We Are What We Pretend To Be: The First and Last Works

The first story, "Basic Training," was something of a gem, if only to witness a frayed and undeveloped Vonnegut still finding his voice. The story itself is fine, if lacking Vonnegut's usual wit, but it is a harmless pleasure and a formative step in his writing career. With that and daughter Nanette's introduction, all this collection had to do was provide a tragically short glimpse at the chapters of his unfinished last novel and I would surrender a 3 or 4 star rating. Instead, the few chapters I read of "If God Were Alive Today" are as much of a step backward for Vonnegut as "Basic Training" was a step forward. I mean, the glimpse into his creative process is still appreciated, but what a clunker. All of the protagonist-comedian's show more jokes fall flat. Why does the he keep quoting Vonnegut? Even if the recycled lines are meant to be self-aware, they just come off as lazy in this unfinished draft. I think that is the problem with the unpublished works in this collection: the early work is charming for its youth, the late work is depressing for having never been edited, much less completed. show less

I read my most recent Kurt Vonnegut novel under eerily similar circumstances. I'd just left my wife and was going back to school, about this time two years ago when I'd read The Monkey House. Thankfully, we now have an immigration lawyer so that part of my life should be moving along smoothly soon.

... random aside! The book itself.

I enjoyed the two pieces in this collection. It was interesting to read his first and last work together. I feel like Vonnegut writes his characters so compassionately because there is often a part of his stories that is autobiographical. I would urge anyone who wants to read this collection not to skip the foreword because it really helped give me some insight.

Interestingly though, these two stories could not show more be more different. The first is a warm, melancholy little novella written by a young Vonnegut about a young man who spent his time in the country. The second piece is an unfinished novel with an antagonistic comedian character, in all Kurt's deadpan black humour, full of that trademark satire of a restless romantic, a hopeless cynic and a totally mad scientist.

I loved the first piece, but struggled to understand some of the second piece. Some of it just went right over my head but I feel like that's my perceptions as a reader more than a fault on Vonnegut's part.

Some people are recommending this for hardcore Vonnegut fans only and I guess that makes me a hardcore Vonnegut fan.

Thanks, Kurt, for making my days a little less lonely and a little more gentle. show less

Re-read. This 'work' always fascinates me because it contains Vonnegut's first (unpublished) written work and his last (unpublished) before dying. Written nearly 50 some years apart. The first is so optimistic and even written in kind of a 'naive' manner; whereas the last piece is so cynical. It's probably Vonnegut at his most vulgar and skeptic and cynical of the US and of humans in general. The two works are such a contrast.

I would have given Kurt Vonnegut's final fiction piece a higher rating if he didn't seem so cranky. Whereas there was always sweet undertone to his other novels and short stories, IF GOD WERE ALIVE TODAY just felt mean. Also, it could have ended on an incredible note, but I guess Mr. Vonnegut wrote a few more pages before he died, so the finale was kind of abrupt. Had it ended on the previous chapter, it could have been viewed as a masterfully stroke. The first novella was fine and enjoyable, but certainly lacked much of Vonnegut's later dark wit. Still, I preferred that to his last work.

This book has both Vonnegut's first and last works, which were published posthumously. The first is a very sweet story about a boy who goes to work on the farm of some relative's after his parents died. The second is about a middle aged comedian. What is interesting about these two stories is how different they are. In Vonnegut's first work, he hasn't found his voice yet, and it could be a novel written by anyone. In his last, the reader gets to experience Vonnegut's trademark wit and dark sense of humor. While neither novella is great, they are at least enjoyable and provide a glimpse at the growth of a writer over time.

The idea behind this was that they would publish the first and last works of Kurt Vonnegut. The first, a novella, is very barebones. It moves at a steady pace but there's a level of disconnect, very little flavor to the writing. The plot is slightly predictable but still fairly well-conceived. The second half is a meandering character study of a stand up comedian who seems to be dealing with his contempt for the world by trying to make it laugh. The writing was infinitely more interesting, but appeared to be treading water. It wasn't until the last sentence of the unfinished story that my interest was fully piqued and I could see the story actually heading somewhere.

Together these pieces feel very off-kilter. Obviously the stories were show more separated by a lifetime of work, and they feel like they were written by different people. The second half may have become a great story in time, but it just wasn't developed (obviously, since it was left unfinished). This book is interesting if you have a fascination with Vonnegut and want to read every word he wrote. Otherwise it's not the most worthwhile excursion. show less

Easy read on the way from Philadelphia to NYC on the Amtrak. The first story was clearly early V: well-written, with good character development, but lacking any bite. The last (last!) story was clearly later V, but without polish--a draft that was not nearly ready for publication. Bittersweet.