This is a collection of short stories that Vonnegut wrote between 1950 and 1968. The stories range from war-time epics to futuristic social commentaries. In the introduction, Vonnegut explains that these stories helped to keep him financially afloat while he was working on his true aspiration - novels. The stories were published in various magazines and other publications, and were corralled into Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968.

Each story is incredibly unique and forward-thinking, especially considering the time that they were written. For example, Vonnegut creates a world where everyone is equal in Harrison Bergeron, to the extreme that those with advantages have to be handicapped. Smart people wear hearing-aid devices that blast loud noises every twenty seconds so they can’t think clearly and beautiful people wear ugly masks. Only the average people are allowed to live without handicaps.

The story titled Report on the Barnhouse Effect is about a man who has discovered the ability to control objects with his mind. He learns of this while in the military, playing craps in the barracks. The man can control the dice, and make them land however he wishes. But he is not interested in using this power for personal gain, and realizes that it is too dangerous for the public to learn. He disappears and begins to rid the world of its weapons by destroying them remotely, making it impossible for the nations of the world to wage war.

Each story is well-developed and well-written. Welcome to the Monkey House is definitely worth checking out, and would make a great introduction to Vonnegut.

4/5 Stars. 331 pages. Published 1968.

A worthwhile read for Vonnegut fans for historical reasons only. Though you can see the Vonnegut who was to be in these stories, they are mostly not very good. Several are trite, all are rather manipulative, many fail to provide the proper context the reader needs in order to give a damn about what is happening.

I feel the need to address the elephant in the room in this collection; many reviews focus entirely on the rape scene in the title story as proof of the lack of worth of the entire book (or perhaps of Vonnegut's work.) Anyone who has read Vonnegut, or most of the other great writers of that generation from Updike to Roth to Bellow, knows that these men value women only as commodities. Women exist to offer sex, comfort, conversation, child-rearing services and that is it. Updike saw women's liberation solely as a cultural shift which allowed women to fuck him without societal censure and no one goes off on him. Look, most authors are pathologically self-involved so there is a predisposition to see the universe from their position at the very center. Add to that a social milieu in the first half of the 20th century which devalued women and you get the rape scene in Monkey House. Vonnegut did not see that specific rape as a crime, he saw it as an intervention, maybe even a benediction. Is that appalling? Absolutely. But Vonnegut is saying something about the ways in which government and society take control of our most basic urges, and he makes some valid points. He could have made the point it a way that showed respect for everyone in the story, but he did not. Read this as if it was in a time capsule and save your anger for the men in Congress who still see rape as a gift from God.

İlk olarak 1968 yılında yayımlanan bu öykü derlemesi, Vonnegut'ın öykücülük konusundaki maharetini gözler önüne sermek için biçilmiş bir kaftan. Kara mizahın ve hicvin her bir satırına ustalıkla yedirildiği ve de yazıldığı dönemin atmosferini bize buram buram hissettiren bu öykülerde bilim-kurgunun naif etkilerini de görmek pek âlâ mümkün. Döneminin ötesinde bir zihne sahip Vonnegut, bu eserinde de yine kendine özgü anlatım dilini gözler önüne seriyor.

Favori öykülerim:
- Harrison Bergeron
- Maymun Evine Hoş Geldiniz
- Foster Portföyü
- Bayan Tahrik
- Şahın Tüm Atları
- Tom Edison'ın Şakacı Köpeği
- Muhteşem Makineler
- Hazır Giyim
- EPICAC

Yazarın romanları kadar öykülerini de çok seviyorum. Öykü okumak konusunda çelişkiye düşenlere bu kitabı ve yazarın diğer öykü kitaplarını gönül rahatlığıyla tavsiye ederim.

Handan Balkara'nın akıcı çevirisiyle.

Keyifli okumalar!

Kitaplarla kalın!

Meant to finish this in Feb, but better late than never.

Kurt Vonnegut’s, “Welcome to the Monkey House,” is a brilliant collection of short stories, ranging from the mundane to commentary on war and politics to raw science fiction. Vonnegut’s range in works is truly amazing, as he did a great job at capturing many different ideas and tropes within the collection of stories.

The first time I read through the collection, I loved it. This second time, I loved it more. Harrison Bergeron, All the King’s Horses, Who am I this Time, Unready to Wear, and EPICAC are some of my favorites. There’s hardly a story in this collection that I do not love.

From a literary standpoint, the way in which he is able to use simple diction but yet portray deeper meaning is quite remarkable. Though many of these stories were written in the 50s, many of them have stood the test of time and are quite applicable to todays world and what we are facing in terms of life, love, war, politics, etc - hence why he is my favorite author.

May he rest in peace.

My favorites were: The manned missiles, unready to wear, the lie, next door and all the king's horses! All of the short stories were good; I didn't read any that I didn't like.

Every time I re-read this I fall in love with it all over again. Honestly one of my favorite Vonnegut books, his short stories are masterful and stick with you. Each one of the twenty five short stories in this collection are well worth a read and pack a punch. Some of my favorites are Harison Bergeron, Who Am I This Time, The Foster Portfolio, and hell, who am I kidding? I love all of them! This collection is a great introduction to anyone who has never read Vonnegut. It's got some sci-fi, romance, satire, and intrigue. Of course there is his famous black humour and hoosier-isms packed in throughout. A personal favorite that ages well and always reads well.

I think Vonnegut's best talent as a writer is his knack for stripping away the gap between facade and reality. He loves to sketch out characters that are (or simply seem) amazingly rich or powerful or charismatic. Then he breaks their circumstances down such that they're stuck with only their base humanity, and they have to confront themselves as they really are. How degrading to find out how much you're just like everyone else!

I have grown quite fond of this evil little man and his stories

A collection of solid short stories from the fifties and sixties – depending on who you ask, Vonnegut's strongest years. Personally I will cast judgment only after reading Man Without a Country, though my periodic readings of other Vonnegut books (including the famous blivit) tend to support the theory that he was at his most potent with earlier works. "Harrison Bergeron" is a very pointed look at egalitarianism and equality mongering from a simpler time, and it's exactly the sort of thing a disaffected teen convinced of its own brilliance would go nuts over. For the time it was probably great, but I found it so passionately overwritten, and its point so blatantly delivered, that it became kind of annoying and even potentially Randian. There is nobody safe from the law of mediocrity, and any sort of shackled god/goddess, unshackled, would probably be a sociopath or deviant or bigot... still it's essentially a great story, I suppose.

The good thing is a lot of the stories are essential short stories, in form and content, and therefore subdued, with ambiguous or conclusive endings and subject matter that is often 'mundane'. He shows wisdom and humanity with each, and generally racks it up for the more science fictiony numbers. Good stuff all around, but I suppose I have my misgivings. One story contains the germs of Dr. Manhattan (bonus points if you know which) and "EPICAC" was a real gem.

Good stories, none of them particular knock-outs, but worth a couple of reading sessions apiece. That's the problem I've always had about Vonnegut: many declare him to be a sublime and powerful and wise and great writer, and he is those things – sometimes. His offerings are never trite or ridiculous (though he pursues the ludicrous with admirable zeal), always contain some wisdom, but they never make for such good reading that I am forced to exclaim anything about it. He's Vonnegut, he has some really fine novels to brag about (a job that falls to his latter-day apostles), and that one scene in Slaughterhouse 5 always gets a chuckle out of me, but I've never been totally astounded and I do not believe in the hype. For all that, he's still really important and his stories, whatever their missteps, are typically wise, hopeful, and evocative.

I read this when I was 17 & loved it. I'm re-reading it now & so far only really enjoyed the story "Who Am I This Time?" The title story was HORRIBLE. Mr. Vonnegut should have been ashamed that he ever even THOUGHT that rape is EVER ok, even in a dystopian future. The only two stories I remembered from my youth, "Harrison Bergeron" & "All the King's Horses", were not as good on the re-read. I'm forcing myself to finish this one. I'm going to go through all of my Vonnegut now, because I suspect it will end with me getting more shelf space for books that are actually good.

"D.P" and "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" were pretty good. The rest were meh. I have five stories left. This will not be a keeper when I am done unless the last five blow my socks off. Somehow I doubt they will.

Nope. Not a keeper. Ok to read once, but some of the stories were down right horrible. Read at your own risk.

Great mix of short stories.

A work of art, it belongs in the adorably perfect short story collections as those by Ray Bradbury and J. G. Ballard: yes, apocalypse; yes, spirituality; yes sci-fi and yes A PROPHET*. Only those writing with an eye to an uncertain yet not wholly unpredictable future (society limits individualism) can be considered amazing if they possess this attribute. I mean, Nostradamus as short story master? C'mon. Yet in all 25 stories, Vonnegut rarely repeats himself (except for gee-whiz! Easter eggs, such as: lo-tech science fiction a-la Eternal Sunshine and notable motifs like the play Death of a Salesman, radio entertainment, jobs, Wyandotte College, the name Sousa ; the first entry is geographical biography, the last one is a futuristic comedy), he is rarely overly sentimental, but always smart, precise, perfect*.

The diversity of genre, characterization***, dialogue, epochs... the imagination is vast and its no wonder every modern writer at one time or another decided to be like him, or not. But consider him they did, do, will. Welcome to the Monkey House****, we were warned.

*In MISS TEMPTATION we have beginnings of the straight male paranoia that ensued due to MeToo#...written in 1956! ...My favorite short story, D.P., and THE LIE all handle racism with such ease, because, well, these were all written in the 50's, and its chilling to see how much privilege vs. poverty/working/hardlife lifelong workers. I found out that rich Republicans love the term "democratic nation" since it evokes a type of humbling that's alien to them
**Page 115 , close to the book's center: "Have I made it clear that this book is a beauty?" --NEW DICTIONARY
***Characters' vernacular are uniquely their own! Funny, fragile, tragic, cuckoo... You find so many individuals, like a mid-century SciFi vanity fair!
****The titular short story, included with classics of literature "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner and O'Brien's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", are precursor to horror cinema firmly rooted in our own American fears (which may be something similar to: BECOMING THE MACHINE FOR THE MACHINE)