Kurt Vonnegut was known as a novelist, but he cut his writing teeth with short stories written in the two decades after World War II for general interest magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. The cream of these short stories were published in 1968 in Welcome to the Monkey House. But Welcome to the Monkey House contained about half of Vonnegut's short stories. The rest of his short works--23 more stories--were collected in Bagombo Snuff Box, published in 1999, just a few years before Vonnegut's death.

This collection is a must-read for Vonnegut fans. Even though as a whole, the stories aren't the jewels that sparkle with such luster in Monkey House--I called Vonnegut's first collection the "cream" of his short fiction very deliberately--the selections in Bagombo are still Vonnegut and are still very readable and entertaining. A few of the stories left me flat--Vonnegut himself, in a "coda" at the end, states that he cringed when he read a few of his old stories, and he names them, and they were three stories I thought were indeed not as good as the rest. But these 50-60 year-old stories can still tell the reader a lot about America in the 1950's, and can tell any prospective writer a lot about how to craft a short story.

Always a fan of Vonnegut. You can be a fan and still not think every single thing he does is genius.

This is a collection of short stories he wrote from his early days when short story magazines, particularly fantasy/sci fi, were all the rage. Of particular interest is his commentary on his writings, admitting that some of his editors would let him get away with the worst stories. Two of them in this book, he noted, he felt compelled to completely redo.

Also of note is that all these stories came from a collection of a fan. Vonnegut had long since lost or tossed these. This just proves that he has accomplished more in his discards than most of us will ever do with our biggest successes.

A balanced mix of good and mediocre short stories in this collection. There's some dull and not very well-written pieces, but enough decent stuff to recommend it. Once I stopped expecting Vonnegut's fully-developed style, I was able to sit back and enjoy his observations of American life. His characterisation is often the best part, but he also has some interesting ideas thrown in too, such as in 'Thanasphere' and '2BR02B'. Would also recommend it just for Vonnegut's introduction and advice on writing.

maybe i'm really not a short story person and then again maybe vonnegut's a better novelist than a short story writer but it took me months to get through this collection and there were few stories that i found myself really wanting to finish except to get on to the next one. i was consistently disappointed and found myself on an 8 hour flight where i'd rather watch something called "wildhogs" than read vonnegut. i didn't even think that was possible.

Two stars with a third for Vonnie being Vonnie. I feel like a chump anytime I talk about stars. I’ll stop now.

First chapter is best. In it Vonnie talks about time y place. That, TV wasn’t really big until the 60’s, and 69 is when TV finally became ubiquitous. Back when lit journals were a source of entertainment. Jr would get home from school, read a few stories, and when dad got home said, “you gotta read…” A different world. These are the stories when Vonnie was living as a freelance short story writer life. Soon the well dried up and Vonnie had to go to GM for bread and wrote sci-fy books nobody reviewed.

An uneven collections. Mostly bad impersonations of O. Henry. Two sci-fy. Mostly comedy. But then a dramatic story comes along like, “Moonlight,” and many tears did I shed. Regardless Vonnie’s formal qualities are strong. You can see him taking this Well made story and taking it into a spaceship.

Anybody else struggling to write Good Reads reviews?

A very strong collection of short stories along with a compelling afterwards by the author. These earlier short stories hinted at what would be the complexity of Vonnegut’s later writing. Vonnegut explored social classes and hubris in middle America, and these stories, published in magazines of the day, have a Norman Rockwell kind of a feel. Only one of the stories, which explores population control and euthanasia, has a science fiction feel, and the rest were more about relationships, between husbands and wives, parents and children, teachers and students, work place colleagues, and school alumni. Vonnegut acknowledged a debt to President Lincoln and labor activist Eugene Victor Debs.

There were no appearances by Kilgore Trout, no aliens from Titan or Tralfamadore, and Billy Pilgrim has yet to be unstuck in time. But through these short stories you can feel the development of Vonnegut as a creative genius.

Good collections of stories. Occasionally some of the stories are brilliant, and some are merely passable, but all have some enjoyable quality of them. Briefly, the stories could be generally described as portraits of mid-century American life, and Vonnegut is very invested in writing interesting, if sometimes underdeveloped characters. There is a little bit of every genre in here it seems, including splashes of crime novels and sci-fi, which Vonnegut morphs into very driven, motivated fiction. Extremely enjoyable work.

Overall I would rate the book 3.5 out of 5.

Thanasphere - by Kurt Vonnegut - BBC Radio SciFi Audiobook - cheops
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Kerry Shale reads Kurt Vonnegut's reflection on mortality and the Cold War.

Thanasphere is a delicious piece of sci fi philosophy from the 1950s, in which a military space mission is taken over by the voices of the dead, calling back to earth.

How will the generals and scientist in charge cope with this sudden confrontation with mortality?...

An inspirational trip back into Vonnegut's early days as a writer. Will be returning when I'm more desperately needing guidance.

“This old man’s hope has to be that some of his earliest tales, for all their mildness and innocence and clumsiness, may, in these coarse times, still entertain.” And they do! I’ve read the opening story Thanasphere thrice already. What a lovely thing to imagine.

It’s fascinating to read Vonnegut’s writing from the infancy of his career. His brilliant sense of humor still shines through. What a mind he had, that each of these stories is a glimpse into a different world, with such vivid characters and distinct settings.

I bought my copy secondhand, and the stories after Lovers Anonymous had been torn out by a previous owner, so it will be extra special for me if I ever discover Hal Irwin’s Magic Lamp.

Bagombo Snuff Box is inconsistent in terms of story quality. Perhaps Vonnegut could have kept some of these earlier published stories in the drawer? Nevertheless, it is still enjoyable on the whole.

What a surely, purely, coincidentally, appropriate title!

I say this, because this book is nothing short of a snuff box for a Vonnegut fan and that is how I have been using it for past 2 weeks. One or two stories a day to make my troubles drop away.


The book contains 23 wonderful stories, accompanied by a brilliant preface by Peter Reed ( author of at least 4 books on Vonnegut and his works) and an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut himself, which contains his eight rules for creative writing, out of which most important is,

Rule No. 1: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

And Vonnegut never breaks this rule in any of his stories.


The stories in this collection are from early stage of Kurt Vonnegut’s career and were written to support his family. In these stories he honed his skill and worked on themes which were to be further developed and featured in his later, more popular works. Themes like pretense, father-son relation, limitations of science, and confusion of war.


Kurt Vonnegut writes about these stories-

As fossils, they are fakes on the order of Piltdown Man, half human being, half the orangutan I used to be.

Short stories can have greatness, short as they have to be. But there is no greatness in this or my other collection, nor was there meant to be.



I am not learned enough to vouch for greatness, but they surely do have style. Style is evident from the outset of this book. Even before the Table of Contents! Just go through this epigraph, my sir/madam:

As in my other works of fiction:
tAll persons living and dead are purely coincidental, and should not be construed. No names have been changed in order to protect the innocent. Angels protect the innocent as a matter of Heavenly routine.

More style (at a shooting game):

Not giving a damn, he had come to be at one with the universe. With brainless harmony like that, he’d found that he couldn’t miss.

More style (with more humor):

“I can’t help taking an interest,” said Cady."It causes me actual physical pain to see things done the wrong way, when it’s so easy to do them the right way. Oops! Moved your right thumb back to where I told you not to put it!”

“Chief Atkins,” whispered Upton Beaton in the meeting hall.

“Eh?”

“Don’t you scratch your head like that,” said Beaton."Spread your fingers like this, see? Then dig in. Cover twice as much scalp in half the time.”



Recommended for everyone!