Quick Book Reviews Blog

I've already reviewed a couple of his books, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions , but in case you have forgotten about who Kurt Vonnegut was, it suffices to say that he is considered to be one of the world’s greatest literature titans. His works go beyond mundane stories as he seeks to explore concepts, philosophies and ideas through his unique and imaginative scenarios. If you haven’t checked out any of his works, I suggest you do so as fast as possible because you are really missing out on something incredible. In any case, Cat’s Cradle , written in 1963, is considered by many to Kurt’s most ambitious novel as he went way beyond thinking outside the box. He invented new terms (which sadly, aren’t really used today) such as "granfalloon" and "wampeter" . However, the impressive part is that he created an entirely new structured religion he dubbed Boskonism , which he then actually submitted as part of his papers for a Master’s Degree in anthropol...

When Kilgore Trout had finally bit the dust, his tombstone was marked with a phrase which achieved somewhat of a legendary status: "We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane". This brings up a number of questions, such as "what is humane in this context?", what does "healthy" imply, and what exactly happens when our ideas cease to be humane? How does it come to that point?  While these are the kinds of questions you usually won’t get a concrete answer to, Kurt Vonnegut decided to explore the concept of falling into madness in his novel, Breakfast of Champions .

Perhaps somewhat unconventional, Slaughterhouse-Five tells us the famous story of Billy Pilgrim, a veteran of the Second World War and a POW (Prisoner Of War), who has become unstuck in time and is reliving various events of his personal chronology in no particular order… and in some cases, he relives these events simultaneously. The story mostly takes place inside Billy’s head, who after being traumatized by the Dresden bombing drifts through a number of historical events, with his role ranging from a mere witness to someone who is directly implicated in the actions.As is the tradition with Vonnegut books, there is a very large cast of characters, many of which recur time and time again throughout the story.