version: detailing what would have happened if events had gone down slightly differentl...more
I never know how to start these reviews.
Anyways, this book is mostly an account of the life of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain's, the last President of the United States and King of Manhattan, aka the Island of Death. He begins with his childhood, where he is kept in a mansion with his twin sister and many caregivers, who think they are idiots. He then goes on to describe his various careers and endeavors, ending with his arrival in Manhattan.
The events in between are too ridicu...more
Anyways, this book is mostly an account of the life of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain's, the last President of the United States and King of Manhattan, aka the Island of Death. He begins with his childhood, where he is kept in a mansion with his twin sister and many caregivers, who think they are idiots. He then goes on to describe his various careers and endeavors, ending with his arrival in Manhattan.
The events in between are too ridicu...more
The problem I have with most Vonnegut books is that they feel like they've been churned out of a random plot generator machine. I imagine Vonnegut throwing a bunch of scaps in a hat and then challenging himself to string the items together into some sort of book which will then fly off the shelves because he's VONNEGUT, for chrissakes. Sometimes the ideas hang together in interesting and fun ways. Other times they just flop around uselessly, sort of cute but really kind of gross, like a beagl...more
Daniel
marked it as to-read
In these wacky days of ours, one looks for beacons of sanity to make sense of this crazy parade of Life.
Vonnegut makes insanity seem sane.
And "Slaughterhouse 5" is one righteous document. How, Vonnegut asks, does a reasonable Man/Woman respond to un-godly, un-reasonable situations?
3 April '09
Whoops! Seemed to have lost my book. Or rather, the library's book. What's a citizen to do? Keep lookin' I guess...
In the meantime, how ...more
Vonnegut makes insanity seem sane.
And "Slaughterhouse 5" is one righteous document. How, Vonnegut asks, does a reasonable Man/Woman respond to un-godly, un-reasonable situations?
3 April '09
Whoops! Seemed to have lost my book. Or rather, the library's book. What's a citizen to do? Keep lookin' I guess...
In the meantime, how ...more
Hardy fucking ha. Whose laughing now? So this is all just a big joke to you, is it?
Read this book to clarify your notion of what it means to be a decent human being.
This is one of the four, "If you're only going to read Vonnegut once, this is one to read".
Read this book to clarify your notion of what it means to be a decent human being.
This is one of the four, "If you're only going to read Vonnegut once, this is one to read".
This book was something that I read over a couple of plane rides to visit family, and the very idea of family was challenged for me in these pages. The loneliness that is described in such apathetic terms throughout this book is remarkable and reminded me why I love Vonnegut so much. He has a fantastic sense of humor in this book that is suited perfectly for laying out a fatalistic account of a world destroyed by fluctuation in gravity. As always when reading Vonnegut, I end up chewing on his...more
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Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked a...more
More about Kurt Vonnegut...
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked a...more
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