You see the cat? You see the cradle?

Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" is engaging and full of small nuggets of wisdom. Although, perhaps that wisdom is that there is no wisdom, as the entire novel is about how "all of true the things I... tell you are shameless lies" (5).

I think that this element, the fact that everything is a lie, is what makes Vonnegut's book interesting. Especially after reading a novel that was written with the idea of multiple stories in mind, this idea that everything is a lie is fascinating. It's fascinating because of its paradox; everything is a lie because people interpret things differently, causing multiple truths to exist at once, but because multiple truths exist, somewhere the truth exists that this idea itself is a lie. Therefore, everything is simultaneously a truth and a lie. Pretty sweet, right?

If I confused you at all with that, I apologize, but that's pretty much what Cat's Cradle is like. You grapple with the ideas put forward by this book and by the end, they're still murky, unable to be stacked as nicely as ice-nine.

A must read book, and an excellent way to stretch your mind.

I really enjoyed cats cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and look forward to reading some subsequent materials by him. I've read others including slaughterhouse five as well as Galapagos and enjoyed those thoroughly as well. You have to recognize that Kurt Vonnegut is not for everyone but his wit, wisdom and novel way of reframing common perspectives is really striking and refreshing.

Cat’s Cradle is a 1963 novella written by acclaimed satirist and author Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut, a veteran of the Second World War and researcher at General Electric, drew upon the experiences of horror, monotony, and hope to write many of his works. Cat’s Cradle is what he considered to be his masterpiece: a humorous, nihilistic, and depressing statement about the world and its values during the Cold War. The novella highlights the issues surrounding organized religion and the nuclear Arms Race. In typical Vonnegut style, the book opens with the narrator telling the speaker to call him a certain way, an obvious poke at Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. “Jonah” states that his story begins with writing a book about what various American families were doing at the time the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Quickly, the tone of a lighthearted jab at a famous author shifts to the destruction of an entire city and the start of an era of fear. Throughout the book, Vonnegut continues to tell the story in the same way, in order to associate death and destruction with humor. Jonah’s investigations lead him to Dr. Hoenikker, a Manhattan Project scientist and father of several gifted children. By talking with his daughter, Jonah discovers Hoenikker had been working on a substance that would freeze liquid to allow troops to move across mud much more easily. The way this information is delivered greatly understates the destructive capabilities. Vonnegut introduces the substance “Ice Nine” as an analogy to the era’s ever-present threat of nuclear warfare. Jonah travels to the tiny island of San Lorenzo in the Caribbean, where he heard that one of Hoenikker’s sons is about to become leader of the island. San Lorenzo is also home of Bokononism, a strange religion adhering to the tenants of lies and apathy that is outlawed by the island’s military junta. Bokononism is perhaps Cat’s Cradle’s best comment on society. The central points lie in pretending there is a deeper meaning to life to achieve a deeper meaning to life, a vicious critique on organized religion as a whole. Because it is outlawed, the religion is highlighted as a kind of “apple of Eden” for the poor and ignorant island residents to take in order to achieve happiness. In short, the visit to San Lorenzo ends in disaster. Ice-nine is released into the world’s oceans and life ends quietly with a God indifferent to humanity's extinction. A funny, bleak, but ultimately moral tale about human flaws, Cat's Cradle is easily one of my favorite books.

4.5/5

Kurt Vonnegut's writing style is probably the best I've encountered, and while this book does have kind of a strange format (the narrating character is actually not the main character), it is a fantastic little voyage into a world where a cult has taken over an island, and what would happen if the wrong weapon got into the wrong hands.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

“Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't born dead. I never met a man who was less interested in the living. Sometimes I think that's the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead.”

“People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s ever anything really meaningful to say.”

If Kurt Vonnegut sincerely started a religion I would worship to it.

This book is typical Kurt Vonnegut, which is good for him and better than many other authors. All of Vonnegut's favorite themes are here: the stupidity of war, the stupidity of organized religion, and the stupidity of humans. While I recommend it, Slaughterhouse Five is a much better read and accomplishes the same point in a finer manner.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

This was my first time reading a work of Vonnegut. The book leaned into the absurd. I enjoyed how stylized it was; I don't think I've read anything like it. But just like looking into a cat's cradle: 'No damn cat, and no damn cradle.’ -pg. 166

The sentences and chapters were short, but each was densely packed with information. However, finishing it left me with a feeling of emptiness: part of me wanted to laugh and another part wanted to immediately go onto a new book. I'm not sure what I got out of reading the book myself, but I do prefer to discuss works of art after finishing them so I definitely want to discuss it with someone in the future.

Overall I'd recommend this book to someone looking for something absurd and different to break up the monotony of the books they've been reading.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“As Bokonon says: ‘Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.’ “ -pg. 63
“ ‘Americans,’ he said, quoting his wife’s letter to the Times, ‘are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.’ “ -pg. 97
“Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly,
Man got to sit and wonder, ‘Why, why, why?’
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land,
Man got to tell himself he understand.” -pg. 182