Sarah's review
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
I had read many of the stories in this book before, such as the famous "Harrison Bergeron" but had never gotten around to reading the whole collection. My loss. The copy I have is dog-eared and marked up with some past reader's ideas of Very Important Concepts, which somehow added to the experience. I had assumed that most of the collection would be high concept, like Harrison Bergeron and the title story; much of it is. However, I forgot how human and heart-wrenching his writing can be, even (and maybe especially) within the big science fiction ideas.
Some of the stories explore concepts that are dated, but most of them are eerily prescient. "All the King's Horses" and "The Manned Missles" should be required reading for everyone in politics or the military; while they are clearly products of the Cold War, the underlining themes are universal. "Long Walk to Forever" and "The Foster Portfolio" "Epicac" and "Adam"...more
Some of the stories explore concepts that are dated, but most of them are eerily prescient. "All the King's Horses" and "The Manned Missles" should be required reading for everyone in politics or the military; while they are clearly products of the Cold War, the underlining themes are universal. "Long Walk to Forever" and "The Foster Portfolio" "Epicac" and "Adam"...more
