"Nonostante i nostri enormi cervelli e le nostre biblioteche gremite di libri, noi alberghi-per-germi non possiamo pretendere di capire tutto, assolutamente tutto." (pp. 176, 177)

Hocus Pocus felt sort of similar to Mother Night, which is my favorite of Vonnegut’s books. But it was also missing something in comparison, so I’d rate it 3.5 stars. The main character, Eugene Hartke, is awaiting trial for a prison break that he is accused to being a part of and he tells his story up to that point. And while the war in Vietnam plays a part, it feels more like he’s just describing the amount of women he slept with and the amount of people he kills, which is actually what his story leads up to. Sure, there’s thoughts on war, love, and life in America, but it seems hollow compared to Mother Night.

I do like how this followed Vonnegut’s style, how there really isn’t much of a beginning, middle, or end and the story is just free flowing. With his dark comedy and despicable characters, it works so well. And had I not read Mother Night, I may very well have liked this more.

Vennas oli kas vanglas või teda vallandati kuskilt. Iga lõik keegi suri ära ja pool tema suguvõsast oli täis dyslexiaga inimesi (ta pani perse neile selle eest). Pani puid, et ta ema ja ta üks naistest oli vaimuhaiged, aga sai postiga kirju tulnukatelt? Peategelane oli väga rassistlik aga vähemalt tali ally. Ei mäleta mitte ühtegi nime ega situatsiooni, mis aset leidis ngl aga mulle meeldis see konseptisoon tbh. Mingi videomäng ennustas et temast saab naistevägistaja ja alkohoolik tho.
Personaalselt kui sai loe Vonneguti siis mai soovitaks seda raamatut. See lõpp oli jumala fire tho kuna seli lowkey autobiograafia siis seal oli vahepeal mingid conspiracy theoryd jne.

“The 2 prime movers in the Universe are Time and Luck.”

“Hocus Pocus” is one of those Vonnegut novels that works from time to time. The first 75 pages or so are slow going. However, around page 100 I found myself more interested in the story. And it was easy going from then on.
Vonnegut reveals the story in this text piece by piece in scraps of memory revealed by the narrator. Each page reveals more of the larger picture, and the reader finds themselves understanding just a little bit more of the puzzle until it comes together as a whole picture. This revealing gaps of the plot piece by piece is a common device, but Vonnegut employs it really well in this book. It comes across as effortless, and not at all contrived.
“Hocus Pocus” is the life story of the narrator Eugene Debs Hartke. The novel takes on themes of parenting, adultery, mental instability, the Vietnam War, socialism, atheism, and the distinction in social classes brought about by race and wealth. That’s a lot of stuff to take on, and I did not mention all of it. And every last bit of it done with vintage Vonnegut black humor and dry wit.
Vonnegut is especially harsh on the irresponsibly wealthy and on those behind the Vietnam War in this book. Frankly, I feel that in the context in which he presents those opinions in the plot he is more than justified.
This novel did not feed me as much of some of Vonnegut’s other works, but it is a good book nonetheless. Some of his lesser know (and later) novels are often given short shrift. “Hocus Pocus” does not deserve that fate.

O Vonnegutcie mogłabym powiedzieć wiele, a wciąż byłoby to za mało, więc jedyne, co zrobię, to puszczę do Was oko i przypomnę, że pragnę przeczytać wszystko, co autor ten stworzył. Bo warto. Po prostu. Jego czarne komedie to doskonała krytyka rządu oraz jednostek, a to zawsze znajdzie moje uznanie, jeśli przedstawione jest ze smakiem.

„To, że niektórzy z nas potrafią czytać, pisać i trochę rachować, nie znaczy jeszcze, że zasługują na to, by podbić Wszechświat."

The name of the main character of this book is Eugene Debs Hartke. Oddly enough, I grew up familiar with Eugene Debs even though he was not exactly a headline name in the 50’s and 60’s because as a child my mother was taken by her older brother to hear him speak, a fact she mentioned on a number of occasions. Presumably he made a big impression on a child who couldn’t have been more than 10 at the time.

Equally odd - one of my most vivid memories of that same uncle’s house is the omnipresent stack of Wall Street Journals in his living room. What would Debs have made of that?

Back to the book. It’s vintage Vonnegut, with a slippery timeline. It was written in around 1990, with the principle events occurring 10 years into that future, which means 2o years ago now. Over the course of the book Hartke recounts the life circumstances that led him to his status at the time of the narrative, a convict awaiting trial in the library of a college that has been converted to a prison. Most of the action post-Vietnam takes place in the Finger Lakes district of NY state, an area I know very well. So, another personal connection.

One of Vonnegut’s themes, perhaps the major theme, is the wealth disparity between those at the very top and the rest of us. In the book, the source of the inordinate wealth of the elite is the sale to foreigners of all the income producing assets of the US. In reality, the growth of the 2% has been due to all manner of greed, abetted by politicians and tax codes and various slimy undertakings.

But regardless of the means, we are moving ever closer to the scenario painted by Vonnegut. Which made this book a wee bit too close to reality for me to enjoy it in quite the same manner as I have other of his books, although it does carry the same acerbic, ironic sparkle as they do.

n  “If there is a Divine Providence, there is also a wicked one, provided you agree that making love to off balance women you aren't married to is wickedness. My own feeling is that if adultery is wickedness then so is food. Both make me feel so much better afterward.”n

Standard procedure for the majority of Kurt Vonnegut novels is the non-linear approach to his stories. For the reader it proves to be a difficult follow and at times makes you shake your head but it puts you in the right frame of mind with the right amount of chaos in a world where you expect to be pushed and pulled a little bit. The narrative initiates with a brief history of the protagonist Eugene Debs Hartke, outlining the generations before him and what perhaps may be awaiting him in the future. At the beginning you understand that Eugene has been the leader of men during the Vietnam War where he spent fourteen years of his life. He was kind of nudged in that direction to enlist to give his father something to talk about with his neighbours. Not necessarily the motive the many branches of military have in mind but as a great hooded philosopher once said, “it is what it is". If Eugene had it his way he would’ve become a jazz pianist but again, “it is what it is".

After completing his service to the country he returned home a shattered man. War may have been great exercise for the body but it was horrible for the mind. He had lost all respect for himself as well as the leadership of the country. He eventually regained some stability and became a teacher, lost ground by marrying a crazy woman, had two children, discovered that he had fathered another illegitimate son while on his tour of duty, became a warden, and now finds himself on trial for being the mastermind behind America's largest reported prison break; oh his socialist grandfather would be so proud. The book for the most part takes place in the small town of Scipio, New York. A town with a population filled with people that have learning disabilities and also a prison library with an extensive catalogue. Eugene learned early to lie to cover up shortcomings, embarrassments and to protect his ego, as a professor at Tarkington College he would have his work cut out for him to pass along this helpful lesson because as flawed as they may be the world around them was all that and then some.

n  “That's the point. Every kind of animal thinks its own kind of animal is wonderful. So people getting married think they're wonderful, and that they're going to have a baby-- that's wonderful, when actually they're as ugly as rhinoceroses. Just because we think we're so wonderful doesn't mean we really are. We could be really terrible animals and just never admit it because it would hurt so much.” n

After 15 years being a professor Eugene was ultimately fired after controversial statements centering on an anti-American agenda and institutional blasphemy were unknowingly recorded and made public. Filled with self-pity about the result and repercussions of the Vietnam War; the drink built him up to a point where his mouth and the first amendment ultimately broke him down. The Board Of Trustees at the school even went as far as investigating his sex life, it became apparent that his recent run of adultery with the wives of high ranking officials and drunkenness had finally caught up to him in the form public embarrassment and shaming. But you can't keep a “good” man down for too long. A man without many loves in the world, Eugene truly loved to teach and would eventually get hired the same day as he was fired and would begin work as a teacher across the lake at the town’s maximum security prison. The Athena Prison in Scipio was bought by a Japanese Corporation and employed Japanese workers, with the idea of cutting costs there was no health insurance for prisoners and of course, given Eugene's great lick in life, he consequently contracted tuberculosis while teaching his fellow prisoners but at least he didn’t get the AIDS virus like many of the other inmates. Eugene had finally hit rock bottom, America may be the land of opportunity but it’s history also shows potential for further destruction.

n  “I dared some of the more intelligent prisoners to prove to me that the World was round, to tell me the difference between noise and music, to tell me how physical traits were inherited, to tell me how to determine the height of a guard tower without climbing it, to tell me what was ridiculous about the Greek legend which said that a boy carried a calf around a barn every day, and pretty soon he was a man who could carry a bull around the barn every day, and so on.”n

The narrative travels back and forth in time at such a breakneck pace that at times left me shaking my head, and with all of the storylines it almost made me scream “mataei" or admit defeat, but like Eugene I carried on. Halfway through the book I was still wondering where the plot was, I knew there was a prison break, the man also held a pessimistic view on all things humanity and was eager to tell his story. Hocus Pocus is put together in a self-described patchwork style where chapters don’t mark the end of anything or a beginning to a new thought it is just a division of the writing, a respect to literary tradition, or if you take the narrator at his word it is simply where the narrator’s scrap piece of paper ended. If you put it all together Hocus Pocus is a retrospective look at the life of a Vietnam War veteran, the horrors you are reminded of secondarily through history, the trauma we personally experience, and the events that await us in the future. It also serves as a commentary for commercialization, globalization, the prison and education system; essentially humanity as a whole is covered in this monumental rant of a novel. Personally I was not really fond of this novel and felt that it was a little to strange and discombobulated for my liking. My first foray into the world of Vonnegut was Breakfast Of Champions and it was a welcome surprise to me the uninitiated, and introduced me to the world of absurdity and all of its delightful pleasures. Ever since that first read I have been on the lookout at my local shops for anything Vonnegut and beyond Slaughterhouse-Five I haven’t had much luck until Hocus Pocus was leaping off of the shelves. Although this read didn’t have the same result my feelings have not swayed and I look forward to my next experience. I may have been a little bamboozled by the whole notion of the author into reading this book of nonsense and nothingness, I still maintain my belief in magic in literary form.

n  “My body, as I understand it, is attempting to contain the TB germs inside me in little shells it builds around them. The shells are calcium, the most common element in the walls of many prisons, including Athena. This place is ringed by barbed wire. So was Auschwitz.
If I die of TB, it will be because my body could not build prisons fast enough and strong enough.
Is there a lesson there? Not a cheerful one.”n

This was written in such a bizarre fashion that it took me awhile to get into it. The longer I read the more I realized Vonnegut was able to pack quicker and harder punches.

There was a lot here and I laughed like hell.

Also finding out Andrew Jackson Jihad got their album title for "People Who Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World" from this book was super cool.

THE COMPLICATED FUTILITY OF IGNORANCE

I had to laugh like hell...

Reading Hocus Pocus hard on the heels of Brave New World, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and various other social/political material certainly gave a new depth to this amazing novel. I've owned it for quite a few years but had never quite gotten around to reading it: I suppose there is a time and a place for everything, because I would not have resonated with this novel as strongly at any other time.

Life seems to be, in Vonnegut's view, one long, complicated, and futile struggle indeed. A perpetual motion machine into which we keep inputting energy, hoping for a different result. Even the best of intentions (and rarely do humans really have those) can so easily go astray. While some see Vonnegut as satire, and others seem him as endlessly and hopelessly depressing, I see him in a role similar to that of the main character of this book: a Preacher; a Professor.

And the lessons Vonnegut has to teach us range all over society and politics, from scathing denunciations of war (particularly Vietnam, "about nothing but the ammunition business") and our treatment of returning soldiers, through the unethical and greedy action of the rich in the stock market (in the book's 2001, most of America is owned by the Japanese and many of the "ruling class" have lost their fortunes in a stock market scam that would have floored Bernie Madoff), to the state of our prisons (once again race segregated) and the utterly impossible divide between the haves and the have nots. Oh, and the environment (hopelessly mangled and experiencing climate change) and the energy crisis. Let's not forgot those!

The main character, Eugene Debs Hartke, is indeed named after the Eugene Debs, to whom the book is dedicated, and the reader should take note of this early marker for direction and interpretation.

Hartke is an anti-hero: soldier, criminal, teacher, fraud, compassionate husband, passionate adulterer. But he tries, God how he tries. He just wants to make people happy, give them some comfort, give them some knowledge... Unfortunately, knowledge has a tendency to make the Ruling Class squeamishly uncomfortable. (The Board of Trustees of Tarkington College, where our anti-hero teaches after returning from Vietnam, actually tells an applicant for Professor of Physics that she "would never, whether in class or on social occasions, discuss politics or history or economics or sociology with students.") And when Hartke is called to account by that same board for telling the truth of the world as he sees it, mostly unwittingly or while drunk, he is "let go" (what you do to the Servant Class, while people in the Workforce are fired and Soldiers are discharged). How he subsequently ends up teaching at the Black Prison across the lake (run for profit by the Japanese at a fraction of the cost of the State's running of it), surviving a mass inmate escape, becoming mayor of his consequently abandoned ghost town, and eventually imprisoned in his "own" library and dying of tuberculosis forms the majority of the rest of the narrative.

But the narrative is not nearly as interesting (in my opinion) as the landscape Hartke inhabits. Published in 1990, the parasitic germs of Vonnegut's speculative future (only ten years out) had not only already been planted, but were already beginning to devour their host. A country in which the Yen is a stable and accepted currency in the US of A alongside the dilapidated dollar (got a wheelbarrow?), a tank of gas costs a small fortune, the rivers are clogged with non-biodegradable plastic bottles, and a new ice age is bearing down on it all.

Some reviewers have said that Vonnegut tends to hit one over the head with the moral of his stories over and over again. He does, but in such a thought-provoking, and, indeed, sometimes hilarious way, that I wanted more.

On profanity: "profanity and obscenity entitle people who don't want unpleasant information to close their ears and eyes to you."

On the class system: "Down with the Ruling Class!"

On joining the military: "...to be put in a soldier suit and turned into a homicidal, suicidal imbecile in 13 weeks."

On the class system and joining the military: "not one of them [(the Board of Trustees)] had allowed a son or daughter to be sent over there [(Vietnam)]."

On being a teacher: "All I ever wanted to overthrow was ignorance and self-serving fantasies."

On America: "...human slavery... [has] in fact, never gone away. People [want] to come here because it [is] so easy to rob the poor people, who [get] absolutely no protection from the Government. [There are] bridges falling down and water mains breaking because of no maintenance. [There are] oil spills and radioactive waste and poisoned aquifers and looted banks and liquidated corporations. And nobody ever gets punished for anything. Being an American means never having to say you're sorry."

On the most brilliantly cruel and sadly realistic business scheme ever: "Microsecond Arbitrage, Incorporated: That swindle claimed to be snapping up bargains in food and shelter and clothing and fuel and medicine and raw materials and machinery and so on before people who really needed them could learn of their existence. And the company's computers, supposedly, would get the people who really needed whatever it was to bid against each other, running profits right through the roof."

And finally, an epitaph for the planet: "We could have saved it, but we were too doggone cheap!"

"Any form of Government, not just Capitalism, is whatever people who have all our money, drunk or sober, sane or insane, decide to do today."

''Hocus Pocus'' is first-person narrative told by Eugene Debs Hartke, West Point graduate and Vietnam War veteran told in retrospective and written on scraps of paper whilst in prison.

Hartke is thoughtful about his war record but not tormented by it and is quite candid about the number of people he killed or had killed on behalf of his Government nor the many official lies he dispensed whilst an information officer. After leaving Vietnam and the Army he is recruited by his old commanding officer to become a physics teacher at Tarkington College in upstate New York, an institution that specializes in nurturing the moronic sons and daughters of the ruling class.

After years in tranquil academia Hartke is fired from the college for being too pessimistic and thus unpatriotic by rich and powerful accusers who never actually served in the military themselves. As he explains, ''I see no harm in telling young people to prepare for failure rather than success, since failure is the main thing that is going to happen to them.''

On dismissal from the college Hartke finds employment just across the lake at the former state prison, which is run for profit by a Japanese corporation and operates it much more efficiently and profitably than the state did. ''Poor and powerless people, no matter how docile, were no longer of use to canny investors.''

The prison is populated entirely by black inmates after a Supreme Court ruling that it was inhuman to confine one race with another so the entire prison population escapes, during a gang operation to break out an individual drug dealer and crosses the frozen lake to the Tarkington campus taking the college's Governors hostage. Believing that blacks were incapable of planing a prison break, Hartke is arrested as the leader of the uprising and incarcerated himself.

In Hartke's America most of the country's companies and institutions has been sold to foreigners, who feel like invaders in business suits, and what is left is broken down and depleted where black markets and racial and social inequalities are epidemic. On the face of it this could be seen as a cynical and sarcastic critique of his own country. Yet it isn't totally pessimistic as there are also glimpses of compassion.

I felt that Hartke was excellent characterisation. He wasn't without his faults but he does have some redeeming traits. "My own feeling is that if adultery is wickedness then so is food. Both make me feel so much better afterward." Therefore he comes across as being very human a fact enhanced by the almost conversational style to the writing. The story is told with shifting timelines, is erratic at times and occasionally goes off on tangents. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book feeling a mixture of emotions whilst doing so, some times laughing at others cringing and as such feel that it deserves to be more widely read.

{3⭐️} This took me a while to stumble through. Although I love Vonnegut, the whole scatter-brained plan to this one didn't pan out for keeping my attention. There are several passages that I loved, but they were separated by others that I could live without.

Favorite Quote(s):
"That's the point--every kind of animal thinks its own kind of animal is wonderful... Just because we think we're so wonderful doesn't mean we really are. We could be really terrible animals and just never admit it because it would hurt so much."

"Bergeron's epitaph for the planet, I remember, which he said should be carved in big letters in a wall of the Grand Canyon for the flying-saucer people to find, was this:
WE COULD HAVE SAVED IT,
BUT WE WERE TOO DOGGONE CHEAP."

"If there really had been a Mercutio, and if there were really a Paradise, Mercutio might be hanging out with teenage Vietnam draftee casualties now, talking about what it felt like to die for other people's vanity and foolishness."

"Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."

My first Kurt Vonnegut book and I gotta say that I love it! Reminds me of the style of writing and John Irving and Cormac McCarthy and stuff like that. I thought Kurt Vonnegut wrote science fiction for some reason so was surprised to find the book full of war reminiscences and eclectic facts and a kind of flat humour that I guess only a certain kind of person would get.

The story follows the ramblings of a.. I was going to say Vietnam Veteran, but that's only a small part of what he is.. It's the musing of a US citizen backwards and forwards through his life. The story is non-linear, but the ends are tied up so nicely that you never lose a sense of where or when you are in the story. I get the feeling that Kurt Vonnegut has written very often in this style and has mastered it.

Sometimes I caught myself looking for a point to the story, but on the whole it was rewarding to just follow the ideas and story wherever it led. There's enough interesting stuff going on for me not to miss a conventional story-line.

If I were to write a story, this is the kind of thing I would write; but I could only aspire to be as interesting as this.

Recommended for sure.