The Vonnegut Reading Group discussion
Is the group reading anything together right now?
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Creep
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Aug 02, 2013 01:01AM
I love Vonnegut and unless I hang out in hipster coffee shops, I never have anyone to talk to about him or his work. Very excited about the group. Is their a book you all are reading at the moment? Thanks!
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I recently discovered I had an unread 'God bless you, Mr Rosewater' from when I bought every single novel of his, so I am reading it for the first time- I was convinced I already had but it is all new to me
That's rad! I did that with Jailbird and Mother Night! Lol. How are you liking it?
I am enjoying it, but am not that far in currently.
I'm slowly working on Welcome to the Monkeyhouse while reading other books. It's great so far dude's a genius!
I had a copy of Slaughterhouse Five for years and finally decided to read it a few weeks ago. That lead me to Cat's Cradle and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, which I just finished. I'm starting Breakfast of Champions now. I don't share Vonnegut's socialistic politics nor his sci-fi leanings, but he is so skilled at satire that I would read the federal tax code if it was written by him. Side note: Mona Aamons Monzano appeared as Beyonce in my imagination, which was a nice treat. Perhaps coincidentally, there is a character in the book with the last name Knowles, which leads me to conclude that Beyonce Knowles is part of Vonnegut's karass, once or twice removed.
Diana, if you can overlook the cliche'd sci fi beginning Sirens of Titan is one of his most philosophical works, an excellent study of human behaviour
Thanks, Jay. Definitely on my list. Getting through Breakfast of Champs now, then I'll start that.
He is definitely one of those authors people feel compelled to absorb once a bit of his writing has seeped in.
I think I'm in the minority here, but I absolutely love Timequake. I go back and listen to the audiobook of Timequake just about once a year. I just finished listening to it for probably the 20th time since it was released back in 97 (I think). I had read a lot of Vonnegut before this, but I wasn't obsessed. Timequake was the book that got me to read the complete catalog. Anyway, I enjoyed hearing it again.
Kevin, I love Timequake! I think it is the first novel he had written since Galapagos that has something holding it together rather than being a memoir (though bluebeard has the contents of the shed). I have read it about 7 times and never fail to love it- he had truly found his style and voice by that point and a lot of it feels almost like a stream of consciousness (I know it was scrapped and reworked)
I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one.
I also love Timequake. I also think some of Kurt's later work was among his best.
This is all encouraging. I have read most of his middle works, widely considered to be his best, and was a little discouraged by the critical reception of his later works. Hopefully, this means I have something to look forward to.
You do. Hocus Pocus and Timequake are both excellent. And many of the inbetween novels (after Breakfast of Champions and before Hocus Pocus) are quite enjoyable as well. It's hard to top Slaughterhouse and BoC, they are literary classics, but there's still a lot of very good work that Vonnegut produced after 50 years old.
