Every book I’ve read by Kurt Vonnegut is simultaneously unique and typically “Vonnegut”. This brilliant novel, the story of Rudy Waltz, Midland City, Ohio, is no exception. I really enjoyed reading it.

Reread. First read this as a teenager and secretly held this (among Bluebeard and Galapagos) as one of my stealth favorites. Twenty years later, oh I get why you loved it, you poor creature.

Like the weirdest recipe blog I've ever read.

sono riuscita a leggerlo velocemente, cosa posso dire? Poco o niente perchè io odio ferocemente questa tipologia di visione di vita che Vonnegut ci butta addosso. Invischiati a leggere già dalle prime parole, una racconto acido e sarcastico, strutturalmente e artificialmente complesso, cerchi di barcamenarti a capire cosa Vonnegut voglia comunicarti.....cosa? Nulla, che la vita è maledizione e sfiga ed ogni evento che ti può capitare ti schiaccerà il destino e la mente...
Alla larga...

so might’ve been silly to read a book about mortality when i’m in a period where i’ve been thinking about it more anyway… but true vonnegut fashion of making light of it all

There is a lot to unpack here, from this trove of symbols and motifs; but I will simply recommend this book as the rollicking yet sad tale of the trials of an American family, as microcosm of the nation itself. One quote stands out to me:

“That is my principal objection to life, I think: It is too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.”

Deadeye Dick isn't one of Vonnegut's most famous books, but I think it's among his best. It's funny and mordant (obviously), but I really like the structure of the book. The point of the book is that life is unpredictable and takes you by surprise, which is reflected in the structure. Very early in the book we learn that the narrator, Rudy Waltz, runs a hotel in Haiti with a voodoo head waiter. He lives there because his hometown was wiped out by a neutron bomb. The reader expects that the story will follow a path similar to Cat's Cradle, with the end of the world, the Carribean, and weird religions.

But instead, these momentus events are after-thoughts. The real focus of the story is something Rudy does as a boy, accidentally, that affects the rest of his life. Rudy's life is a surprise to the reader as well as to him.

I was hugely impressed with this novel, and relieved too. I had been read somewhere that Deadeye Dick was one of Vonnegut's weakest books, and I had slowly been losing patience with some of Vonnegut's work (for example, Bagombo Snuff Box, which I read earlier this year, I thought was mostly rather terrible). But I guess I can call myself a Vonnegut completist, therefore I must read all his novels, come hell or high water.

And Deadeye Dick has rekindled my enthusiasm for him! It's true that it doesn't have the wealth of startlingly original ideas that Cat's Cradle does; nor is it profoundly philosophical in its ramifications, as Mother Night is; nor is it even as absurdist-quirky as Breakfast of Champions... but nonetheless I rate it very highly. Some of the little phrases that Vonnegut throws out here and there are among his best.

Boiled to its essence the novel is a plea for tighter gun control. But it is far more than that really.

Reading Vonnegut's novels in chronological order I'm starting to see repetition of themes and characters. Yet again we have a deeply flawed late middle aged man reflecting on his life which is defined by an awful event.

This time around I wasn't too bothered by the characters.

Oko sokolovo (Deadeye Dick) jedan je pravi vašar sjebanosti. Mislim da je to sintagma koja će mi definitivno biti dugo prva asocijacija na ovu knjigu. Dobar vašar, naravno. A zašto? Evo samo nekih stvari koje su stale u priču o jednoj porodici u jednom gradiću i nekim osoba koje su na ovaj ili onaj način dovedene s njima u ovakvu ili onakvu vezu: nezdravi porodični odnosi, posljedice (nuklearnog) naoružanja, amfetamini, konzumerizam, rasizam, životinjska priroda čovjeka, nasilje, ratovanje... A sve prikazano tako da vas nerijetko tjera da se smijete stepenu apsurdnosti, ali pri tome osjećate grč, jer znate da je taj humor proistekao iz nevjerovatno razgranate ljudske sjebanosti.

I had a mad craze for Kurt Vonnegut Jr. about 15 years ago and read at least six of his novels including....

Slaughterhouse-Five
Cat's Cradle
Breakfast of Champions
The Sirens of Titan
Galápagos
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

All were varying degrees of wonderful.

Rather belatedly I've decided to read and reread more KV. First up was Deadeye Dick (1982). Needless to say it's utterly fab. The black humour, satire and misanthropic, sometimes whimsical, tone belie its many serious and profound points about justice, morality and chance

Some of the characters in this novel also feature in Breakfast of Champions, as well as the main location (Midland City, Ohio) and include Dwayne Hoover, Celia Hoover, Bunny Hoover, Julian Pekfo (probably related to Francine Pekfo), and the Maritimo brothers.

I can't wait to get back to more KV.

4/5

More about Deadeye Dick...

Deadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut’s funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors—a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb—Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness. Here is a tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe . . . and who we say we are.

It was really funny without me laughing out loud. Constant callbacks, specificity and the absurdism makes it technically comical. Super cool, tack pappa