Kurt Vonnegut wrote so many books that sometimes a real gem gets lost in the shuffle. "Bluebeard" is just such a novel. I don't know many people who have read it, and that is simply a shame! It is a unique text (it varies greatly from the so called "Vonnegut style") and is a pretty conventional narrative that deals with many of the standard Vonnegut themes in a more easily accessible manner.
The novel is the autobiography of an artist who has become a footnote in the history of Abstract Expressionism and the mid twentieth century art movement in the United States. He is a wealthy inhabitant of the Hamptons, the child of Armenian immigrants, and a man waiting for death. His name is Rabo Karabekian. He also has a secret locked under tight security in his potato barn. Those are all the plot points you are going to get from me.
With this rather simple premise, we are given an exploration of the usual Vonnegut fare: God (and man's connection to him) war (especially WW II) man's inhumanity to man, friendship, the accidental nature of life and love, and the power of that divine in all of us...the soul. No one can bring these disparate elements together in a manner more interesting than Kurt Vonnegut, and "Bluebeard' does so in a very pleasing and rather un-ironic (for Vonnegut) way.
"Bluebeard' is written as a sort of diary, from the first person perspective of the novel's protagonist, Rabo Karabekian, and is told in the conventional linear format, with flashbacks seemingly every other paragraph. For Mr. Vonnegut, that is linear! The text has its up and downs, and the reader experiences the highs and lows of Rabo's life. There are no "spectacular" moments that pop up in the book, just life moments, some good and some bad. The book builds to a climax that is the most uplifting and life affirming that I have come across, so far, in the Vonnegut oeuvre and I was stunned and pleased by it. It was unexpected, tidy, and very appropriate.
Life is good and ill mixed together, but that does not mean that we are not supposed to enjoy it, or be dismissive of its importance. Rather, we are to be as Rabo says, "A Lazarus". We all need from time to time to be woken from the dead dreary depression of life. Vonnegut seems to be saying that if we hang on to that hope, and practice it when we can then that is enough and we should be content. I think he might just be right.

I picked this to read as a little birthday treat to myself and, true to form, Vonnegut didn't let me down.

Once apprentice to 'great man' and famous illustrator Dan Gregory before becoming one of the founders of an important abstract art movement, even if he was the least talented of the lot, Rabo Karabekian is now a septuagenarian content to live out his days in his well-off dead wife's family home, on the proceeds of his extremely valuable art collection and his only company his cook, her daughter and his best friend, Paul Slazenger. But then Rabo meets the widow Circe Berman, who bulldozes her way into his life and his home and immediately starts changing things, including the decor. She's even got him to write the autobiography that we're reading now, probably in the hopes of finding out just what he's got hidden in his potato barn...

As good a read as all of the previous books of Vonnegut's that I've read, while it didn't quite scale the heights of some of his best, his middle efforts still reach much higher than most others.

"You were no good as a commercial artist, and you were no good as a serious artist, and you were no good as a husband or a father, and your great collection of paintings is an accident. But you keep coming back to one thing you're proud of: you could really draw."

One of the most endearing, hilarious, and heartbreakingly sincere books I've ever read.

Bluebeard is full of all the stuff I love about Kurt Vonnegut: wit, empathy, humor, fascinating characters. I also happen to love the conceit of a fictional autobiography, and this one is done so well—Rabo Karabekian is thoughtfully drawn, his history believable and his Sateen Dura-Luxe catastrophe perfectly tragicomic. I also love Circe Berman, who we get to know only obliquely but who is wonderfully headstrong and funny.

There's a lacuna at the center of this story, and it's glaring, and as I got closer to the end I wondered if it would be addressed: Rabo's time in the war. He mentions how he began his service, what his mission was, and we get one or two very brief anecdotes—but no time is spent exploring what he actually did. I think that's intentional, and once I noticed it wouldn't be touched upon at all, I thought it was a smart choice, especially considering the reveal of what our Bluebeard is hiding.

It'll be hard to surpass The Sirens of Titan for me, but I've loved each of the three Vonnegut novels I've read so far and will continue to make my way through his oeuvre!

Jag läste Player Piano av Kurt Vonnegut för många, många år sedan och minns inte så mycket. Så det är egentligen ett nytt bekantskap för mig. Och ett, trevligt ska man väl inte säga, men ett intressant bekantskap. Jag gillar denna tragikomiska blandning, karaktärer, humor, och att jag måste stanna upp då och då och tänka. Vonnegut skriver om förra århundrades viktiga ämnen genom att skriva om en mans liv. Slutet är bara fantastiskt.

Потрясающая книга!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kurt Vonnegut - невероятный писатель и очень симпатичный и искренний человек!!! Я получил огромное удовольствие от прочтения этой книги, хотя есть и ложки дёгтя.

Самый главный плюс - это фирменный стиль автора, а конкретнее, гениальная способность так перепрыгивать с одного предмета на другой (на первый взгляд никак не связанный), так переплетать сюжетные линии во времени и пространстве, что в итоге мне постоянно казалось, что я читаю что-то из жанра фантастики, а между тем автор описывал жизнь обыкновенного армянина (никогда не читал книгу иностранного писателя с главным героем армянином)!!!!!

Также мне понравилось с какой симпатией Kurt Vonnegut отзывается об армянах, да и вообще, обо всех людях вне зависимости от их тех или иных особенностей. Справедливый человек!!! Были, конечно, и некоторые неточности. Например, Месроп Маштоц, по мнению автора, жил в 4-м веке до рождества Христова, да и само имя главного героя, Рабо, на армянское не очень похоже, но я могу и ошибаться.

Ложкой дёгтя оказался финал, а вернее выводы, к которым пришли Рабо и Цирцея.

I was lured to this book by Breakfast of Champions, a Vonnegut book that I loved. But sadly I was disappointed. I wanted Vonnegut’s classic writing style; his unpredictable qualms, his interrogative view of the world and his illuminating illustrations. Instead, I received none of that. Bluebeard is unusual in comparison to his other books. Its critiques on the world and human life are blatant and deliberate, rather than his usual subtle remarks. The main character, Rabo Karabekian, is a widowed former painter who is writing as an autobiography. (Vonnegut goes so far to make the book Rabo’s, that he credits a fictional character in the dedication). Rabo is a sad character. He lives in a mansion that belonged to his deceased second wife, his only companions are the cook and her daughter (who don’t for the old man much) and crippled war veteran. Rabo himself is missing an eye. When a bossy, mysterious writer invites herself into his mansion, Rabo opens up about his life, his art and his sadness. For me, the story was slow moving, and plodding until the reader discovers the secret in the barn. This saved the book. While the Rabo’s memoirs are completely boring, the suspense Vonnegut builds for Rabo’s secret is well constructed. In all, it was a quick read but it didn’t satisfy its full potential.

Загальна оцінка: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Kafam çok karışık. Çok gerçek,çok güzel,çok tuhaf ve sıkıcı bir kitap bu.

Vonnegut was exactly what I needed to get out of this reading slump I’m in, his dark comedy is just second to none and every single one of his books is a great read. This one even had a small mystery in it, what was Rabo Karabekian hiding in his potato barn? But jumping back and forth from Rabo’s past to his present day was really enjoyable, and I can’t say I enjoyed one timeframe more than the other because both were good. Circe Berman was great comedic relief for the present timeframe, but I liked Marilee as well in the past. And Vonnegut’s strong anti-war themes were prevalent in this one, something I always enjoy of his. I wouldn’t say this is a book to start you off on his works, but definitely worth a read after his highly regarded classics.

Sometimes the best thing you can do to yourself is to let your heart break, so that it gets a reason to rejuvenate. A heart so frigid that it develops fault lines, which cannot be thawed by the warmest of joys, crumbles to sand when knocked by the subtlest of pains.

Let him break your heart. Let him make your eyes welled up. Let him make you want to suddenly stop reading only to hug the book tightly. Let him destroy that something rotten in you. Let him make you loathe and love the world you live in, simultaneously.

If Kurt Vonnegut makes you laugh, you're reading him wrong.

Poate vreți să experimentați o non epifanie și nu știți cum. Atunci să-l luăm pe Vonnegut ca magistru...

Nu e puțin lucru să izbucnești în rîs la (aproape) fiecare paragraf. Umorul lui Kurt Vonnegut e devastator. Îl admir de mai bine de 3 decenii. Despre ce e vorba în Barbă Albastră? Firește, firește, de o cămară secretă, ca în povestea lui Charles Perrault. Există, totuși, o mică diferență între roman și poveste. De data aceasta, Barbă Albastră (alias pictorul Rabo Karabekian) se lasă convins să deschidă ușa cămării interzise. Dar ceea ce vede însoțitoarea lui Rabo (prozatoarea Circe Berman) este și mai terifiant decît ceea ce a văzut soția lui Barbă Albastră.

Dacă vă plac umorul, salturile temporale și întorsăturile destinului, nu pregetați să citiți romanul lui Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Ați trăit vreodată o non-epifanie? Cum, nu știți ce înseamnă o non-epifanie? Atunci studiați cu atenție acest pasaj: „Personal n-am avut nevoie de nici un fel de instrucțiuni din partea femeii mai în vîrstă ca mine și mai experimentată [Marilee Kemp, n.m.]. Am nimerit ținta, am nimerit ținta și iar am nimerit ținta!” A trăi o astfel de întîmplare, precizează prietenul lui Rabo, Terry Kitchen, înseamnă „a experimenta o non-epifanie”...

P. S. Un amănunt anecdotic: în data de 22 august 2012, prolifica Amélie Nothomb a publicat (două sute de mii de exemplare, primul tiraj!) un roman de enorm succes cu titlul Barbă Albastră, tradus instantaneu în 46 de limbi și elogiat prompt, în L’Express și Le Soir, de critici literari foarte versați.