I began reading this book just after finishing Anna Karenina and I am glad I did. It was essentially everything Anna Karenina was not (in a good way).

The prose was classic Vonnegut, light, fast paced and strangely hilarious. I look at Vonnegut as many look upon their grandfathers. There are the same corny jokes you've come to expect and despite their corniness you can't help but laugh and be pleased with them.

Jailbird was particularly interesting and at the same time confusing for me. The tale gets wrapped up in just as many historical events as it does fictional and there is also the mention and inclusion of many notable figures from the past 100 or so years.

In the end it doesn't matter where fact and fiction cross or where they diverge. The book was fun and seemingly lighthearted and like Vonnegut always does he make some serious points.

Here is a quote, that given our current economic crisis seems perfect:

"The economy is a thoughtless weather system-- and nothing more. Some joke on the people, to give them such a thing."

I think we are slowly realizing that we are the butt of this joke

This book is a satirical novel that ties back in with the Watergate scandal, and because of that I struggled with it from time to time purely because I’m not particularly familiar with that particular part of American history. I’ve never liked Nixon, but he was also in power a long time before I was born and so it almost feels like it doesn’t matter.

Still, there was some fun stuff here, mostly revolving around Vonnegut’s wry observations and his occasional excellent one-liners. Because it’s also a sort of fictionalised biography of sorts, it also reminded me quite a lot of my own current work-in-progress, which follows the career of a fictional band. It has that same vibe where you have to optimise between showing and telling because while showing is an understandably good practice to have, you also need to tell sometimes to progress the narrative.

I’d say that I mostly appreciated this book from a writing point of view rather than because I particularly enjoyed it, but I think there’s a place for books like that on my shelves and I’m glad that I finally read this, especially considering it’s been on my shelves for several years now just waiting for me to finally tick it off. And to think that it took less than 48 hours. I feel kinda silly now!

Zoals met wel meer boeken van Vonnegut zitten er wat vermakelijke slimme passages verstopt tussen de pagina's waarvan ik niet helemaal weet waar ze nu over gaan.
Het hoofdstuk waarin er bij de hemelpoort bij iedereen een audit plaatsvindt over hoe rijk ze hadden kunnen worden als ze op specifieke momenten in hun leven slimmer hadden geïnvesteerd, zodat de hemel vol zat met balende doden was bijvoorbeeld best goed gevonden.

Deze van hem valt ergens tussen de tegenvallende Vonnegut boeken (Breakfast of Champions en the Sirens of Titan) en zijn fantastische boeken (Cat's Cradle, Mother Night en Slaughterhouse Five)

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. It's not one of his most popular. I've read Vonnegut a few times before and have appreciated him, but this book somehow captured me. The story was interesting and believable (for the most part). Perhaps it was a little more "straight up" yet the tell-tale Vonnegut elements of wackiness and whimsy were present, if not more subtly for a good portion of the book. And it seemed then that I was more able to detect the sharp commentary he laces throughout the storyline.

I highly recommend for fans and newbies alike - read this book and enjoy the story and pithy insights from the narrator such as:

"The most embarrassing thing to me about this autobiography, surely, is its unbroken chain of proofs that I was never a serious man. I have been in a lot of trouble over the years, but that was all accidental. Never have I risked my life, or even my comfort, in the service of mankind. Shame on me."

and the more pointed:

"All happiness is religious, I have to think sometimes."

I was making my mind as blank as possible, you see, since the past was so embarrassing and the future so terrifying.

I initially fell in love with Kurt Vonnegut and his writing style because of his wildly absurd sci-fi plots and quirky characters and how you’d be reading it and think, “what the hell is going on here?” But unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of that present here. Published in 1979, Jailbird is a mixture of both fact and fiction but steers heavily in the direction of historical and political realism and is considered to be Vonnegut’s Watergate novel. Maybe it’s because Watergate and the whole Nixon administration happened before my time, but I struggled to stay interested in Walter Starbuck’s autobiographical tale. I still enjoyed my time reading it and would be open to reading it again in the future.

-

I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.

-

I still ponder a toast Ruth gave one Christmas Eve, in Nineteen-hundred and Seventy-four or so. I was the only person to hear it - the only other person in the bungalow. Our son had not sent so much as a Christmas card. The toast was this, and I suppose she might just as logically have given it on the day I met her in Nuremberg: “Here’s to God Almighty, the laziest man in town.” Strong stuff.

-

“I feel so silly,” said Sarah.
“You don’t believe you’re beautiful?” said her grandmother.
“I know I’m beautiful,” said Sarah. “I look in a mirror, and I think, ‘I’m beautiful.’”
“What’s wrong, then?” said her grandmother.
“Beautiful is such a funny thing to be,” said Sarah. “Somebody else is ugly, but I’m beautiful. Walter says I’m beautiful. You say I’m beautiful. I say I’m beautiful. Everybody says, ‘Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,’ and you start wondering what it is, and what’s so wonderful about it.”
“You make people happy with your beauty,” said her grandmother.
Sarah laughed. “It’s so silly,” she said. “It’s so dumb,” she said.
“You should stop saying everything is silly and dumb,” said her grandmother.
“Everything is silly and dumb,” said Sarah.
“You will learn differently as you grow older,” her grandmother promised.
“I think everybody older just pretends to know what’s going on, and it’s all so serious and wonderful,” said Sarah. “Older people haven’t really found out anything new that I don’t know. Maybe if people didn’t get so serious when they got older, we wouldn’t have a depression now.”

the most straight forward vonnegut book I've ever read - only had 2 temporal timelines going on at once!

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors, and he has yet to let me down. Other readers are correct in the pacing of this book - it moves along a bit slower than other Vonnegut novels, but this was probably intentional with the author constantly referencing what a sad, old, fragile man he had become. I can't think of a single time that I've witnessed a fragile old man rushing through his story.

There were several things that made me fall in love with this story, which actually not my standard favorite things about Vonnegut novels. This novel absolutely struck me with the kindness and true forgiveness between the characters (this is also what made me fall in love with Les Miserables). I was absolutely struck with the scene where Starbuck and Clewes reunited: the former initially fleeing with fear of what the man he ruined might say or do to him, and the latter fully forgiving Starbuck as if he had never held any animosity towards him. He didn't forgive him in the way that we often see and practice today: he wiped the slate clean, wanting to befriend him again, he held no grudge. To me, this was absolutely beautiful - I had to read it a couple of times before I could move forward.

The protagonist, Walter, also struck me with his ability throughout the story to hold no grudge. One particular scene in the beginning stuck out to me quite a bit:
"That's what you say about everything," Clyde complained. "No matter what it is, you say, 'It's all right.'" "It usually is," I said."

Again, this theme throughout the book was just beautiful to me.

Some of my favorite things with Vonnegut's writing shone brilliantly through his writing, yet again. Of course, I can't imagine that his great (and often unexpected) sense of humor could ever be left from one of his books. I could not stop laughing after Walter was released from prison without his shoes, but refused to go back for them because of his fear that he would be re-arrested for putting a bowling trophy in a pile of his own feces. I also loved the intricacy of the story, and the amazing coincidences that caused all of the pieces of the story to fall together just so.

In short: yep, I loved it!

Not one of the better known Vonnegut novels, and significantly different than most of his other collection. This is perhaps his most serious work.

Jailbird lacks the absurdist bent characterized by so much of his other satire, and is conspicuously somber throughout most of the book, though it still features Vonnegut’s fast style and light approach. This might also be his most politically dogmatic work, eschewing his ubiquitous humor and playful wisdom with a staid, thoughtful passion for rights needing to be championed.

All the same, he tackles some heavy subjects and embraces the themes with a mature, though still wry humor.

***** 2019 re-read

I had a conversation some time ago about the best books of Joseph Conrad and how some people would be in the Heart of Darkness school (that’s me) others would favor Lord Jim or Nostromo, and I made an honorable mention vote for Victory as a dark horse and that some people could see that fine work as their favorite Conrad novel.

Likewise, if asked which of Vonnegut’s many fine books was their favorite, the pie chart created would see big pieces cut for Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five. My own vote would go to Breakfast of Champions, one of my all-time favorite books. But like Conrad’s Victory, I can see where someone would say that Jailbird is their Favorite Vonnegut Book! It has a style and charisma all its own.

In today’s polarized American political society, which has unfortunately permeated into just about any aspect of American life, we frequently hear the term “socialist” thrown around. Vonnegut would likely have identified himself as a socialist.

He famously invited graduating college students to dedicate their lives to a socialist government. He was a proud member of the “greatest generation” who survived the great depression and then went to fight WWII. Vonnegut would have voted enthusiastically for FDR and for his New Deal policies.

He also said this:

“Socialism" is no more an evil word than "Christianity." Socialism no more prescribed Joseph Stalin and his secret police and shuttered churches than Christianity prescribed the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity and socialism alike, in fact, prescribe a society dedicated to the proposition that all men, women, and children are created equal and shall not starve.”

And so we come to his 1979 publication Jailbird, about capitalism, socialism, McCarthyism, labor, wrongs and rights, relationships, and privilege. Vonnegut introduces Walter F. Starbuck as our narrator and protagonist. Walter is writing his memoirs after having served time in prison for his involvement in Watergate.

Interestingly, Watergate was perhaps my earliest political memory. I would have been five or six when most of that went down and I heard the odd word and all the talk on the news at night and recall my grandfather saying “grumble grumble Nixon” while watching. And so on.

Starbuck had been raised in the home of a millionaire capitalist whose family had viewed the “Cuyahoga Massacre” a labor protest that was met by betrayal, violence and murder. His sponsor sends him to Harvard and being a “Harvard Man” is a ubiquitous label of undeserved privilege throughout the novel.

While Kilgore Trout does not make an appearance, his name is, as a character writes short stories and used as his pseudonym Vonnegut’s recurring SF writer. Vonnegut’s use of Trout’s stories is a brilliant literary device to introduce an oblique idea into the narrative.

We also learn some facts about the tragic Sacco and Vanzetti case and here Vonnegut demonstrates his considerable skill as a storyteller because in those chapters we live again the “red scare” from the first world war that resulted in this miscarriage of justice. Vonnegut also gives us a colorful description of the labor movements throughout the twentieth century.

Finally, and here I am coming out of left field with a very obscure and perhaps incorrect comparison, but I wondered if KV was not inspired by Jean Giraudoux’ 1943 play The Madwoman of Chaillot, with its portrayals of backroom deals and a network operating behind the economic scenes. Vonnegut’s madwoman would be Mary Kathleen O'Looney, one of his most delightful characters.

Highly recommended.

"The economy is a thoughtless weather system—and nothing more."

This is a Vonnegut Novel which I tried to read many times since last November. About a second gen American guy who went to Harvard survived the great depression working for government followed by becoming jobless out of McCarthyism for his communist connections from his college days. He goes back again to work for government in a few years time only to get 2 years time of imprisonment for having been a part of Watergate scandal and little more of what happened after getting released from the prison makes the plot moving.

"She said that it was good that we could still laugh, despite all we had been through."

I think anyone who is familiar with the works of Vonnegut knows for sure that they'd be typically nothing to do with the plot. It's a mixed experience reading it. Say, a clumsy attempt at portraying labour struggles, failed destitute revolutionaries, free market enterprise system. I do feel it's more of a continuation or better, as a more politicized form of God bless you Mr. Rosewater but not as impressive as Rosewater.

"As an officer of an enormous international conglomerate, that nobody who is doing well in this economy ever even wonders what is really going on. We are chimpanzees. We are orangutans."

That's one of the striking things with reading Vonnegut I guess. It's like experiencing the same notions at different intensified layers of reality presumably of the same world. Of course for beginners, there are better books to start with.

"I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool."

Personally I've a feeling that I'd always be proud and contended being an nincompoop as long as I keep reading this nincompoop. Maybe not this time but usually he's just pretty good at convincing, you know?

Walter F. Starbuck on maailman mitättömin Watergate-rikollinen ja Piruparka huonoin Vonnegutilta lukemani kirja.

Piruparasssa pannaan halvalla valkokaulusrikollisia ja Harvardin miehiä. Lisäksi Vonnegut irvailee kommunistipelolle, isänmaallisuudelle, hallinnolle, Vietnamin sodalle, asevarustelulle ja Amerikan hassunkurisille kummajaisille.

Piruparka on kokoelma Walterille ja muille henkilöille tapahtuvia sattumuksia. Henkilöt pompsahtavat hetkeksi heittelemään sukkeluuksia. Opiskelijoina he veistelevät vitsejä persposkista ja piereskelevistä naisista. Aikuisena he jakelevat viisauksia: "Amerikassa menestyneet ihmiset eivät koskaan ajattele pieniä asioita". Ja katoavat jälleen. "En ole ikinä tavannut ketään, jolla olisi yhtä kova hinku olla yökötys kuten sinulla.", sanoo vankilakaveri Larkin, ent. Nixonin hallinnon virkamies ja Harvardin käynyt hänkin. Ja katoaa tarinasta. "En enää halua nähdä sinua.", sanoo poika Walterille ja katoaa kuvioista.

Vahvat on jutut, toteaa Walter: "Niinpä minä jätin sanomatta mitään vakavaa."

Piruparka oli ikävystyttävä kirja. Mutta minkäs teet, sillä "ikävystymiselle eivät mahda jumalatkaan mitään." Eikä mahtanut Kurt Vonnegutkaan.

Pidempi arvio Piruparasta löytyy https://keltainenkirjasto.blogspot.co...

I didn't know what to expect when I picked this out of the bargain bin at my college book store, although it is not one of Vonnegut's more famous works I was pleasantly suprised. The politics and simple, yet randomly insightful, style of writing aside, what I really loved about this book was the side stories written under the psedonym "Kilgore Trout" which was one of his prison mates in the white collar prison. Two specifically caught my attention as brilliant, especially as they were written in the 1970s. #1 story of the inhabitants of Vicuna having to leave their planet becasue they used up its future...apparently they had discovered away to use future time to make plastic toys, fetilizer, food, fuel, etc... and they found they used all their time up, until there was no future left. Another side story displayed a critique on capitialism ( I love how he uses capitialism and communism as two juxtaposing yet intertwining themes in this book) by discussing a story where there are auditors outside of St Peter's Gate to get into heaven. Before you get in they sit down with you and tell you about all the opportunities you had to get rich while you were on Earth, that way you could no longer blame God if you were poor or "lacking". However the main character points out that it would be impossible for all of these people to make use of these opportunities because not everyone could be rich- we would over value our currency at the price of how natural resources to the point that the money would become obsolete, and furthermore no one would be around to do menial tasks..... brilliant!

Happy Peaceful Jailbirds

This is a curious novel. For the first 11 chapters (170 pages), it read like an autobiography (of a former journalist and Harvard graduate become adviser on youth affairs in Richard Nixon’s administration). Only in the 13 chapters (136 pages) that followed did it take on the familiar comic absurdist style of social commentary for which Vonnegut is better known.

Love of Labour

The novel is a critique of private enterprise, capitalism and the labour relations that are imposed on workers by both small employers and large corporations (such as RAMJAC Corporation, a highly acquisitive conglomerate that owns 19% of the American economy, the ownership of which is eventually gifted to the US government, on behalf of the American people, on the death of the sole remaining shareholder, Mrs Jack Graham):

“[Most of] the businesses of RAMJAC, rigged only to make profits, were as indifferent to the needs of the people as, say, thunderstorms...Some joke on the people, to give them such a thing.”

The business people in the novel are largely corrupt Republican politicians, lackeys, crooks, mobsters and criminals (or is that a tautology?).

The narrator, Walter F. Starbuck, is now a 66 year old grandfather “who, when all is said and done, was a clean and dapper and kindly old man”, but was once a Communist until the non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin. While benign in nature, he ends up in prison twice during the novel: the first time as “the oldest and least celebrated of the Watergate co-conspirators”, and the second time on a highly technical charge of unlawfully concealing the will of Mrs Jack Graham.

The sympathetic and sentimental approach to the history of American labour relations (e.g., the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti) reminded me a lot of Thomas Pynchon’s n  “Vineland”n and n  “Bleeding Edge”,n though written before and set midway between the two novels.

Kilgore Trout features as the pseudonym of one of Walter’s fellow prisoners, who spends his time in jail writing science fiction stories and novels (including a story set on the planet, Vicuna - see the poem below).

American Dreams

The tone of the novel gravitates towards a sentimental, dream-like humanism, even when contrasted to the blind faith of the American people (and their corrupt politicians) in the miraculous potential of the invisible hand of capitalism.

It forced me to contemplate whether (and hope that) the Trump administration would end up matching the record of the Nixon administration in filling American jails out of its own number.

Ting-a-Ling (Hello/Goodbye)
[Vicuna Song Dedicated to Kilgore Trout]

(This poem is constructed out of interstitial words and phrases used by Kurt Vonnegut throughout the novel.)

Times change.
Live and learn.
Small world.
Strong stuff.
Too bad.
Time passed.
Nature sympathised.
Life goes on.
And on and on.
That's life.
So be it.
Fair is fair.
Peace.

SOUNDTRACK:

The Beatles- “Hello, Goodbye”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblYS...

Frank Zappa - Occam’s Razor” (an almost xenochronic extract from a live version of "Inca Roads")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp93b...