Hard not to fall in love with Vonnegut every time

This collection of early shorts from Vonnegut is, by his own admission, not representative of his more developed material. However, for the fan or completionist, it is a pleasant read. There are some anachronistic attitudes uncharacteristic of the author, but those familiar with fiction of the era will not find anything especially problematic, and in fact, it is clear that Vonnegut was a progressive (or at least less regressive) thinker, even in his youth, especially when you compare this to the contemporaneous pulp fiction of other well known authors.

Most of the stories end in rather predictable ways, and there is less of the wry wit Vonnegut fans will expect. Still, there is a familiar charm throughout, and fans of the author will feel reasonably at home in this collection.

what if a astronaut hears voices of the dead during his earth orbits.spooky !!!

დაძაბულ და სიტყვისმღვრელ ბრძოლაში მთარგმნელი დამარცხდა და დიდი მცდელობის მიუხედავად, მაინც ვერ შეძლო შემდეგი მოთხრობების გაფუჭება:

- სუვენირი
- სათუთუნე ბაგომბოდან
- 2BR02B
- მნემონიკა

და რამდენიმე სხვასაც არა უშავდა.

These stories are drawn from Vonnegut's career writing for magazines at the end of what he described as the golden age of short story magazines that lasted for some 50 years until around 1953 when television became the people's entertainment. He said the audience for short stories was uncritical and it was a seller's market as there were so many magazines. Agents and editors were great at helping writers to adjust stories to fit what people wanted and it led to ---

Creative Writing 101 according to Vonnegut:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. For Vonnegut, it was his sister Amie that he wrote for.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Of course, Vonnegut admits that the best short story writer of his generation, Flannery O'Connor broke all of the rules except #1 and #7. Great writers tend to do that.

Elsewhere I read that the hallmark of this era of short stories was the "mousetrap," -- Guide the reader towards a surprise ending which would reveal the point.

"Welcome to the Monkey House" was the first compilation of his short stories, so these are "second fiddle" picks of other published, but not anthologized stories. The "stand outs:"

Any Reasonable Offer - Funny story about a man and wife of modest means who pretend to be big money people and wish to stay awhile in the homes they consider purchasing. They live high on the hog and then move on.

The Package - A man is so proud to have worked all his life to great fortune and now retire to a house made up of gadgets, all the sophistication of American life. An old school mate comes whom he wishes to show up, treats him shabbily, only to find out that that man had devoted his life to charity. He ends the story pushing buttons wishing there were one to start the day all over again. It would seem he would like to do his life all over again as well.

Poor Little Rich Town - Also an argument against the materialism and progress of America in the 1950's. A small town at first welcomes an efficiency expert only to find that they are losing their sense of community in the process.

The Souvenir - Exceptionally well-written story of how a soldier came by a watch at the close of World War II.

Bagombo Snuffbox - Also crafted with skill. A man visits his ex-wife in an effort to show her that his need to move about has led him to an exciting life of world travel. He brings with him a snuffbox from Bagombo, Ceylon as a gift. The woman's nine year old son points out that it was made in Japan and claims that Ceylon is off of Africa. The man who has no sense of geography, agrees but flees the home when they decide to check an atlas. At the close he calls his second wife. Turns out his life is exactly like his first wife's. He sells potato chips. Vonnegut gave us a clue to the ruse. The man probably meant Colombo, Ceylon.

Der Arme Dolmetscher - The poor translator - Funny story of the incompetence of the army. While told in the first person, I'm not sure if it is autobiographical. A soldier is overheard repeating the only line of German he knows. He is immediately promoted to be a translator, just in time to be captured in the battle of the Bulge. Fortunately, he had a cheat sheet so he knew "don't shoot."

The most common themes here are that materialism does not buy one happiness and people need to be authentic. Not as deep as Vonnegut's other work, but entertaining nonetheless.

I guess Vonnegut is known mostly for his novels, but I've always been a big fan of his short fiction. No one else seems to pack such vitality into so few pages, and this collection really highlights his versatility.

Some of the stories are humorous - a realtor learns a thing or two from some prospective buyers, a town comes to regret embracing an efficiency expert, and a mob Santa Claus receives a special present.

And some are bittersweet - a man attempts to pawn a wartime souvenir, a school band director learns there's more to life than winning competitions.

Two of the standouts showcase Vonnegut's mastery of science fiction.

In Thanasphere, the Air Force receives this message from their man in deep space:

"A child," said the Major. "I hear a child crying. Don't you hear it?"

That line still gives me goosebumps, and is as chilling as anything Stephen King ever wrote.

2BRO2B tells of a future world where old age, death, and disease have been conquered. And everything works out fine, until someone has a baby:

"Triplets!" she said. She was exclaiming over the legal implications of triplets.

The law said that no newborn child could survive unless the parents of the child could find someone who would volunteer to die. Triplets, if they were all to live, called for three volunteers.

Vonnegut provides a wonderful introduction to the book, waxing nostalgic about the early 1950s and the heyday of the short story.

There was a crazy seller's market for short stories in 1950. There were four weekly magazines that published three or more of the things in every issue. Six monthlies did the same.

That seems almost unimaginable today. Short stories are still out there. It's harder to find them these days. But it's definitely worth the effort.

There are on many campuses, moreover, local papers, weeklies or monthlies, that publish short stories but cannot pay for them. What the heck, practicing an art isn't a way to earn money.
It's a way to make one's soul grow.

Really enjoyed so many of these. Thank you Kurt Vonnegut :~) I listened to most of this while walking to Maryland which was a fun experience.

Úžasné povídky od úžasného autora.

Vonnegut is funny, clever, sad--from page to page one never can be sure what is next other than a good read in each story!

Classic early Vonnegut stories. The stories are generally fairly straightforward in narrative style, and often quite funny. To be honest, I think Vonnegut is a fine short story writer, but nothing very special, especially the early works. They’re interesting for the most part, and sometimes a little thought-provoking, but I don’t get very excited about these compared to his later works, and especially his novels.

Well I guess this is pulp and I like it. These stories are fun, funny, irrelevant and very rarely thought-provoking. I view these as a picture in time of middle America in the 1940s and 1950s.

Having read slaughterhouse five and cats cradle, thoroughly enjoying both, this is something completely different.

The stories were written for magazines, magazines which became the likes of cosmopolitan. I think Vonnegut was even mildly embarrassed by them. Nonetheless it’s a nice easy read and a bit of fun to pick a story and enjoy the 20 minute episode. This doesn’t strike me as something that needs to be read cover to cover or in order.

To put in modern day context the stories could be viewed as sexist which is interesting given the target audience. Vonnegut was writing them because he had to not because he wanted to and I guess that’s what sold back then.

All-in-all worth a read but temper expectations if comparing to his greater known works.

You can tell that the stories in this collection represent proto-Vonnegut rather than real Vonnegut because although they are written in his trademark voice and with all of his trademark flourishes (e.g. inanimate objects speaking onomatopoeias), they generally exhibit an optimism and a good nature, under the surface of dryness and black humor, that are wholly at odds with the bleakness and nihilism of the famous novels he would go on to write.

Although the stories' quality varies, and although they don't add up to anything as solid as even the most insubstantial of his novels, this "kinder, gentler Vonnegut" still makes for an entertaining read, especially as a point of comparison with the rest of the corpus of his work.