Not such a bad book.

Initially, it starts off great, but the hype wears off near the end, and i dont believe it offers a satisfying ending at all.

After the first half you get the feeling like you're watching a movie and a voice commentator pauses the movie every 5 seconds to talk about something barely relevant. Basically like watching a family movie with the relative. This means the story is paused every once in a while to talk about something on the side that reaches a pinnacle of irrelevancy to the main plot. Then we go back to the plot

The tone of the story is great and the way it's describes makes it even greater, but after a while you just want to see the movie without any commentary.

As i use to say to most books like these : it couldve been shorter and more concentrated.

I think the reason that I like Kurt Vonnegut's books so much is because the way he writes makes it 100% believable that it is the character's style and thoughts when writing. I don't think any other author's have made me feel this way while reading and this novel was no exception. I loved the one lined sentences showing up between passages which is common in his hectic style of writing. Once again this book does not disappoint and I highly recommend.

There is such an incredible rage in this book ... rage coated with bitter sarcasm. Now, you may be thinking, "Of course, it's by Kurt Vonnegut."

But, the writer of this book isn't the one who wrote SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. Yes, it was physically the same person, but this Vonnegut doesn't pretend that there may be some grand joke permeating the Universe. This Vonnegut is peddling fatalistic horrors under the theme that the "great human experiment" isn't working at all ... and those who attempt to address things are jettisoned.

This is not to say that the book isn't worth reading. The writer is still very thought-provoking and capable of generating mental images that will have the Reader alternately cringing with familiarity and contempt. If you are willing to be challenged, it is a good read.

The problem for me was that this expression of rage came first and the story seemed to be cloaked around it instead of the story being the impetuous to drive the reaction. So, unlike E.L. Doctorow whose RAGTIME told a tale that generated a heartfelt emotional reaction, Vonnegut is often telling us what to think first and then building a story around it to illustrate his point. This can work, but it can also leave the Reader feeling detached from what is happening.

HOCUS POCUS is from a Kurt Vonnegut who doesn't believe in anything anymore ... and who is really ticked about it.

3 stars, I liked it
I enjoyed this more than previous two of his novels purely because of the tone of the narrator. A professor by profession, he keeps the language clean and entertaining throughout.

Either that or I have been reading super depressing stuff and pretty much anything not that seems like joy.

I will preface my review by saying that Kurt Vonnegut is not for everyone. Personally, I love the subject matter he writes about and his style. However, I know quite a few people that wouldn't be able to get through two chapters of this.

Hocus Pocus doesn't have much of a traditional plot; if anything, it's more of a character study of Hartke, the main character in the novel. Like the summary says, it's a fictional autobiography. For some readers, it may be slow going because of this, but there's plenty of action and drama to keep interest.

It's hard to give a review of Hocus Pocus, because it's so different from most novels. I will say that I loved it and found it highly entertaining. Vonnegut tackles a lot of issues in this novel -- environmental concerns that are eerily accurate for a book written in 1990, the effects that war has on a person and a nation, bureaucratic power games, etc. I liked the numerology aspects that are included, though the ending gave me a bit of a headache trying to figure out; I'm sure it's much easier when you're actually reading the book rather than listening to it being read. Even though it's definitely depressing (which is to be expected from Vonnegut), I found myself chuckling at many of Hartke's observations and at the weird things that have happened in his life.

There was one thing and one thing only that bothered me about Hocus Pocus. There were quite a few references to Slaughter-House Five. Hartke mentions "some author" who wrote about Trafalmadorians and goes on to mention them multiple times throughout the second half of the novel. I didn't think these references added anything to the story -- in fact, they took me out of the story because I kept wondering why Vonnegut couldn't think of anything else to reference besides his own novel.

George Ralph's performance is astounding. His tone is perfect for this book. For the humorous, satirical parts, he speaks as if he's serious, but somehow still makes it known that the words aren't meant to be taken literally. Hartke came alive for me because of Ralph's narration, and I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed Hocus Pocus as much had I not listened to this audiobook.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.

I've never been the hugest Vonnegut fan despite being well aware that given what he was trying to do and who he influenced, he should be up there with my favorites. Or should have been when I was a teenager. Or something. I'm not sure what my reservations were exactly, as I hadn't read anything by him for a while, and I really figured I should come back and reboot. Thanks to my roommate's well worm copy of Hocus Pocus I had the chance.

And okay, now I'm totally sold.

Initial reservations having to do with Vonnegut's seemingly overly light and breezy tone were just about completely swept aside as it quickly became clear that he was just running a smokescreen for the scathing cynicism at the core of this book. This is not exactly the hilarious rollercoaster the blurbs on the back suggest. Vonnegut's ambitious vision takes on the entirety of modern America, an America whose self-assurance (of its rightness, its politics, its economics) borders on religious mania even as it is shadowed by historical wars, widening class-gaps, environmental demons, and a capitalism that has begun to eat itself like a starved stomach. In some ways, it's an anti-elitist mirror world version of Ayn Rand, with the upper crust of society bailing out of the system, not to forge a dubious utopia, but to slink away from unsalvagable ventures clutching its wealth like an unbrella about to be flipped inside out by an on-rushing storm. And it's a lot of other things. The beauty of the book is the completeness and coherency of the pocket universe Vonnegut has constructed here (suggesting the scope of Against the Day even at a fraction of its length); and its accuracy, even after almost 20 years of further "progress". He even manages to tune up the "unstuck in time" formatting of Slaughterhouse Five, here a very natural digressive narration that connects threads across 50 years of history.

It's not at all surprising that Vonnegut only finished one more novel after this one. Hocus Pocus is so broad and effective that it seems hard to imagine what else could have been left to say.

This story is very much like Slaughterhouse Five with war flashbacks and a nonlinear timeline, but I liked it much better because it was less chaotic. I cannot say it is because this is one of his later works (1990) because my two favorites of the Vonnegut titles I have read are: Cat's Cradle (his fourth in 1963), and Player Piano (his first in 1952). If you are new to Kurt's writing, Cat's Cradle and Player Piano are the novels I suggest starting with. I would wait on Slaughterhouse Five until much later on.

Hocus Pocus holds up in today's American political climate, and it is depressing to see things pointed out, in a story from 1990, that people keep turning a blind eye to in order to make our current administration look acceptable. I think this book would open a few eyes just as A Handmaid's Tale and 1984 have done.

Much better than I was expecting it to be. I love Vonnegut but began with all his early works and then I heard from many (seemingly reliable) sources that his talent waned in his later career and that his final few books weren't very good.

But in fact Hocus Pocus is as poignant, humane, wise and ironic as anything I have read by him. True, it is mostly devoid of the incredible inventiveness of Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan but inventiveness isn't what this novel is about. It's not a science fiction novel of ideas. It's simply about how quickly and easily order can turn into chaos and how a system can become an appalling mess overnight.

Well, another lackluster Vonnegut. Maybe it isn't me after all...Or is it? Did I read all his good ones first? Have I changed so much that I'll be disappointed by all his stories I haven't yet read?

Cue: existential crisis

Hocus Pocus wasn't bad and maybe that's the worst part; there were some really great parts and a gimmick (which I'm always a sucker for), but I honestly couldn't care less about how many men Gene killed or women he fucked.

Best line of the book: "People who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world." Think about it, but maybe don't think so much about it that you start craving a nice chianti.

A biting satire with sharp teeth.

An often hilarious and all too often sadly accurate commentary on our culture and humanity as whole, all wrapped up in a story about a Vietnam Veteran turned instructor that witnesses a mass prison break and eventually becomes a prisoner himself. On pure plot - we are being told the story by the main character, Eugene Debs Hartke, named for a Socialist Atheist, raised by a pair of nit-wits, and then made to go to West Point by the paternal nit-wit. Eugene Hartke would have liked to go to a liberal arts college, had a decent time, and given a perfect outcome become a jazz pianist, instead he became a professional soldier and was sent to Vietnam where he saw a lot of people die and did a lot of killing himself, some even with his bare hands while others by the 'hocus pocus' of the rhetoric he spout to his inferiors. Well there was a lot that went on in Vietnam that would come back again and again to Eugene, there was a friend, and eventual brother-in-law, that 'laughed like hell' at just about everything - perhaps he was 'not quite right' or perhaps he was wiser than the rest of us, seeing just how ridiculous we all are, it all is. Well the actual war is just the beginning. We have his post-war life which was not all too kind to Eugene, both a wife and mother-in-law that were insane, and two kids that hated him for it. Eugene also landed a job at a college that was for students with money, but not capable of getting into any reputable institution for higher-learning, which happened to be right across the lake from the massive prison that would eventually be compromised and have the convicts swarming out, which is the event that brings about his own imprisonment. We also hear about his infidelities which are numerous. In a nutshell that about sums up what transpires to our protagonist, and all of it we know from early on, what we don't know is how one thing leads to another and why - that is what we learn as we read on.

The themes touched on range from capitalism, racism, religion, class-ism, small mindedness, a collapse of culture, the pointlessness of war and general ignorance. I would say the main theme which is a staple of Vonnegut's might very well be the utter ludicrousness of humanity in general.

A special note - Trafalmadorians have a call-out for those that love Slaughterhouse-Five.

For me this was classic Vonnegut, but it felt even less hopeful than normal, or perhaps it's just me and I am in need of more hope these days - either way it felt a little more depressing than witty, fun lessons. This one may suffer a bit from being published in 1990 and being set in 2001, much of his sooth-saying came close to being true, but others seemed rather off, it was this based in reality in a time now just gone by that may made it feel slightly off to this humble reader. Still a lot of things to take away, just not perhaps up to the standards he himself set in some of his other works.

Vonnegut is irreverent! And while I have to say his irreverence Is very much in line with my attitude, page after page after page of it like the Ratatat Tat of a machine gun was a bit much even for me. The paragraphs were staccato throughout the book. Thank goodness the book is short and it was over before it could wear me completely out. The fact that I listened to it in the Audible format was a benefit.

Daily Vonnegut – Day 11.

A perfectly Vonnegutian (Vonnegutese?) excrement show. If you are going to read one novel by Vonnegut, make sure it isn’t this one. He has done it better in other places. This one takes on the Vietnam War.