I found this book in my bathroom and decided to read it. It was left there by a guest who was probably pooping when he was reading it. That's OK with me. About a third of the way through the book, Walter F. Starbuck, the hero (though he would probably prefer we not call him that), finds a paperback book in a bathroom stall at an airport and decides to read it. I about fell off my chair.

When I was a senior in high school, I was introduced to Vonnegut and proceeded to read everything the man had ever written and would ever write. I'm glad to be reintroduced to him at this phase in my life though I'm not convinced Jailbird was the best book to do it (besides having come across it in my bathroom). I did relearn a bunch about Sacco and Vanzetti though, so that was nice? I'm also going to be a bit kinder to grocery bag ladies on the street.

This book does have some of my favorite dying words ever though:

"It's all right," she said, "You couldn't help it that you were born without a heart. At least you tried to believe what people with hearts believed - so you were a good man just the same."

4 STARS for this one by Vonnegut, published in 1979. Not one of his better ones, in my opinion, but, still, it's Vonnegut! With all his satire and black humor. It's the story of Walter F. Starbuck, Harvard graduate prepared to enter the ranks of government bureaucracy. He winds up in the Nixon White House and becomes the least known of the Watergate co-conspirators. Through the story of Starbuck, Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and greed of those in power.
I miss the science fictional elements such as are found in "Cat's Cradle" or "Slaughterhouse- Five..." except we do get to meet science fiction author Kilgore Trout and he has some stories to tell!

"Why? The Sermon on the Mount, sir."

This is an often funny and yet often thought provoking book, detailing the fascinating trials and tribulations of the fictional, Walter F. Starbuck - a somewhat serially unlucky character who finds himself locked up in prison for his accidental role in the Watergate scandal, of the Nixon government.

Although often light-hearted, the book inspires many moments of reflection and intrigue, with the story-line often flicking between seemingly un-related narratives, which all somehow tie themselves together. Vonnegut explores, in a sometimes humorous manner, the nature of American society, class relations and capitalism, with an existentialist undertone throughout; 'I have to wonder what equally ridiculous commitments to bits of trash I myself have made. Not that it matters at all. We are here for no purpose, unless we can invent one'.

Overall, an enjoyable and easy read, I must now try and read some more Kurt Vonnegut!

This book follows the exploits of a least likely Watergate conspirator. While Vonnegut is one of the most notable authors of our day, this book, with its plot seemingly all over the place, just wasn’t my cup of tea.

“Coming right at me was the husk of the man who had stolen Sarah Wyatt from me, the man I had ruined back in Nineteen-hundred and Forty-nine. He had not seen me yet. He was Leland Clewes!
He had lost all his hair, and his feet were capsizing in broken shoes, and the cuffs of his trousers were frayed, and his right arm appeared to have died. Dangling at the end of it was a battered sample case. Clewes had become an unsuccessful salesman, as I would find out later, of advertising matchbooks and calendars.”
Fortune surely plays games with human beings and it played a wicked joke on the main hero of this novel – it turned him into a Jailbird
“My official title in the Nixon White House, the job I was holding when I was arrested for embezzlement, perjury, and obstruction of justice, was this: the President's special advisor on youth affairs. I was paid thirty-six thousand dollars a year. I had an office, but no secretary, in the subbasement of the Executive Office Building, directly underneath, as it happened, the office where burglaries and other crimes on behalf of President Nixon were planned. I could hear people walking overhead and raising their voices sometimes. On my own level in the subbasement my only companions were heating and air-conditioning equipment and a Coca-Cola machine that only I knew about, I think. I was the only person to patronize that machine.
Yes, and I read college and high-school newspapers and magazines, and Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy, and anything else that claimed to speak for youth. I catalogued political statements in the words of popular songs. My chief qualification for the job, I thought, was that I myself had been a radical at Harvard, starting in my junior year. Nor had I been a dabbler, a mere parlor pink. I had been cochairman of the Harvard chapter of the Young Communist League. I had been cochairman of a radical weekly paper, The Bay State Progressive. I was in fact, openly and proudly, a card-carrying communist until Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact in Nineteen-hundred and Thirty-nine. Hell and heaven, as I saw it, were making common cause against weakly defended peoples everywhere. After that I became a cautious believer in capitalistic democracy again.”
But political games are even dirtier than those the fortune is capable of playing.

Sorry I'm late boys.

In the tradition of edgy fiction in which the protagonist appears warts and all (possibly begun in Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground) Jailbird is delivered as a character's autobiography. In exploring a life with rigorous honesty and zero tendency to self aggrandizement, there are opportunities to glimpse truths about the human experience. Having spent much of his life attempting to live out the vicarious desires of his mentor, the protagonist accepts this verdict: "You couldn't help it that you were born without a heart. At least you tried to believe what the people with hearts believed-so you were a good man just the same". Kilgore Trout figures in the story and the Vonnegut humor and melancholy love for his fellow foolish, cruel, brave and occasionally wonderfully caring earthlings remains.

Like Vonnegut, I give Jailbird an A. Vonnegut gave all of his books a letter grade. (He gave Slaughterhouse Five and Cat’s Cradle A+). I tried to post an image of his graded books, but am a Luddite.
If you love Vonnegut and you haven’t read Jailbird, you really should. It’s one of my favorites. I laughed out loud several times.
Normally when writers get political it turns me off, but Vonnegut is the exception. He is so funny, so incisive, and so readable he can get away with anything.
I won’t go into a description of the plot but it’s zany and hilarious. I read this in college and loved it. Re read it yesterday. Didn’t want to put it down so I didn’t.
Highly recommended.

3,49

Jailbird

Да се хвана за заглавието. Ей така. Вонегът никога не би кръстил книгата си "Затворникът" и макар преводът да е коректен, е някък неподходящ, липсва "птичката". Руското заглавие "Рецидивистът", отново звучи гадно. "Пандизчията" пък, също би било толкова точно, но отново, ама хич не става. Сякаш испанското и по-неточно "Птица в клетка" (или "Птичка в кафез") е по-подходящото. Сещам се, че Гюнтер Грас е дал напътствия на нашата преводачка Надя Фурнаджиева да превежда книгата му по звучност и темпоритъм, добре звучи.

Отново пъстра мозайка от истории, което този път малко ме умори, но Вонегът си е Вонегът. Няма какво да преразказвам. Имаше една постоянна заигравка и иронично напомняне, че дипломите не правят хората по-човечни и мъдри. Интересна беше историята за "Сако и Ванцети", както и корелацията между: "триумвиратът", който е трябвало да реши донякъде съдбата на двамата осъдени, и Пилат Понтийски. Споменатият "триумвират" се е състоял от ректора на Харвард: А. Лорънс Лоуел, ректорът на Масачузетският технологичен институт: Самюъл Уесли Стратън, и Робърт Грант (юрист и писател) . Тримата са избрани да представляват сформирания от губернатора на Масачузетс (под натиска на обществените протести в защита на обвиняемите, впрочем и част от световната интелигенция тогава, сред които е Айнщайн - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_a...) "Консултативен съвет", който е трябвало да вземе решение относно апела за помилване на двамата осъдени на смърт - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_a...

Изкушавам се да кажа, че Вонегът мачка героите си като пластелин, постоянно ги трансформира и променя. Възход и падение, богатство и отново "зануляване" - техният статут никога не е постоянна величина, като някакво напомняне, че в крайна сметка ние нищо вечно не притежаваме. А съдбата често пъти е в ръцете на произвола на "мъдреци" със съмнителни качества.

Главният герой в романа Уолтър Ф. Старбък, е неволен и треторазряден участник в случая Уотъргейт. Разбира се, "малкият човек" винаги е бил лесна и удобна мишена, винаги той понася последствията, причинени от "големите риби". Е, тук има и фантастични обрати, но като цяло "малкият човек" си остава в състояние на "птичка в кафез".

I love Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve not read every one of his books, but up until now I’ve given every one that I’ve read 5 stars or a very strong 4 star review. Jailbird is the first Vonnegut book I disliked.

Jailbird has a lot of the content and ideas seen in other Vonnegut works. It’s non-linear, it’s downbeat, and there’s humor in the misery. However, the general weirdness of Vonnegut’s worlds is largely absent (Kilgore Trout and his fiction does have a part to play in the story, though). The text, which is often sparse and chaotic in most Vonnegut, is rather chunky here. The author was trying a different style. And that’s okay, but I never really connected with the story.

Vonnegut typically deals with some depressing or dark content but he keeps a sense of humor about things. I think that’s what makes him a special writer. His books are often hilarious but they don’t skip the big ideas or the important issues (he is frequently preoccupied with the idea of an apocalypse of our own making). With Jailbird, though, I thought that the humor was lacking. It was there, everywhere actually, but it just didn’t make up for what was a depressing story about a man who no longer gives a damn.

There’s a defeatist nature to the book which I didn’t like. Maybe I’d like it more if I read it at a different time in my life – currently dealing with my own defeats. Many Vonnegut protagonists can be called passive narrators but that’s especially true here. Lacking an absurdist nature in the world around our hero, the book’s humor plays like the laughs of a man standing at the edge contemplating whether to jump.

I’ll happily read more Vonnegut in the future. With all favorite authors there is bound to be a least favorite book for each of that author's fans. Well, I personally count Kurt Vonnegut among my favorite authors, and for now Jailbird definitely ranks at the bottom of the Vonnegut books I've read.

my second vonnegut book i’ve read and i really enjoyed it! it’s very solemn without much joy but has that vonnegut dry humor that keeps you reading more. it was a unique view into american life in a capitalist society.
my favorite part was when he explained that a starved german shepard ate part of its owner’s baby and then responded to this with “What a time to be alive!”

Man, I don't totally know what I think of this one. I really enjoyed reading about this time in history, especially the politics surrounding communism v capitalism, labor rights, McCarthyism, all that jazz. Made for a really bleak setting, and the narrator was in a pretty damn bleak situation. idk I didn't totally get him but I love love love the line that Vonnegut often dances with his narrators between good and evil. He def didn't really have feelings but I sorta liked him. He was just a stupid boy man. Reading about the women he loved was 100% the best part. Loved what he had to say about women's spirituality. I think maybe my problem was the plot? It just wasn't that interesting to me, he was just sorta walking around and thinking about his life. But I did like it, I enjoyed reading it. So maybe not. Underlined a lot, had some laughs, idk. I liked it! My least favorite Vonnegut so far tho.