Like a fine wine, this has aged quite nicely

books:


	• Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut Dell Publishing, 1998 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 372 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Nice, Nice, Very Nice

"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing."

Having just finished reading and loving Slaughterhouse-Five, I wanted to move on to other Vonnegut works. I picked up Cat's Cradle a couple days later, and couldn't put it down. I was hooked from the beginning. I didn't find this book nearly as witty as Slaughterhouse Five, but I wasn't expecting it to be. It's an engaging look at the ultimate futility of mankind to make the right choices at the right times. The story is also filled with themes and morals for the reader to discover (e.g. ice-nine was created to put an end to mud, and the Bokononist cosmogony says God created man from mud).

I'm not sure which I liked better, this or Slaughterhouse Five; the only thing that I know for sure is that I will be getting another Vonnegut book as soon as possible.

for more information click here

Like a fine wine, this has aged quite nicely

I read Cat's Cradle back in the mid-'80s when I was in high school, and I liked it. On a whim, I dug it out to see what I'd think of it now that I have a few decades of pessimism under my belt. The verdict: it held up quite well, and I remembered why I went on a Vonnegut spree 20 years ago.

This is not a book for everyone, especially those who prefer "feel good" fluff. This is a dark comedy, and such things are an acquired taste. Likewise, this is not a book that you read for the plot so much as for its character studies and (especially) its social commentary.

Some of the impact of this book will quite likely be lost on younger readers who are not hip to the social circumstances of when it was written. Much in the same way as new viewers of Citizen Kane or readers of On The Road often go "what's the big deal?", Cat's Cradle is best enjoyed if you take into account what was available (and "acceptable") by comparrison in its contemporary setting. Certainly, America has its share of sardonic authors blasting the complascency bubble (Twain and Bierce, for instance) but Vonnegut shrewdly skewered the copascetic bubble of the early '60s in a way that was either shocking or refreshing, depending on your mind-set. Such things have increasingly become the norm, but Vonnegut was at the vanguard, and I think many authors delving into dark comedy and social parody take their cues from him.

Vonnegut's prose is a pleasure to read, full of wit, wry descriptions, and a "voice" that just flows off the page. This is also a quick read that quite likely will lull you in and make you want to go just one more chapter before stopping for the night.

Highly recommended.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

My favorite reads (not disappointments like "War and Peace")
Great reads - good characters, good plotting, good writing.
Great Novels and Study Questions @ NovelStudyQs.com
My spleen just spontaneously combusted
Chuck Palahniuk and Friends

search for books
cat's cradle, cradle

Impressum / about us