Underrated Vonnegut

For Vonnegut diehards only. It's funny in spots but I enjoyed this about one tenth as much as my least favorite novel (or essay collection) of his that I've read.

It’s been too long since I’ve gotten to add another book to my shelf. Vonnegut’s crack at a play with a satirical overview and parody-like view of Homer’s The Odyssey, while it is not a perfect Vonnegut work, it is nonetheless, fun to read. A message of peace and change of the modern hero carries Vonnegut’s message of humanism.

I like the beginning ‘About This Play’ opening:

‘This play is what I did when I was forty-seven years old - when my six children were children no more. It was a time of change, of goodbye and goodbye and goodbye. My big house was becoming a museum of vanished childhoods - of my vanished young manhood as well.
This was on Cape Cod.

There were widows all around me - in houses like mine.’

Highly enjoyable! I don’t read many plays, but if this is an indication of the fun and creative nature that modern playwrights can bring, I am interested to check out more. Only my second Vonnegut (other was Slaughterhouse), but his very inventive and witty bouts of dialogue and sarcastic double meanings are welcome respite from the overly serious and self-involved reading I typically pursue.

Always love Vonnegut. This one is a little different in that it’s a play. Engaging as always

Not essential, but if you like Vonnegut it might be worth the short read. Wouldn't mind seeing it acted out if I have the opportunity.

Very quick read but it is absolutely packed with Vonnegut’s expected humor and perspective. He is my favorite author so take any review with a handful of salt. But this is a timeless and hilarious attack on toxic and fragile masculinity that deserves MUCH more recognition.

I like when books make me laugh because they’re smart. I also appreciate how the allegory of this play transcends time, as it could easily apply to the challenges in today’s cultural and/or political climate.

What a timely play. This was written during the Vietnam name era but it applies to today.

3.50 stars

My girlfriend and I were house-sitting a house this weekend. I was impressed to discover Wanda June on the bookshelf, as I know it's quite difficult to find. After contemplating taking it ("they won't notice, it's an old book, probably belonged to one of the kids that are now grown up" etc) I settled on the idea of reading it at the house.
After waiting for Deb to go to sleep, I tried to imagine that I was actually in a theatre, about to watch a play written by Kurt Vonnegut. This excited me enormously.

In the end the play was a lot of fun. There was only a small cast, but through the dialogue, as well as Vonnegut's use of limited but effective imagery and props, it was fluid and entertaining.

I think reading Vonnegut's intro at the beginning of the book may have made a contribution to my enjoying this so much. He makes it clear that he wasn't trying to write the next Odyssey, and he wasn't trying to become the next Shakespeare, but he just felt like doing something different for a while and this play was what he chose to do.

A simple, yet intelligent little story, reminiscent of Vonnegut's earlier short stories.