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Loading... Timequakeby Kurt Vonnegut
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. i just finished this this book. i think that vonnegut is hilarious. this book made me think and wonder why he made this book. it makes me sad that he has passed away : ( this book did confuse me a bit not being able to really follow the time quakes. but still an interesting book. i loved it ( )Paper-thin plot, but interesting enough in its own mostly-autobiographical way. Poignant and beautiful at times, but Mr. Vonnegut mostly just comes across as curmudgeonly old man. But then I guess he was at this point. My reading of this book came almost exclusively by accident -- from my father's generosity in buying it for me to my inexplicable need to pick it up just as I was to go to sleep last night. Needless to say, as I've read it in less than 24 hours, it was a very happy accident. This is a different breed of Vonnegut, a Vonnegut that is as funny as he's ever been, but more caustic too. In salvaging a failed novel by interspersing its summation with ruminations on his life and characters, Vonnegut has created a living, breathing memorial to himself that's filled with the kind of humor, pathos, satire, scathing commentary, and pithy wisdom we've come to expect. This is a battle-hardened Vonnegut, an angry but wizened Vonnegut, and it's among the very best Vonnegut there is. Mr. Vonnegut has delved into the territory of the cranky old man. 0.053 seconds to build listing
Anyway, we should salute Vonnegut for giving us this, even if, as he suggests, he just tossed it off. It's not just his will that's free, but his mind. Timequake, both all over the place and perfectly fixed at the same time, is a sure-footed exemplar of the dictum that appears on page 191: 'Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!'
Amazon.com (ISBN 0399137378, Hardcover)Think of Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut's 19th and last novel (or so he says), as a victory lap. It's a confident final trot 'round the track by one of the greats of postwar American literature. After 40 years of practice, Vonnegut's got his schtick down cold, and it's a pleasure--if a slightly tame one--to watch him go through his paces one more time.Timequake's a mongrel; it is half novel, half memoir, the project of a decade's worth of writer's block, a book "that didn't want to be written." The premise is standard-issue Vonnegut: "...a timequake, a sudden glitch in the space-time continuum, made everybody and everything do exactly what they'd done during past decades, for good or ill, a second time..." Simultaneously, the author's favorite tricks are on display--frequent visits with the shopworn science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a Hitchcockian appearance by the author at the book's end, and frequent authorial opining on love, war, and society. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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