My tattoo is a quote from this story....so I'd say it's pretty great.

"Welcome to the Monkey House" is a collection of Vonnegut's short stories written for various magazines in the fifties and sixties. By 1968, when this collection was published, Vonnegut was a famous writer and this collection was put together to capitalize on his fame. Unlike some of the posthumous short story collections that have been thrown together since his death, this short story collection is worth reading. I am not a huge fan of the genre of the short story, and there are a few in this collection that left me feeling nothing. However, those blah stories are outweighed by some of the magnificent short fiction in this book. For the purpose of this review I am going to mention a few highlights from the text.
The title story in the collection is subversively powerful. It uses sex as a metaphor for choice and freedom in life, and it works on a lot of levels. I believe that this story speaks more powerfully to this generation (for a variety of reasons) then it would have when originally published in 1968.
I think the best piece in this collection is the stunningly beautiful and heartbreaking story "D.P.". Only Vonnegut could write a sentence like, "Peter was the oldest boy in the orphanage, an embittered old man of fourteen..." which makes you grin and get misty eyed simultaneously. The opening paragraph of this story is one of the saddest in all of literature. A brilliant piece of writing!
The story "Unready to Wear", like the best science fiction, examines the very basic assumptions of human life with a very interesting twist. In a completely different vein, the piece "Long Walk to Forever" is simply lovely and well written. The whole text bounces all over the place in terms of themes and plot contrivances.
Ironically one of the more prophetic stories in this collection has to do with education and how kids are raised. "The Kid Nobody Could Handle" should be taught in every school. Its message (which like the best Vonnegut is so simple) is more needed today than ever.
Although not as strong as his novels, "Welcome to the Monkey House" is a necessary read for any fan of Vonnegut, if for no other reason than to see the variety on display. I enjoyed this book, and will return to its pages again!

The standout story here is "Harrison Bergeron" (1961), which is a classic, 5-star story. It's available online at: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harri...
If you've somehow missed reading it, or it's been awhile, youre in for a treat.

Otherwise, it's a mixed bag of (mostly) 1950s stories. Most of them haven't aged well. Here are the better ones:
"Miss Temptation" (1956): a soldier comes back from the Korean War, and insults a pretty girl in his hometown. 3 stars.
"Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" (1953): an amusing, well, shaggy-dog story. 3 stars.
"Report on the Barnhouse Effect "(1950). Prof. Barnhouse makes an unusual scientific discovery, enforces world peace. 3 stars.
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (1954): a day in a very overcrowded future, after the invention of anti-gerasone. Eh, 2.5 stars.

The rest of them that I read, around half of the collection, are 2-star at best, and some below. So this is one for Vonnegut completists, I think.

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There's 25 stories in this book, all very short. When an American writer says short stories he means it, none of that novella crap here. I'll try to keep this review short too.

I wanted to give this three stars but I really couldn't bring myself to do that with stories like Harrison Bergeron, Report on the Barnhouse Effect and The Euphio Question collected here. Vonnegut builds worlds and encapsulates the essence of an idea in 7-15 pages, and there's quite a few stories in here that are philosophical and idealistic like the ones I listed, most notably the actual Welcome To The Monkey House (Although Harrison Bergeron is still probably my favorite. I remember reading it in my sociology textbook in high school and loving it). Those were definitely the best. The others are short love stories, even when its not necessarily love between two people. Love of life, love of music, love of purpose. A whole lotta love. Those were good too, it's always interesting seeing a Sci-Fi writer write about love because its an interesting take that gets you hooked, not the characters but the setting. The stories aren't all sci-fi though, some of them have the approach or the setting but Vonnegut is also good at writing about plain old people in a plain old world and those are beautifully written as well. Not all of them were great but I would call only one or two 'on the weak side'. I don't know maybe I'm not good at rating books with stars but you can tell from my review that I liked it so yeah. Read if finishing a story gives you some sense of fulfillment/achievement/self worth. It did wonders for me this week.

التجربة الثانية لكورت فونيجت، وبرضة بترجمة محمد أحمد جمال. والمرة دي مجموعة قصصية. القصص تنوعت بين الاجتماعي والساخر والديستوبي (ولو أني كنت أفضل لو كانت القصص الديستوبية أو الخيالية أكتر من كده) بس أعتقد أنها كشفت كتير عن أسلوب كورت فونيجت، مع أني حساة فيها باختلاف كبير عن الرواية التانية الوحيدة اللي قرأتها له. تجربة ممتعة وقراءة قصة أو قصتين كل يوم من المجموعة كان ممتع من دون شك

ريفيو بسيط لكل قصة:
1- حيث أعيش:
استعراض لبلدة أمريكية صغيرة ببعض التهكم والسخرية، حسيت أن المقدمة أظرف وأخف دما من القصة دي. بداية عادية أوي للمجموعة.

2- هاريسون بيرجيرون:
ديستوبيا عظيمة وتقديم جديد لفكرة الأخ الأكبر ولعب على فكرة الرقابة وتشويش الشبكات. محزنة كأي ديستوبيا ولم تخل برضة من الكومييدا السوداوية

3- من أنا هذه المرة؟:
متوقعتش قصة رومانسية رقيقة ولطيفة في سياق بلدة صغيرة وتمثيل مسرحي وشخصيات حبوبة.

4- أهلا بك في بيت القرود:
عاجبني التنظيم المرتب-العشوائي للمجموعة دي. قصة لطيفة عن بلدة صغيرة وبعدها قصة ديستوبية مرعبة. يا ترى ده هيفضل مستمر طول الكتاب؟ طبعا الديستوبية المرة دي كانت عن زيادة التعداد السكاني و"طرق" مواجهة المشكلة دي. القصة دي كانت شديدة شوية وانتهاك مش بحب أقراه بس مقرأتش كتابات كتيرة عن تنظيم النسل فكانت مختلفة. بتفكرني بسلسلة روايات حديثة نوعا ما للشباب اسمها
Arc of a Scythe

5- تمشية طالت إلى الأبد:
ايه القصة العسولة الرقيقة دي؟

6- ملف فوستر:
جملة "أبيع النصيحة للأثرياء" اللي بتبدأ بيها القصة لسبب ما عجبتني جدا جدا. بسبب طريقة الكتاب في أول 4 قصص، كنت متوقع قصة ديستوبية، بس لقيتها قصة اجتماعية برضة عن راجل بيساعد أصحاب الأموال على استثمار فلوسهم عشان يكسبوا منها وبتقابله حالة عجيبة في شخص معاه أصول غالية بس مش عايز يبيعها لسبب يجهله، وبنشوف رحلته في فهم الشخص ده.

7- الآنسة فتنة:
قصة اجتماعية عن جندي عائد من الحرب (تاني قصة عن جندي شاب أفتكر حتى الآن؟) والممثلة الشابة في البلدة وفتنتها والتوتر اللي بينهم. مكانتش أفضل قصة

8- كل أحصنة الملك:
قصة أخرى عن جنود، وده فعلا فعلا أقل الأنواع تفضيلا في القصص عندي. بس رغم كده فهي قصة شيقة، مباراة شطرنج والخسارة معناها الموت وقطع الشطرنج هم بشر. مش هنكر أنها خلتتني متوترة لحد الآخر، مع أني كنت عايزة خاتمة أكثر قسوة

9- كلب توم أديسون الأشعث:
مش محتاجة قصة تقنعني أن الكلاب أذكى من البشر، أنا متأكدة من ده، بس ظريفة يا فونيجت.

10- قاموس جديد:
أعتقد اللي هيقعد يتابع الإصدارات المختلفة من القواميس لكل سنة وويكتشف ايه الكلمات الجديدة اللي بتضاف في كل إصدار هيكتشف كتير، وخصوصا أن دلوقتي القواميس بتضيف الكلمات - في أحيان كتيرة - معتمدة على شيوع استخدامها في المحادثات اليومية والعامية نوعا ما.

11- الجيران:
كنت أتمنى نهاية سوداوية أكتر للقصة دي لأنها قائمة على سوء فهم مثالي في القصص الي زي دي، وخصوصا أنها من وجهة نظر طفل ومأزعجتنيش جدا زي قصص تانية بتبقى من وجهة نظر أطفال، وطبعا فكرة التلصص على الجيران والتدخل في حيواتهم عمرها ما بتقدم.

12- قصور أكثر فخامة:
بطلة القصة المغيبة عن الواقع فكرتني جدا بديزي من قصة "غاتسبي العظيم". بس مش هنكر أن نهاية القصة صادمة وضافت بعد جديد للحزن اللي في القصة دي. أقدر أقول إنها من قصصي المفضلة في المجموعة حتى وإن كانت خالية تماما من أي عنصر خيالي.

13- حكاية هاينيس بورت:
السياسة بتطغى على القصص دي، وساعات بتكون عابرة، بس في قصص زي دي، بيبقى لو الشخص مش فاهم السياق السياسي للفترة دي أوي فمش هيطلع منها بحاجات كتيرة وخصوصا لو كل الأسامي المذكورة لا تعني له شيء، بس كانت ظريفة

14- مياه أكثر مما رأيت في حياتك:
قصة محزنة عن الحرب والأيتام اللي بتسيبهم، وتمنيت لو كانت القصة كلها من وجهة نظر أطفال أيتام بدلا من تاني إدخال الجنود في الموضوع زي أغلب قصص المجموعة. وبرضة خاب أملي لقلة القصص الديستوبية في المجموعة دي.

15- تقرير عن تأثير بارنهاوس:
قصة عن السلام والقوة الذهنية واللي مكن تعمله وازاي ممكن حد يستغلها. لطيفة

16- سؤال اليوفوريا:
نظرة ديستوبية سوداوية عن سؤال ايه اللي هيحصل لو الناس تقدر تتحكم بالسعادة وتبيعها وتخلي الناس تدمنها زي المخدرات؟ فكرتها حلوة

17- عد إلى زوجتك وابنك الغاليين:
ماشي، تمام. معنديش تعليق على القصة دي حقيقي غير أن الرجال أوغاد يا ربي.

18- غزال في الورش:
يعني ايه؟ يعني ايه؟ هرب للغابة ورا الغزال وساب حياة التمدن مثلا ولاقاها مش ماشية على ذوقه؟ حسيت أني كنت بقرأ قصة شبه أليس في بلاد العجائب بس واقعية تماما

19- الكذبة:
قصة ادتني شعور "غيلمور غيرلز" شوية في شخصياتها وأحداثها. عن ولد مع عيلته الغنية اللي أسهمت في تأسيس مدرسة قديمة والكذبة اللي الولد مخبيها عن أهله

20- غير جاهز للبس:
قصة ظريفة خيالية عن أشخاص قدروا يخرجوا من أجسادهم ويدخلوا أي أجساد يحبوها في أي وقت.

21- الفتى الذي غلب معه الجميع:
قصة لا بأس بيها عن أستاذ موسيقى وولد متمرد وازاي أنه بيساعده يلاقي هدف في الحياة، قصة اتهرست مية مرة قبل كده بس ملقيتش فيها حاجة جديدة هنا.

22- صواريخ ورجال:
قصة تانية جميلة جدا، عن أبوين لعالمين فضاء، واحد من روسيا والتاني من أمريكا، وبيبعتوا خطابات لبعض بعض موت أولادهم في الفضاء. غيها تساؤلات عن الفرق بين حب الفضاء والاستكشاف والعلم واستغلال الحكومات للشباب المتحمس لتحقيق أجنداتهم الخاصة. تاني، مفيهاش جديد، بس عجبني أسلوبه جدا.

23- إبيكاك:
أوه يا إبيكاك المسكين! أنا خلاصت وصلت لمرحلة الإشفاق على الآلات من البشر

24- آدم:
نظرة حلوة لاختلاف منظور الناس لمولود جديد ما بين غير المبالي وما بين المنبهر تماما. مش فاهمة علاقة اسم القصة واسم "آدم" نفسه بالموضوع

25- غدا وغدا وغدا:
ونختم المجموعة بديستوبية بائسة. وحبيت اكوميديا السوداوية في العالم ده واللي هو تاني عالم ديستوبي فونيجت بيحبه، عن بشر قدروا يتجاوزا الشيخوخة والموت والتكدس السكاني وأثره في عائلة من عائلات الكوكب المتكدس.

A collection of amazing short stories by an excellent writer. I think this was the Junior Class Play my Junior Year in High School. Do they still do stuff like that?

My newfound fondness for Kurt Vonnegut has grown a little complicated after reading his short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House. Although many of these stories were incredible (and I was touched at how personal some of them were -- perhaps unintentionally sometimes), others were... less than stellar. And I found two of them to be downright contemptible for the ideas they championed.

Some of these ideas can easily be explained away as a product of their time (1950s and 1960s). Some cannot.

But first, the good: "Harrison Bergeron" was, it seems, a piece of 1960s political commentary where the United States is forced into absolute equality. Pretty people wear bags over their faces. Smart people wear sonic disruptors. People with great eyesight wear unsuitable eyeglasses to make everything blurrier. Skilled dancers wear scuba diving weights around their waists. The ending was a skillful cringer, and I could see it easily getting rolled up into all sorts of slippery-slope, "everyone gets a trophy" talking points, but it was so funny and absurd in its delivery that it wouldn't have felt out of place on The Muppet Show. Loved it.

Other shorts, like "Report on the Barnhouse Effect," "Deer in the Works," "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," and others, also present some social or political commentary, but never quite so on their sleeves. Overpopulation and bad working conditions are certainly interesting pieces of commentary, but the narratives and characters on top of these ideas were equally interesting and fascinating and comical to explore.

"The Manned Missiles" consisted of a by-mail back-and-forth between two fathers whose sons fought on competing sides of a war. It was heartbreaking and uplifting all at once and had the tone and pacing of an Arthur C. Clarke story. "All the King's Horses" consisted of, basically, that scene from Harry Potter with the life-size chess game, except one side were United States POWs (Including a soldier's wife and two young children) and the other side was a crazed dictator from a foreign country.

Other stories had conclusions that were so surprising they almost felt like punchlines. "The Foster Portfolio" showed me how far a man would go to do what he loves while clinging to the accompanying shame of it like an old coat (But, man, is the casual and unquestioned marital dishonesty here a product of its time?), And "EPICAC" reminded me how far we all go to pretend to be better/smarter/more artistic than we really are in order to impress people. "New Dictionary" shows how stuffy we can all be about our ever-evolving language. "Next Door" was my favorite of this variety, but I don't want to spoil why -- read it! It's funny and ridiculous.

And others still, like "Who am I this time?" didn't seem to have anything particularly important to say but were still an awful lot of fun to read. "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" was laugh-out-loud funny and seemed in the end to be about one guy telling another a convoluted fiction just to get away from him. "More Stately Mansions" was dry up until the last page, but it was waaaaaay worth it, and while I don't know what "The Lie" was trying to say, it was an emotional and satisfying read. "The Euphio Question" reminded me of the aliens from Orson Scott Card's Children of the Mind, who tried to subdue humans by transmitting heroin directly into their bodies.

"The Hyannis Port Story" and "Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" might have been more humorous back in the 50s or 60s but were a little dull to me.

"The Kid Nobody Could Handle" and "Long Walk to Forever" were some of my favorites, and for much the same reason, but I only want to talk about "'Long walk." This short story has its main character, a young man 18 months deep in the military, decide almost casually to go AWOL and abandon his post. He returns to his hometown and tells the childhood friend he grew up with, herself now a young woman, that he has always loved her, and that he wants to marry her. The only problem is that she's only a few days away from getting married to someone else. But they take a walk together anyway, and by the end of it she's changed her mind about her fiancé and the two of them are in love.

There are a couple of ways you can look at this, but personally, this felt like pure wish fulfillment; like the fantasy of a young man who has served his time in the military only to return home and find everyone paired up. The undertone is unyieldingly sad -- he is alone and feels out of place in the town he grew up in. And so I can imagine this main character with his chin resting on his hands, his elbows resting on a windowsill, daydreaming about opportunities lost while in the service. A beautiful, sad, and very personal fantasy.

All right. Now, the bad. Take the aforementioned "Long Walk to Forever" and juxtapose it to "Miss Temptation." In this short story, a man comes back from the military and feels acutely out of place. On one hand, it's great because this story's main character expresses his grief to his mother in profound words. It's moving. It sucks. On the other hand, the main character expresses this grief by taking out all his frustrations on a pretty woman he's never met. He unleashes verbal hell on this gal, explaining how unjust it is to show cleavage when he's apparently not allowed to touch her breasts; how unjust it is to wear jangly anklets above her bare feet because it makes him think about her bare feet; how unjust it is to wear lipstick if he can't kiss her.

Intentions be damned, it was awful to see this guy lose his temper and pitch a fit because this attractive woman wouldn't notice him. He has the nerve to visit her at her apartment the next day and apologize while, in the same breath, justifying his behavior: "All I was trying to say was you could be a little more conservative." And: "I just say what I think." And worst of all, at the end of the story, she convinces him to give her a chance and they go on a date. That's a nightmare fantasy. There are moving parts of this short story, but the interactions between these two characters fried the whole thing for me.

In the end it's not what he said that made this story so sour, nor was it the fact that she apologized to him for it. My biggest gripe was that it felt like the story championed this behavior. This guy was the protagonist.

But that was nothing, NOTHING, compared to the eponymous "Welcome to the Monkey House," first published in Playboy Magazine in 1968. I haven't read any of the other reviews for this book, but I'll try to be brief because I'm sure much has already been said about "'Monkey House." This dystopian short story has the United States combating severe overpopulation with mandatory "ethical birth control." Because birth control as we know it is deemed unethical for preserving pleasure while preventing pregnancy, so-called ethical birth control prevents pleasure while preserving the ability to become pregnant. Everyone is 100% numb form the waist down. Yikes.

The story's hero, Billy the Poet, kidnaps the main character (An attractive and provocatively dressed woman who works in a compassionate suicide center) and after her numbness wears off, he n  rapesn her at gunpoint while eight people hold her down. This is Billy's schtick. This is Billy's modus operandi. Similar to how Morpheus unplugs Neo in The Matrix, Billy kidnaps and rapes women to show them that ethical birth control is inhuman, that sex can be awesome, and that they should go and experience more sex with dudes who are better at sex than he is.

This was so horrifying, so unbelievably repugnant, that when I read, "He didn't hurt her. He deflowered her with a clinical skill she found ghastly," I clung to the hope that there would be a punchline at the end; that Billy would later reveal that what he'd actually done was merely clip her toenails or remove a mind-control patch from her thigh; that she didn't know any better because she'd never experienced any sexual stimulation in her life. But no. The reality that Billy raped her in order to correct her behavior is reinforced again and again and again, right up until the last paragraph.

I felt like Arlo in The Good Dinosaur when he met Thunderclap, right at that moment when Thunderclap reveals he's carnivorous. There are so many good ideas in here; so many endearing and heartfelt story beats; so many relatable moments and other moments communicated so skillfully that I felt able to relate without any shared experience (I never, for example, served in the military). And so, so many smiles. All these good feelies made it even harder to stomach the portrayal of browbeating women into feeling bad enough to go out with you and, yeesh, corrective rape, as justifiable things.

So, yeah, I'm no longer 100% on board with the Vonnegut train. But it's also not going to stop me from reading more (if not all) of his other work. On one hand, it might be unfair for me to critique these 50- and 60-year-old shorts through a 2020 lens... But on the other hand, I feel like "rape is bad," is pretty timeless.

My favorites:

"Harrison Bergeron"
"Who Am I This Time?"
"Long Walk to Forever"
"The Foster Portfolio"
"All the King's Horses"
"Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog"
"Next Door"
"More Stately Mansions"
"The Euphio Question"
"Deer in the Works"
"The Lie"
"The Kid Nobody Could Handle"
"The Manned Missiles"

VONNEGUT SNIPPETS // eclectic and varied collection of short works by the 20th-century icon

• Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1968.

"I have been a writer since 1949. I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that may help others... I am six feet two and weigh nearly two hundred pounds and i am badly coordinated, except when I swim. All that borrowed meat does the writing. In the water I am beautiful."
[From the Preface]

Gathering dozens of stories from 1950-1968, this collection showcases Vonnegut's range and imagination. Many stories take a folksy tone that often reminded me of Ray Bradbury's nostalgics like "Dandelion Wine", while others veer into the speculative witty sci-fi that KV is largely known for.

Since many of the stories were published before any of his novels, a reader familiar with his work can see the seeds that will germinate into full-fledged novels later in his writing life.

Highlights for me:
• Harrison Bergeron
• The Foster Portfolio
• Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog
• The Hyannis Port story
• More Stately Mansions
• Unready to Wear

Some themes in these: equalizing all human abilities and features, a secret life as a jazz pianist, Edison's dog being the real inventor, a time capsule story of the 1962/63 political landscape, delusions of grandeur in suburbia, and an early look at transhumanism/ post-body existence.

The title story had a intriguing premise regarding a future world dealing with overpopulation and went sour real fast for me - and many others based on some web searches. It is probably best described as "problematic" in modern parlance...

My vintage copy includes a list where these stories were originally published, ranging from mid-century US literary magazines like Colliers, The Atlantic to more "lifestyle" mags like Playboy and Ladies Home Journal.

overall, i enjoyed these stories...save for the last one that seemed like a boorish attempt at fashionable ideology--over-population. who's to decide? hitler?

peter singer? some ethicist building a wave? crapola!

the last story sucks the big one cause the sci-fi element to it is too unbelievable...the ole willing suspension of disbelief takes a hit, big time...and like i said, fashionable ideology...same old bull-tripe you're prone to hear still today..."they said that a hundred years ago!"

there's one, epicac, that sees more action in one of his longer stories. i forge which one at the moment. maybe slapstick. then again, i could be wrong.

a few of the others are thinly veiled blah-blah-blahs...but like i said, overall, these stories are good, written in the 50s and early 60s for the most...they range around the board and they're fun to read, as they enable the reader to see vonnegut's obsessions and how he went about pointing at and prodding those obsessions, using a number of different styles and whatnot.

w/a few of them, i'm reminded of alfred hitchcock presents...remember that ole black and white, the piano music and hitchcock's shadow filling out the curvy lines.

This is a master class in the art of short story writing. Every short story is finely crafted. Many have humor, many have heartbreak, many have subtle romance.

Almost all have commentary on society, especially American society, that is as relevant today as it was in the 1950s.

What are these stories missing?

You reader. It's missing you to unlock their meaning and beauty.

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories written by one of my favourite writers, Kurt Vonnegut. It had been a few years since I'd read anything by Vonnegut, and although I was certainly looking forward to this collection, I was slightly apprehensive because as with all short story collections, I knew there would be some duds that would bring the overall quality down. And of course, after finishing all 25 stories there are some that I thought were stronger than others; but what really shocked me was that there was not a single story that I did not enjoy. Out of 25 stories, every single one was interesting, funny, disturbing, and definitely worth reading. Seriously, this never happens in short story collections - there's always at least one or two that just aren't that great. But not this time. Oh yes, Vonnegut is definitely one of my favourites.

The sheer amount of creativity and ingenuity on display here is staggering. I guess the closest thing I could compare these stories to in terms of modern pop culture is Black Mirror - every story is sci-fi related, but each manages to blend different genres together to remain fresh and interesting (BM, however, is much less consistent in terms of quality). Some of my favourite stories included:

Harrison Bergeron - many years in the future, the government imposes a mandatory equality law that leads to all "above average" people becoming handicapped in some way. Scary, tragic, and intriguing.

Long Walk to Forever - a simple love story that doesn't really fit thematically but is touching and lovely all the same.

Deer in the Works - a cool metaphor on the nature of work, corporations, and how perverted large organizations can be. Also hilarious (and stories like this are where I can see a direct connection to George Saunders' themes and style in his work).

I could go on but as I said already, every story here is worth reading even if some are better crafted than others. A strong 4/5 - did not disappoint.