Fact is allegedly stranger than fiction. With the likes of mad scientists, dancing Ukrainian midgets, possessed clarinet players and granfalloons (you have to read the book to understand the last one) Vonnegut captured this concept in his fable of flawed antiheroes and comedic tragedy.

We follow the path of a journalist, researching the scientist who invented the a-bomb. Curious about how he must have felt on the day it was dropped on Hiroshima, he pursues the orphaned children of said scientist. His pursuit takes us all to a Caribbean island: the home of Bokononism, a forbidden religion seemingly guilt-free and self-professedly full of bulls**t.

With his bleak view of humankind and deft use of black humour, I sometimes felt almost guilty for laughing. Something akin to watching a YouTube video of a guy taking a football to the crotch. After all, it's the stupidity and self-induced misfortune of his characters that give the story its sense of feasibility. The kind of stupidity we read about in newspapers every day. It's even more relevant now than when it was written, which goes to show how pitifully predictable we are as a race, and possibly only getting stupider the longer we survive. As the book of Bokonon says: "History. Read it and weep!'

I just reread this book; it's been on my top five favorites list for over a decade and needed to be refreshed. My memory seems to have played it up in my mind because Bokononism (while it was my official Facebook profile religion for a few years) is not as clever as I remembered. The characters were still classically flawed and utterly, accurately human in their inhumanity. A book you put down and at the end say, "That's a grotesque definition of our race. But completely true."

A unique read and my first attempt on Kurt Vonnegut's.

I loved the concept of self-made religion- Bokononism and the foma that made so much sense. The way the author juxtaposes science and religion is thought provoking. Few pages on, the simplest explanation of 'ice-nine' to Jonah, blew my mind! Although, bits and pieces of his writing was difficult to comprehend, the book is an interesting read and the climax (apocalypse) is frightening.

Kurt Vonnegut is a genius. He is admirable for his human way of opinions on arts and life better than anyone else.

I really enjoyed reading Cat's Cradle. It took about a week to read, the pages turned faster than any book I've read before. The story seems straight forward enough, following an author as he tries to gather information about the creator of the atom bomb, and suddenly takes a turn towards the apocalypse. The book is filled with religious sayings from the religion of this world, and the one towards the end that is a pretty good summary of the book is this:

In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.
And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.
"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.
"Certainly," said man.
"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God. And He went away.

This book was interesting, but not my favorite Vonnegut. It's told from an interesting 1st person perspective, as the narrator is not really the protagonist, and merely observes as the plot progresses. Typical Vonnegut perspective, without the typical depth of thought.

I read slaughterhouse 5 many years ago and although I often get it confused with the other books I was reading at the time I remember it being a worthwhile read.

Having this book come into my possession when I was sick was the best thing that could've happened to it and incidentally myself. I really enjoyed the short chapters (if you can really call them that) for someone like me with a limited attention span to things I struggle to stay on task with some books. That was not the case for this book. I blazed through it in a few sittings.

I also appreciated the authors liberal spattering of gibberish throughout the book initially it seems like a crutch in order to convey some of the information but as the book reaches it's climax all the pieces begin to come together.

I've since read Breakfast of Champions which I also enjoyed but not as much as this one. I plan to read more Vonnegut in the future.

Addictive and chaotic

A fun read

This book seemed to me a lot like a less polished first draft for Galapagos.

Said Crazy Kurt, "I have this idea for a book where the main character ends up on an island in the Pacific around the time when the world ends, but I'm not sure what else happens." So he tried it two different ways. One came out a 4, the other a 3.

Cat’s Cradle is both clever and condescending and therefore unmistakably Vonnegut. I guess not enough of the dots he made in the story (everything from marriage to sci-fi) connected in the end for me or something however, because although I love this author, this is not my favorite book by him.

Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite author, and this book is probably the reason behind that. I share many of the same world views as Vonnegut, and his satirical writing style is one I try to imitate. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut brings to light world issues such as religion, science, and politics and ties them into an apocalyptic theme. This idea of an apocalypse, in what form it will happen, and how humans will react to it, is one of my favorite things to read and write about. I feel that Vonnegut does a spectacular job of turning it into something humans bring upon themselves by taking science too far, and how they either turn to religion as a reason to accept death, or allow their survival instincts to take over. By making this book a dark comedy, Vonnegut makes his ideas more potent.

I first read this twenty years ago and have just re-read it.

Not in the same class as Slaughterhouse Five, but classic Vonnegut satire nonetheless. Bokonism is definitely a religion for 2012!

You have to read all of Vonnegut to get a perspective on what he was about, Do that and you will be rewarded with a glimpse into a strange mind, much like the mind of Philip K. Dick, another of my favourites.

Worth reading, but read after Slaughterhouse 5 and you will see what I mean.