Vonnegut does a wonderful job with a short story and while most stories were "okay" to "yeah, I liked it I guess", it's definitely worth it for the few 4 to 5 star ratings.

"Where I Live" (Venture- Traveler’s World, October 1964) - 2/5 Kinda boring and no real plot. Just meandering
"Harrison Bergeron" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1961) - 5/5 Loved this one - science fiction - Handicapping people so everything is fair and no one can take unfair advantage because of their looks, intelligence, physical prowess, etc. Sad but true and hilarious at the same time - exactly what Vonnegut does best.
"Who Am I This Time?" (The Saturday Evening Post, 16 December 1961) - 3/5 A play that I guess Vonnegut had to put on (Street Car Named Desire). I don't know if it's a true story or what, but it sounded autobiographical. Main actor who acts amazingly in everything and duddy female actor who he is able to bring out of her shell.
"Welcome to the Monkey House" (Playboy, January 1968) - 4/5 - Another science fiction story where the world is overpopulated and there exists a mandatory pill called "ethical birth control" that doesn't make it impossible to have children (the ethical part), but makes you numb from the waist down. Another sad but true, although I don't quite agree with the jab against religion in this one.
"Long Walk to Forever" (Ladies Home Journal, August 1960) - 3/5 A military man visits a woman he's in love with and who's about to get married.
"The Foster Portfolio" (Collier's Magazine, 8 September 1951) - 2/5 Nothing really exciting here. A financial consultant consults a man who's reasons for how he manages his money are more than they seem.
"Miss Temptation" (The Saturday Evening Post, April 21 1956) - 3/5 An actress struts her stuff, but is brought down for no reason she can help.
"All the King's Horses" (Collier's Magazine, 10 Feb 1951) - 5/5 A game of chess becomes a game of survival. Definitely one of the best of the collection
"Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" (Collier's Magazine, 14 March 1953) - 4/5 A funny story about a really annoying "me monster" (Brian Regen) who corners a man in the park.
"New Dictionary" (The New York Times, October 1966) - 3/5 Who hasn't looked up dirty words in the dictionary? :)
"Next Door" (Cosmopolitan, April 1955) -4/5 Pretty funny story about a kid who hears fighting next door and tries to help. Assume makes a what out of whom?
"More Stately Mansions" (Collier's Magazine, 22 December 1951) - 3/5 Quaint story about interior decorating.
"The Hyannis Port Story" - 3/5 Secret Service calls a Commodore Rumfoord (a name that comes up a few times in Vonnegut's work) about his son. Rumfoord is not a big Kennedy fan.
"D.P." (Ladies Home Journal, August 1953) - 3/5 A kid in a prison camp meets his "father".
"Report on the Barnhouse Effect" (Collier's Magazine, 11 February 1950) - 3/5 - SciFi - Barnhouse is a scientist who discovers an interesting talent he has.
"The Euphio Question" (Collier's Magazine, 12 May 1951) - 4/5 - SciFi - An interesting discovery leads to "happiness" although it's more than you bargain for.
"Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" (Ladies Home Journal, July 1962) - 3/5 A famous actress and her fifth husband have some work done on their bathroom.
"Deer in the Works" (Esquire, April 1955) 3.5/5 An owner of a newspaper decides he needs something more secure and gets hired on at a large corporation. Say bye bye to your freedom.
"The Lie" (The Saturday Evening Post 24 February 1962) - 3.5/5 About a father's excitement for his son to enter boarding school.
"Unready to Wear" (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1953) - 4/5 - SciFi - Bodies are really just a pain in the neck aren't they?
"The Kid Nobody Could Handle" (The Saturday Evening Post, 24 September 1955) - 2/5 A boy who's been neglected all his life acts out. Actions speak louder than words.
"The Manned Missiles" (Cosmopolitan, July 1958) - 4/5 This was a really emotional tale about two astronauts' fathers writing each other whose sons recently died.
"EPICAC" (Collier's Magazine, 25 November 1950) - 4/5 - SciFi - Our narrator has a discussion with the smartest machine in the world.
"Adam" (Cosmopolitan, April 1954) - 3/5 - This one was definitely close to home for me, I have a seven month old. Babies are great.
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954) - 4/5 - SciFi - Another story about overpopulation in the future. In this one, because of a new anti-aging drug, there are so many people, each family lives together for generations and there are no more resources.

A couple of years back I decided to give this author a spin, and won a lot of his books off eBay - 15 books for about 75 bucks if I recall correctly. Not a bad bargain, so I thought, and what I don't keep I donate to Little Free Libraries.

I've since read six of seven of his books and hoo boy, he's been a real hit and miss. I can see why he is a celebrated author, his prose is solid and he has written many brilliant descriptions and scenes. But several of his books are just personal ramblings that I wish he'd STFU about, like Timequake or Breakfast of Champions. I did like one of his other books, Mother Night.

Like with any short story collection, this assortment has some stories that are better than others. My least favorite was the titular story, because it included rape (but not in a sensitive or respectful way) but many of the stories in this collection are quite solid, seems like Vonnegut has less of a chance to spin off into personal rambling when he has to limit his word count. There is an assortment of science fiction as well as regular contemporary stories and a couple of military ones. Aside from that one story, I would recommend this collection whether or not you're a fan of Vonnegut.

✩ 4/4.5 stars
~
[read for high school ‘junior year’ great books class]

Previously read June 2003 (among many other times)

Like many offbeat/outcast teens, I went through a Vonnegut phase - and am glad to say I never completely recovered. I would heartily recommend Welcome to the Monkey House for anyone new to Vonnegut's body of work, as it covers basically the first two decades of his career (and IMHO, the best years)

It contains an honest-to-goodness love story - "Long Walk to Forever" that always makes me sniffle a little. Then there's the familiarly sardonic "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and "The Euphio Question". "The Kid Nobody Could Handle" contains one of my (many) favorite KV quotes: "You are better than you think. A-one, a-two a-three."

Both comforting and chilling - this collection of stories, while a bit dated at times ("The Hyannis Port Story" and "Epicac", I'm looking at you) is still in my top 50 of favorite books and will continue to be a re-read for years to come.

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories Vonnegut wrote between 1950 and 1968 so a few of them even predate his first novel, Cat's Cradle. Nothing surprising here, you have a lot of Vonnegut's cutting satire and dark humor on display and most of the stories are excellent and thought provoking, and you have a good mix of funny and melancholy. Hell, even the preface is a hoot.

His most famous short story "Harrison Bergeron" is included, of course. I would guess most people read this in high school. My favorites of the bunch were "Next Door", which felt like a dark, scary Twilight Zone episode; "D.P.", a sad story about a little orphan boy in post WWII Germany who looks for a father figure amongst some American GIs; "The Euphio Question", a very funny technology-gone-mad tale which Vonnegut is so good at; "Deer in the Works", a critique of industrialism's effect on nature; and probably my favorite - "Epicac", the story about a modern (by 1950s standards) supercomputer which develops feelings.

Generally, it felt like the stories got better as they went on. The last few stories were written in the mid-1960s. I typically don't give short story collections five stars as not all stories in a given collection resonate with me but I thought the best ones in this collection were great and Vonnegut's writing is just something else. And I think given the current situation we are all in makes the darker tales even more relatable. This was a nice escape while it lasted.

Vonnegut is a master of the long form. Anyone who has read one of his novels knows that. I came into this collection of short stories waiting to be disappointed. Vonnegut is a master of the short form as well. I shouldn't have doubted him. From his earliest days, Vonnegut was a gifted, insane, magical writer, shown by his depth in his early stories included in this collection. I saw the special edition on the bookstore shelf and immediately pounced on it. This is surely the definitive edition, coming with a wonderful look at Vonnegut's writing process when he wrote the title story in 1968. As I continue my journey through Vonnegut's oeuvre, I am looking forward to more masterpieces from this intrepid author.

Aseara dupa ce am intrat in posesia cartii, mi-am spus "hai sa vad cum incepe". Am citit prefata (semnata de autor) si nu m-am mai oprit pina nu am terminat primele 5 povestiri, printre care si Harrison Bergeron o scurta distopie de tip orwellian, absolut tulburatoare, de care eram interesat in mod deosebit dupa ce am vazut ecranizarea-i superba in filmul de 25 de minute, 2081.

In mare, filmul respecta povestea, dar, nu reuseste sa redea latura ironica existenta in povestire — un amanunt nesemnificativ pentru mine in conditiile in care overall pelicula este splendida. La fel si coloana sonora.

Some stories are better than others but overall a good solid 5 star read. Review to come.

This is a long collection with a lot of short stories. They're all at least pretty solid, and some of them I love. I think my favorite- and I suspect this is a strange choice is "Who Am I This Time?" which I find to be exceptionally odd and romantic in a novel way.

The title story, "Welcome to the Monkey House" is very rapey and doesn't hold up to modern scrutiny at all, so it's really a shame that the entire collection is named this. Not surprisingly it was first published in Playboy. Ugh, boys and men growing up in the late 60s were reading this story basically justifying rape.

I particularly enjoyed the futuristic sci-fi/fantasy stories like "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and "Unready to Wear." ("Harrison Bergeron" on the other hand seemed a little bit juvenile to me as a rather simplistic dystopian realization of liberal ideals.) The last story, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" could have been a full-length dystopian novel but maybe it would have been too big a bummer and is kind of darkly humorous as a short story.

Some of these have aged better than others. It is odd to read SF from early 1950s in Vonnegut's tone of voice, just in that, I haven't been reading SF in prose form much in recent years. He generally succeeds in several genres, even a book review essay on dictionaries, here.
Mildly recommended.

This collection, along with Bagombo Snuff Box, collects short stories from Vonnegut’s time writing for the glossies, dailies and slicks. The pieces range from speculative fiction to standard romance fare, each only hinting at the greatness he would achieve as a novelist. He wrote these for money, no doubt about it, and although several spar with some of his Big Stuff, they lack the scathing black humour, wild absurdity and heartbreaking pathos of . . . hmm, well, start at The Sirens of Titan and go from there. ‘All the King’s Horses’ stands out for its brutality, ‘Harrison Bergeron,’ ‘The Euphio Question’ and the title piece are satirical little SF attacks, while the others bear the stamp of conventional fifties fiction—tales from blue-collar America with social comment and breezy, everyman characters. One for the devoted Vonnegutian.

In the 70s I taught this at community colleges, and it was wildly popular--the three scifi pieces on future overpopulation, or taking the joy out of sex ("ethical birth control") astute. The Cape Cod autobiographical shorts are wonderful views of an enviable past--the Yacht Club on the Bay side that is barely a shed, etc. My students could talk about this book for days, and did--though I never came up with paper assignments that evoked their best writing.
Not sure why. Maybe Vonnegut's own prose is deceptively simple-seeming. It's not, but I never managed to explore his voice in a way that they could employ in their own writing--whereas I did exactly that for other writers at the time: VS Naipaul, Saul Bellow, GB Shaw.

Vonnegut's war critiques are acid and on the money; I then thought, and may still, his Slaughterhouse-Five the only "war" novel actually about war, except maybe All Quiet. War and Peace certainly is not; it's about a whole society, and the interruption of war. The soldier (and history teacher) executed for stealing in Dresden--beautiful, especially when I taught Henry the Fifth in the same semester, with Bardolph coming to a similar end for stealing a French religious symbol, a "pax."