Caution: If you are new to Vonnegut pass on 'Timequake' for now and start with Cat's Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, or Slaughterhouse-Five. 'Timequake' is Kurt Vonnegut's version of an autobiography. In the prologue Vonnegut explains that he has been working on this novel for the past 10 years, and he just can't finish it. He says, "Yesterday, November 11th [1996], I turned seventy-four. Seventy-four! Johannes Brahms quit composing symphonies when he was fifty-five. Enough! American male novelists have done their best work by then. Enough! Fifty-five is a long time ago for me now. Have pity!"



The premise for the novel is that on February 13th 2001 the universe decides to stop its endless expansion and shrink instead. The result is a timequake in which the year goes back to 1991 and everyone has to live the following 10 years exactly as they had before. No free will. Every decision the same. We have to endure the same suffering and the same joy. It's an interesting idea for a novel, but Vonnegut couldn't get it to go anywhere really and the end result is a hodgepodge of his thoughts and musings on life intermingled with this broken plot line.



When I examine it from a literary perspective, 'Timequake' fails in a lot of ways. There aren't any main characters, except for Kilgore Trout, the long out-of-print science fiction writer who is also Vonnegut's alter-ego, and Kurt Vonnegut himself. There really is no story except for the premise of the timequake. This novel reads a lot like the way a meandering old man talks. It's kind of sad to see Vonnegut show his age like this. All of his creativity is jazzed out. He just doesn't have it anymore and he admits as much. But where 'Timequake' succeeds is that it is such an intimate journey with Kurt Vennegut, himself. He writes about his family, his kids, his current wife and his ex wife, his friends, his memories, and ideas about life, society, and what it all means. And even though he can't put together a fully formed novel anymore, it doesn't mean that he's lost his humor or articulation. I've always found Vonnegut to be very wise. Some say he is a cynic and is bitter about life, but I see so much love and compassion in his writing. He is a realist, in that he sees life for how it is at times...cruel, full of suffering, and from our puny pespective, at times it appears meaningless. But he is also an idealist who believes in humanity and sees all of the joy and love to be experienced in life as well.



'Timequake' is Vonnegut's farewell to his readers, and he reaches out to us in a very sincere way. He says to us: "In 1996, with movies and TV doing such good jobs of holding the attention of literates and illiterates alike, I have to question the value of my very strange, when you think about it, charm school [creative writing]. There is this: Attempted seductions with nothing but words on paper are so cheap for would-be ink-stained Don Jauns or Cleopatras! They don't have to get a bankable actor or actress to commit to the project, and then a bankable director, and so on, and then raise millions and millions of buckareenies from manic-depressive experts on what most people want.



Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer: Many people need desparately to receive this message: "I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them. You are not alone."



There will never be another writer like Vonnegut. Cherish him.