Player Piano (original 1952; edition 1976)

2.5/5

Trovo che Vonnegutt abbia scritto dei romanzi fantastici, questo suo primo lavoro, però, non raggiunge le vette toccate da Cat's Cradle etc..
L'idea: in una America del dopo guerra la società è retta dagli ingegneri che, ideando macchine di ogni genere, hanno reso facile la vita dell'uomo medio. Talmente facile che l'uomo medio non fa nulla, ci pensano le macchine. Vonnegut affronta l'aspetto sociologico di questo possibile futuro seguendo diverse figure: quella ricorrente di Paul, ingegnere senza attaccamento per il proprio lavoro, e altre, alcune sovversive, altre conservative.
L'idea è buona, però rispetto a altri romanzi dello scrittore la narrazione è sotto tono: manca l'enfatizzazione delle assurdità umane.

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I think that Vonnegut wrote amazing novels, however this one is not good as Cat's Cradle etc..
The idea is that in a post-war America society is ruled by engineers who, creating every kind of machines, allowed an easy life to the whole population. In fact people do nothing at all since the machines provide to every need. Vonnegut analyses the sociologic point of view of this setting following various characters: Paul, an engineer who does not love his work anymore, and others, some subversive, some conservative.
The idea is good, but the narration could be much better: it lacks the emphasis on human absurd behavior.
( )

Player Piano was Vonnegut's first novel, and while many of the themes that populate his work are present here the execution is lacking. Actually, less "lacking" and more "nonexistent." Probably the greatest problem with the work is that it is dystopian fiction, but the dystopia presented is not so much terrifying or brutal as boring and soul-sucking, populated with characters that are superficial and uninteresting. Well, it is hard to write an interesting plot about such an uninteresting society. Even in his greatest works, Vonnegut was never spectacular with characterization, relying instead on fantastical places and plot points. Lacking the fantastical, Player Piano just spins its wheels in place for pages and pages, with little action and nothing but the bland ruminations of Dr. Paul Proteus to attempt to entertain us. There are some amusing aside chapters about the tour of one Shah of Bratpuhr through the dystopian United States, but they don't have much to do with anything and end up repeating themselves before long. In the last 60 or so pages, Vonnegut attempts to pull together something resembling a plot, but it is far too late and everything comes together far too fast to seem plausible, and even then it ends not with bang but a whimper. I can only recommend Player Piano to the Vonnegut fan who must read everything. Everyone else should probably stay away. ( )

Perhaps a bit longer than it really needed to be, and a little less biting than the majority of his work, but I enjoyed it regardless. ( )

Somehow this one managed to be both the least entertaining and most relevant of the Vonnegut novels I've read so far. ( )

In this, Vonnegut's first novel, Dr. Paul Proteus lives in a futuristic dystopia in which everything is automated so that humans no longer have to work or even think except for the engineers and managers who have become the second highest class of society second only to the machines themselves. Meanwhile, a group of revolutionaries are trying to bring down this system in order to bring back pride and human dignity to those who have been replaced by machines. Despite having been written sixty years ago, I found this book to be very timely in an era in which many Americans have lost jobs to either machines or foreign workers. In many ways, Vonnegut's book is a very prescient look at our world today.

This prescience extends beyond the loss of meaningful work for many Americans. Vonnegut also foresees many of the advancements that have been made in the tools we use in our everyday lives. For example, the non-engineering/managing class has been made content in the novel through having 40 inch TVs in every room, and their lives have been made easier through having "radar ranges," which are basically microwave ovens. In the novel, these things are provided for the populace in order to keep them content in the new role that machines play in society. It brings to mind how many Americans today are more interested in American Idol than in current events.

Despite being his first novel, this book also does not lack any of Vonnegut's trademark wit and satire. There are parts that are laugh out loud funny, and Vonnegut is such a good story teller that I found that I could not put the book down for want of finding out what would happen next. This is typical of a Vonnegut novel for me, and it seems that he possessed this trait way back in 1952. While this novel may not be as famous as later novels such as "Slaughterhouse Five" or "Cat's Cradle," I found this novel to be every bit as engaging as those two. ( )