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Slapstick: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut
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Slapstick: A Novel (original 1976; edition 1999)

by Kurt Vonnegut

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4,639442,429 (3.74)34
This hilarious, wickedly irreverent farce presents an apocalyptic vision seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States).
Member:niijii
Title:Slapstick: A Novel
Authors:Kurt Vonnegut
Info:Dial Press Trade Paperback (1999), Paperback, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
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Slapstick, or, Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut (1976)

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» See also 34 mentions

English (43)  Dutch (1)  All languages (44)
Showing 1-5 of 43 (next | show all)
Coincidence: choosing this book including a mysterious disease named ‘The Green Death’ which is actually microscopic Chinese people; invariably fatal when ingested by normal-sized humans. Hi ho!

It is also quite possibly my greatest ever secondhand book find - a first edition Vonnegut ( )
  Dzaowan | Feb 15, 2024 |
“Nations could never acknowledge their own wars as tragedies, but that families not only could but had to.”

At once, this story seems like a dystopianic work of art. But the story from the narrative of an old, ugly, and divorced President of United States with 2-meters height with six fingers and four nipples, also with tons of memories refusing to fade, is actually some rare type of literature work of art with utopianic theme. Yes, Slapstick or Lonesome no More is a story which tells an autobiography of Dr Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain, the President of United States that lived in the lobby of the Empire State Building which in his prime time succeedingly led his nations into a family, without realizing that he was a drug-addict. President Wilbur believed that all evil things the people had done was because they were all lonely and tired with their lonesome. Thus, he created a program for his campaign when he was running for the President.

His campaign was Lonesome No More, a program when everyone get a new middle name from random natural objects with number from 1 to 20. Those with the same middle name have to be a new family under the middle name and all they had to do is to take care of each other as relatives. President Wilbur made this program with his deceased twins sister: Eliza Mellon Swain. Wilbur himself had the sacred middle name in which made him creating the relatives program. Because he and his sister was considered as monsters since they were a child by their own parents and they were exiled from the society since they were a child, Wilbur and Eliza wanted to have a family outside of their own family, so they felt like they belong to something, or to someone.

This story is interesting because as it was told as an autobiography of some old President, but with the prolog of epilogue from Vonnegut, we can tell that he was like creating his own autobiography. Vonnegut was an American author and although he wasn’t a president of USA, putting Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain as a president somehow could make his opinion and critics to be louder. In the story, there were also plagues called “The Albanian Flu” and “The Green Death” which took people’s lives. The source of “The Green Death” later was known as the microscopic Chinese people and the Americans had ingested or inhaled them. In the earlier part of the story it was also told that Wilbur and Eliza’s parents were saying that Chinese defeats Americans in part of intelligences. I believe that it was Vonnegut’s critics about Americans perspectives towards Chinese, while the lonesome-no-more campaign is his hopes for Western civilization, that no matter how bad it will be ruined, humanity could build it back again.

Another amazing part of this story is about Vonnegut’s takes about afterlife, for how boring it is. He didn’t believe that closeness with God would make loneliness erased, so Wilbur chose to erase lonesome as his campaign. ( )
  awwarma | Jan 24, 2024 |
How absurd. The farce of our future. ( )
  KallieGrace | Jan 3, 2024 |
Strange, but captivating. Makes no sense, but it does. The sort of thought-strings I wish I could do. His thoughts are not the same as mine, naturally, but being Vonnegut he makes something of them. Something that makes it enjoyable to read.
  thosgpetri | Apr 22, 2023 |
Absurd and insightful. One of the odder Vonnegut books, no real plot, lots of interesting thoughts.
Hi ho. ( )
  mjhunt | Jan 22, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 43 (next | show all)
A brief outline of this lesser-known novel’s plot will help the listener better understand the interview. Even as children, protagonist Wilbur Swain and his twin Eliza are monstrous in appearance: freakishly tall, awkward, sporting six fingers on each hand, possessed of “Neanderthal features.” Their distressed parents at first consider them of subnormal intelligence, and remain ashamed of them even after the twins reveal their precocious theories about gravity, evolution, and extended families. The parents soon take the advice of an obviously twisted child psychologist and separate the twins. They are of course bereft without each other, but get back together as adults to publish a book on good child rearing. (Vonnegut reveals to Miller that his model for Wilbur Swain was Vonnegut’s friend Dr. Benjamin Spock, of baby-book fame.) Long into the future in a decaying U.S.A., Wilbur runs for president under the slogan “Lonesome no more.” He wins and takes office, but his creation of artificial extended families for every American can’t stop the demise of a society under a twin assault by microscopic Chinese, who have found a way to shrink themselves so they can invisibly invade the U.S. , and by microscopic invading Martians who, when inhaled by humans, give us a disease called the “Green Death.”
added by elenchus | editWNYC, William Rodney Allen (Dec 12, 2013)
 
Whatever it is, one is left feeling empty by "Slapstick," Emptiness, conveyed with grace and style, still amounts to almost nothing. That is why, for all the new chic skill Mr. Vonnegut has brought to his latest novel, it still seems as if he has given up storytelling after all.
 

» Add other authors (11 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Vonnegut, Kurtprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Grupper, AdamNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
"Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd ..."
– Romeo
Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, two angels of my time.
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This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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This hilarious, wickedly irreverent farce presents an apocalyptic vision seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States).

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