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Like he's winking at the reader the whole time. Absolutely brilliant.
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Palm Sunday/Welcome to the Monkeyhouse
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A diabolical government asserts control by eliminating orgasms from sex in the title story of Welcome to the Monkey House - setting the tone for a collection shot through with Vonnegut's acrid wit, and his bewilderment at the corruption of humanity.
From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.
This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.
From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.
This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.
642 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1981
This edition
- Format
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642 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 1981 by Vintage
- ISBN
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9780099387817
- ASIN
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0099387816
- Language
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English
About the author
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Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 20 votes)
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6(30%)
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6(30%)
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8(40%)
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20 reviews All reviews
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What should I say? Collections are tricky. Some stories and thought pieces will make you smile, others make you want to skip ahead. And this book is a combination of two previous collection books. One about Vonnegut's short stories and another about his thought pieces. There were places where I was in love, like with the futuristic government with equalizing all the citizens alike with handicaps. The skinny had to wear weights, the intelligent had their heads filled with random noises to interrupt their thought processes, the beautiful wore bags over their heads, the graceful dancers had restrictions as did the excellent musicians. It was one of the good ones as was the play about plays and actors who are empty without the characters. Or Kurt Vonnegut Jr. interviewing himself about Dresden. There are so many thoughts, ideas, and issues to speculate in this book that reading it could take a lifetime.
But of course, there were those pieces that didn't speak to me. Those that I read through and found no resonance in me. Maybe I wasn't the right audience for the beautiful girl who is not ever seen as a human being, only as a thing, or the soldier going AWOL for his childhood sweetheart or the long and gruesome Vonnegut family history. It is okay. I don't expect Vonnegut to play a tune for me or dance like those electric monkeys with symbals every time amusing me with his stories about his thesis paper. That is not how it goes.
My take on this dual edition is that I didn't care for it. I was surprised that I need a break between Vonneguts. But this is not the book's fault, it's me. Honest to Space Aliens.
Thank you for reading! And if you are like me and let Vonnegut sneak inside you, so you hear his voice, take a break.
But of course, there were those pieces that didn't speak to me. Those that I read through and found no resonance in me. Maybe I wasn't the right audience for the beautiful girl who is not ever seen as a human being, only as a thing, or the soldier going AWOL for his childhood sweetheart or the long and gruesome Vonnegut family history. It is okay. I don't expect Vonnegut to play a tune for me or dance like those electric monkeys with symbals every time amusing me with his stories about his thesis paper. That is not how it goes.
My take on this dual edition is that I didn't care for it. I was surprised that I need a break between Vonneguts. But this is not the book's fault, it's me. Honest to Space Aliens.
Thank you for reading! And if you are like me and let Vonnegut sneak inside you, so you hear his voice, take a break.
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Some great stories. Vonnegut's kooky tales are thoroughly engaging.
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Fiction,Short stories
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Oh wow! I finished it! Almost three months later...
I could say how ashamed I am about taking so long to read a less-than-650-pages book, but there was a mix of factors that prevented me from reading it faster. So, no, I'm not ashamed.
Relived, yes. With mixed feelings, too.
I borrowed this 2 in 1 book from a colleague from work, a Vonnegut fan, who cannot seem to lend me the only Vonnegut book I'm curious about: 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
But anyway, what can I say after almost three months after I started this book?
For one, that I didn't really like 'Welcome to the Monkeyhouse'. The collection of short stories didn't appeal to me that much. For some reason, I never liked their ends. There were some really cool and crazy ideas, but I couldn't, for the life of me, enjoy the way they ended.
'Palm Sunday', on the other hand, was really enjoyable. I have never been one to read biographies, but lately I have found that some autobiographies (and maybe that's the thing) are quite interesting. Again, this is a collection of several speeches Vonnegut gave throughout his life in different places and events. But it was really refreshing to read him talking about his family, his childhood, what he saw in WWII, what he thought about writing. It is quite fascinating.
I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy Vonnegut's fiction (if I recall correctly, 'Galapagos' was just alright). But he was definitely very witty and had rather interesting things to say.
'Palm Sunday' saved the day, so to speak, even though there were some texts more boring than others. Still, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate irony, and is not easily offended.
I could say how ashamed I am about taking so long to read a less-than-650-pages book, but there was a mix of factors that prevented me from reading it faster. So, no, I'm not ashamed.
Relived, yes. With mixed feelings, too.
I borrowed this 2 in 1 book from a colleague from work, a Vonnegut fan, who cannot seem to lend me the only Vonnegut book I'm curious about: 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
But anyway, what can I say after almost three months after I started this book?
For one, that I didn't really like 'Welcome to the Monkeyhouse'. The collection of short stories didn't appeal to me that much. For some reason, I never liked their ends. There were some really cool and crazy ideas, but I couldn't, for the life of me, enjoy the way they ended.
'Palm Sunday', on the other hand, was really enjoyable. I have never been one to read biographies, but lately I have found that some autobiographies (and maybe that's the thing) are quite interesting. Again, this is a collection of several speeches Vonnegut gave throughout his life in different places and events. But it was really refreshing to read him talking about his family, his childhood, what he saw in WWII, what he thought about writing. It is quite fascinating.
I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy Vonnegut's fiction (if I recall correctly, 'Galapagos' was just alright). But he was definitely very witty and had rather interesting things to say.
'Palm Sunday' saved the day, so to speak, even though there were some texts more boring than others. Still, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate irony, and is not easily offended.
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I have easily earn out several paperback copies of this book. Each short story is a gem. Each story has a way of staying with you. One of my favorite books.
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If I remember rightly this was stocked in the Gower St Waterstones under "Essays". In fact the first item (Monkeyhouse) is almost entirely made up of stories (the first bit is a bit of Sunday mag journalism, Vonnegut-styled), while the other, Palm Sunday, seems to be a collection of speeches made to churches, universities, clubs etc, stitched together fairly loosely.
So first off, it wasn't what I was expecting.
I dutifully read the first few items in WTTMH. These were well enough made and charming enough if you like that sort of thing. I don't, though I did my best.
Then I skipped forward to PS. This was a bit more promising, as KV discussed real subjects; but in the end I had to semi-skim this too.
His stories are wacky and "imaginative" in setting; fairly traditional in narrative construction and indeed content; and above all folksy and moralising under their thin decoration of novelty.
I'm sure he was a reasonably nice guy. Of course one doesn't (well I don't) read a writer for their real-life charmingness or decency, but for their skill in entertaining or provoking thought (their may be other relevant skills but I can't think of any offhand).
I reckon I'd see eye to eye with Kurt on many things. But he rarely provokes (or, apparently, engages in) thought and he entertains only very slightly. He has a low-key but insistent and grating sentimentalism. Also, he mostly seems unnecessarily pleased with himself. He has a pseudo-humble persona but one which always insinuates (fairly unmissably) something like "ok, Mister bigshot/ bad guy / whoever, you think you're pretty smart, but really little ol' Kurt with his simple ways is maybe better'n you after all. Hmm?"
Example: he prints in PS an introduction he'd written to an edition of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (yep, Swift's one, not those other ones) - prefacing its chapter by announcing that, despite his eminence (pseudo-self-deprecation), the publisher had rejected it on the grounds that, in KV's words, he "had sentimentalized Swift, having failed, apparently, to have read any detailed accounts of his life and character." The rejected text follows immediately, and entirely bears out the publisher's objection.
Not my cup of tea.
So first off, it wasn't what I was expecting.
I dutifully read the first few items in WTTMH. These were well enough made and charming enough if you like that sort of thing. I don't, though I did my best.
Then I skipped forward to PS. This was a bit more promising, as KV discussed real subjects; but in the end I had to semi-skim this too.
His stories are wacky and "imaginative" in setting; fairly traditional in narrative construction and indeed content; and above all folksy and moralising under their thin decoration of novelty.
I'm sure he was a reasonably nice guy. Of course one doesn't (well I don't) read a writer for their real-life charmingness or decency, but for their skill in entertaining or provoking thought (their may be other relevant skills but I can't think of any offhand).
I reckon I'd see eye to eye with Kurt on many things. But he rarely provokes (or, apparently, engages in) thought and he entertains only very slightly. He has a low-key but insistent and grating sentimentalism. Also, he mostly seems unnecessarily pleased with himself. He has a pseudo-humble persona but one which always insinuates (fairly unmissably) something like "ok, Mister bigshot/ bad guy / whoever, you think you're pretty smart, but really little ol' Kurt with his simple ways is maybe better'n you after all. Hmm?"
Example: he prints in PS an introduction he'd written to an edition of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (yep, Swift's one, not those other ones) - prefacing its chapter by announcing that, despite his eminence (pseudo-self-deprecation), the publisher had rejected it on the grounds that, in KV's words, he "had sentimentalized Swift, having failed, apparently, to have read any detailed accounts of his life and character." The rejected text follows immediately, and entirely bears out the publisher's objection.
Not my cup of tea.
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Part autobiography, part anecdote and some of his better short stories, this is quite a good introduction to Vonnegut.
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